-- For Indirect Painting --
Supports and Grounds: My indirect style paintings have been painted
on cotton or linen canvas. When I first returned to working in the fine
arts after a number of years pursuing commercial illustration, I began
buying Frederick's prestretched, acrylic primed cotton canvases. Since
my original pursuits were in Limited Edition Prints and my budget was limited,
I used these inexpensive canvases for all my work. I still use them for
the lower priced small landscapes that I paint because they offer a quick
surface to paint on with no preparation time.
As I have begun to be represented in finer galleries and to produce
higher end commissioned portraits, I have begun to work on imported double
oil-primed linen from V.A. Claessens stretched onto Frederick's stretchers
or, for larger works, Best Heavy Duty Stretcher Strips. The oil priming
is preferable for use with oil paints for flexibility, compatibility, and
absorption. Some may argue that the cloth is more flexible than either
the acrylic or oil priming, making a solid wood support the ideal for oil
paintings that you wish to have last through the centuries. A wood panel,
properly prepared, also helps prevent the problems of mold and decay that
can be associated with cloth, especially cotton. However, wood can develop
dry rot or experience insect infestation, so that cloth pictures are more
easily repaired when damaged than those on wood.
TECHNIQUE
Design: I design my compositions on paper smaller than final,
but sized dimensionally to it. Once I have worked out the composition,
quick value and color sketches can be produced with washes of Acrylic over
a photocopy of the image. This enables me to quickly produce a number of
variations without endangering my original.
Transferring the Drawing: Once the final composition, value and
color are worked out, I have the drawing enlarged on a large format photocopier.
This copy is then taped to the stretched canvas and, with a board or book
under the cloth for support, I trace the enlargement onto the canvas using
a transfer paper made of tracing paper and sienna chalk in a bestine emulsion.
When this chalked paper is placed between the enlargement and the canvas,
the pressure of a pencil on the enlargement transfers a chalk image to
the canvas. By using a 2H or 4H pencil I can get a precise line. But make
sure to keep a support under the canvas or the pencil will tear through
the paper. After the rough drawing is transferred, I begin to work directly
on the canvas to redraw, correct, and detail the drawing as needed.
Painting: After the drawing is complete, I begin painting. I
have done this in three different ways on different paintings, but I always
work in a simple two to three coat method that puts minimal strain on the
paint films. The more layers that one creates, the more places the painting
has for things to go wrong.
1.) Direct Color Method: I have been known to work directly in
color from the start, building the general form in local color. When that
is dry I paint a second coat that brings the work to near completion of
detail and subtle variation. Last I add final details, highlights, and
glazes to add dimension, depth, and glowing color. This is my common approach
to the small landscapes that I produce and to a number of figurative paintings.
See the demo of Surfside.
2.) Wash Method: Another method is to apply an imprimatura (stain)
to the canvas in a middle tone of brown such as raw umber or raw sienna.
The drawing is transferred over this and thin washes of earthtones are
applied over the drawing to create the form. When the washes are dry, lead
white can be used to build highlights. Through this method the form is
built in light (white), middle tone (imprimatura ground), and dark (washes).
This is a very easy way to work out the drawing and form issues without
having to deal with color. It lends itself, however, to a more conservative
approach when applying the color over it. Once the values are in, color
is applied as needed in one to two coats. Due to the thinness of application
and its dependence on the ground as an integral part of the painting, this
method may be better suited to a true gesso ground on panel. It most closely
resembles the Flemish method, though it is painted more opaquely when done
on canvas. See the demo of Marble Walls.
3.) Grisaille or Limited Color Underpainting Method: More recently
I have been working in the method of the Italians, who were more inclined
to work on cloth than wood. Instead of depending upon the ground for the
middle tone of my form, I produce a fully modeled value painting in black
and white, raw umber and white, ultramarine blue and white, or some combination
of these underpainting colors. I still stain the ground so that any canvas
that may show through my underpainting is not white. This prevents me from
over working the underpainting, trying to make sure that every fiber is
covered, and adds some depth and dimensionality to the painting where the
color shows through. The colors of imprimatura and of my underpainting
dark are chosen depending upon the mood and coloration of my design.
With the form built up in heavier paint, I begin a second layer applying
color in glazes and semiopaque layers and scumbles. A final layer adds
details and highlights and any necessary adjustments. See the demo of the
portrait commission of Olivia and Natalie Lebamoff.
Technical Advice: On the basis of some laboratory tests, when
painting in linseed oil color it is advised not to paint a thick impasto
of paint over a freshly dry (or surface dry) coat of paint. (remember that
oil dries from the top down.) Rather, wait for the paint layer to dry completely
before over painting, usually several weeks, or paint wet into wet. However,
artists find that they can paint thinly over recently dried underpaintings
without bad results. With good quality linseed oil films this is not essential
practice; "all other conditions being satisfactory, oil paint may
safely be overpainted at any stage, so long as its surface is sufficiently
firm to resist being picked up. and so long as it has sufficient tooth
or absorbency to hold the new paint....As a rule, defects that are a direct
result of the application of overpainting while the underpainting is not
in the ideal stage to receive it should occur within six months."
Layered painting should not be attempted with paints that have poppyseed
or safflower oil as their primary or sole binder.
Paint Handling Advice: Aesthetic and Technical: Any painting
should have a variety of paint handling to depict the various textures
and materials being represented. Not everything should be glazed; some
surfaces look dull and should be represented by mixed color applied opaquely
or semi-opaquely. Not everything is opaque, some surfaces are translucent,
like skin, and should allow for a sense of depth and color under the surface.
Glazes in shadows and scumbles in the lights work well here. And some areas
do glow with an inner light that can only be achieved by a good glaze of
transparent color over a lighter opaque. It is up to the artist to determine
the best approach to represent the object being painted. Don't get so caught
up in trying to mimic a particular technique that you paint a wool sweater
the same as a glass vase the same as a woman's face. This is the biggest
problem that I see today, even in the work of some of the most respected
traditional painters alive. Variety in a painting adds interest, and the
"real" depiction of texture gives integrity to a work. The greatest
painters of the past knew this, from Van Eyck and da Vinci in the 15th
century to Alma Tadema and Bouguereau in the 19th. These men all based
their techniques on the same basic principle: be a student of nature.
From a purely technical view, this is also beneficial. Mayer has written
that heavy impasto strokes have good durability only when broken or scattered.
Continuous thick, pasty layers are extremely liable to crack. Therefore,
"apply paint in broken brushstrokes of varying thickness to avoid
a uniform layer of paint that acts as a single entity and is more prone
to cracking. If you need to paint a large area of uniform thickness - make
it THIN, using more than one coat if necessary."