The purpose of this article is primarily in oil painting, it is my duty therefore to explore this subject. If the information in my about me is nothing new for a mere inventory of common knowledge, however, in the technical part, I refer to my research and my personal technique to compete in all areas with all the other painting techniques, including speed of execution on the field and transparency and precision.
The oil painting is a technique that aims to create an image on a surface by applying it to color with oil. The oil painting appeared in Europe in the late Middle Ages, where she was quickly adopted for the more easy to use, it allowed a greater variety of effects than existing techniques based wax, such as paint in encaustic, or water-based, such as tempera. It is the Dutchman who developed the oil colors from the 15th century, mixing pigments with linseed oil.
The pigments were ground on a porphyry marble table until until pasty paint, a little creamy.
The oil painting is characterized by drying (oxidation is more correct) relatively slow which does little to affect the color if it is a thin gray film caused by oxidation of the binder, clearly visible on dark colors, but that is easily absorbed by a layer of varnish, paint then finding all their splendor … provided to make a careful selection of the pigments used. Therefore, it is easy to match colors, or mix them to create gradients, it is also easy to make changes to a work.
The artist is not obliged to stick to keys linear: it can use the glaze or wash, look for consistencies liquids, impasto, or spray paint on his support. The oil painting makes a rich color effects, contrast and chiaroscuro … However, the choice of technique also depends on the color stability over time!
The oil painting is made of powdered pigments mixed with oil, air drying, or more precisely, the binder (linseed oil), which hardens into oxidized, which slow siccativity. To increase its speed siccativity, this oil is commonly added complementary products driers (beware additions lead compounds that darken the pigment over time).
The pigment should be insoluble, chemically inert, and does not discolor. It is typically used as a binder of linseed oil, poppy (poppy oil) or nuts. Finally, some argue that the addition of a varnish paint, varnish as Damar, allow a better homogeneity. Since the 19th century, the colors are sold in tin collapsible tubes.
The support of an oil painting is very important: indeed, if the paper allows a good conservation work, a canvas is superior quality. We also find cotton cloth or burlap stretched over a frame or glued (that is to say, stuck) on wood is a medium convenient but fragile panel wood tends to swell or crack; Finally, the backup of a mural depends on the humidity of the wall.
Support is coated with a primer, a thin layer of plaster-based or other material added gypsum glue. This primer serves to make the media less absorbent, and it also helps to get a regular painted surface, neither too rough nor too smooth. White in color, it stretches into several regular layers (one or two layers in the paintings of commerce, was 7-10 additional primers it is advisable to add to get excellent glaze by narrowing the risk of AMBUS).
]]>
The oil painting traditionally includes several steps: this applies to the painting “traditional” not for my own personal technique which aims at maximum capacity and spontaneous labor (total absence of preliminary drawing for example, that prevents: waste of time, danger of alteration of the pigments that cover them, lack of spontaneity, which undermines the whole work, especially in transparency). First, traditionally, the design is sketched on the primer pencil, charcoal or paint thinned with turpentine. Different color areas are then painted slightly and several times with a thicker paint, in which we add oil and varnish. The nature of the support contributes greatly to the conservation of paintings.
Pigments are colored elements that have been ground into powder and then mixed with a binder to be used by the artist. This is the result of this mixture which is characterized by a pasty substance called painting. The amount of binder used depends on the nature of the pigments and the size of the particles of powder, which is very variable.
Binders of low quality undermine the conservation works, despite the quality of the pigments. Detailed knowledge of pigment chemistry are essential to the serious artist, concerned with the preservation of his work, do I mention this knowledge in this site (chemical pigment).
The oil paint applied usually with bristle brush or badger hair or sable, more flexible. You can also use a flexible spatula, wide blade, called “knife”, or paint with your fingers. For these “traditional” implementation of the work can be done in a few sessions, or take months or even years of work. After drying, the paint varnish, to protect it from dirt and enhance color.
If the practice of oil painting is old, it was not until the 15th century and the Flemish painter Jan Eyck there appears a new technique for allowing easier processing, a color rendering of light and a risk of fullness (chemical weathering of the painted surface causing undesirable dullness) less important.
Van Eyck experimentation this technique, while maintaining the conventions of tempera, with a detailed drawing, executed on a plate coated with a plaster coating, then covered with several transparent glazes. In Italy, it was Antonello da Messina, who popularized this method, which the painters of the Renaissance took advantage of all resources.
That the Venetians that we must move to painting on canvas, which allowed to ride during a trip. These artists adopted a freer style, characterized by oil glaze on a monochrome background simple past “tempera”.
The artists of Holland Rembrandt and Frans Hals and Velasquez Spanish orientate their research towards more slurred.In the 19th century, advances in chemistry brought new pigments, bright and shiny. With the invention of tubes of tin, that could collapse and that supplanted the old bladders, artists were now able to paint nature outside the studio.
With the new artificial additives which allow to preserve the freshness of the painting, it became easier to use method of impasto. Paint a background was no longer a necessity. The French Impressionists and their paintings covered with multitudes of small touches of bright colors, placed directly on the canvas.
If acrylic paint, easier to use, has nowadays preferred by many artists because of its ease of application (close watercolor), the sensuality of the medium and the interest in traditional techniques allows the Oil Painting retain its attraction.
It was necessary to exceed the speed of execution own acrylic paint which, although some claim (for commercial purposes. Maybe), is still far from offering guarantees stabilities of oil paint ( because of the importance of liquid additives required, without which the painting becomes rubbery inside the tubing, which is not the case with oil painting.) It was necessary to advance the technical work oil by using all the scientific knowledge about the choice of pigments (pigments fifteen actual quality is amply sufficient for the palette of a professional painter) and find new work processes that allow total creative freedom while adapting to the rapid evolution of this third millennium.
This technique “revolutionary” who allowed me to get twice the title of “World Champion Master of pictorial art, and one of my disciples, Luxembourg Roby Diederich, to rank third in the competition in Geneva, I explain in detail in the pages of the “technical” in my book, and this site ..
By demonstrating, through my art, it is possible to work as quickly oil and watercolor and acrylic, without preliminary sketches, with a minimum of pigment, without additional additives to avoid overloading pigments and distort with time (yellowing, browning, cracking, etc..), with a technique that allows both the high precision flat areas (see Working with a magnifying glass) in any style (figurative, abstract , etc..), the Painter can finally mastered his work with a minimum of stress … while creating works of a technical quality never matched!
I note that the time is long siccativity, I forbid the use of any desiccant additive (usually lead-based, except manufacturing, the French legislation banning) not harm the quality of the pigments but … web on time never fails to dry! It is precisely this new technique is called “Impressionism-modern.
Go to www.easy-oil-painting-techniques.org learn all the tricks and tips about oil painting