Underpainting Techniques, Demonstration Three, Wood Poppy

The “wipe-out-method”, ( Bistre Method.) with the layered approach.


First Image: Click above image for larger view.

I start the image by covering the white canvas with an overall thinned mix of brown made from umbers, almost a sepia tone. I lift out areas to build lights, and add more brown for the darker tones. The lightest lights are the white of the canvas instead of white pigment. I begin simply stating the pattern of light and dark, and editing them by wiping out and adding pigment back in as I refine my underpainting. Once I have my basic structure and design stated, I can proceed with a number of methods. You can have underdrawings that range from summary sketches to highly finished compositions. I could continue refining the underpainting with more browns, or move to more opaque paints of white and grey (Grisaille) developing a full monochrome underpainting for later glazes. Or work directly on top of this with full color.
My intent is to incorporate a little of all these indirect painting methods in this image. But the majority of this image will be done in a layer method.


Second Image:

When working in the layered method, a great deal of alterations (color modification and redrawing) can be done throughout the painting, and uniquely, one can easily incorporate different effects with transparent, semi transparent (glazing and scumbling) as well as opaque paints.

I refine the background with more opaque paint, keeping the edges soft and atmospheric.
I will want to merge the bottle neck with the cast shadow on the wall, but need to state the areas around it, to give myself good references
I begin to thinly model the darkest areas of the bottle to help better judge the lighter translucent parts of the bottle. I restate the petals with flake white. I want them read as a solid surface and later to have some texture.


Third Image:

I concentrate on bringing as much finish to an area as I can, relating one area to another, working the image as a whole, looking for more accuracy in shapes and color notes.
In each layer I bring the image a little more into focus, reexamining and correcting problems as I zero in on the finish I want.
That may sound contradictory, but the goal is to accomplish as much as one can at each sitting and paint layer, yet bring the image together as a whole.
The Wood Poppy, I work-up with color and some thicker impasto strokes, the stem and leaves get a glaze of greens with some opaque highlights.

Finished Image: Wood Poppy - 8”x10” - Oil on panel.



I continue working the image with layers by bringing areas into fuller focus.
Keeping in mind lost and found edges, where do I want things to be a bit softer (blurred), and harder (sharper). The pedals get some heavy sculpted brush strokes, and the bottle receives some glazes to unify areas and soften others. I build up paint in the highlights with some impasto strokes.
I’m pretty happy with the piece at this point and I think I’ve answered most of the visual problems set before me and will probably consider it finish.
However I really like to set a work aside for several days and look at it with a fresh eye before it gets the finishing signature.

For a visual explanation of this process click the video below.




A couple of notes:

The layered method really requires the painting to dry between layers and sittings. So a fast dry medium works best, I used Maroger Painting Medium in this work. But there are many other medium choices, 1to-1to-5 of linseed, dammar and turps will work just fine. Just work thin to thick, lean to fat and when using mediums, less is more.

In all of these underpainting exercises I chose to use flowers in a small format. Keep in mind, if using perishable items such as these you will need a good drawing reference or a resource to replace the flower, lucky for me Linda’s passion for gardening is a endless resource. Also I am not attempting to produce floral for a botanist field guide, and I am just attempting color, shade and shape in the hopes of an illusion of reality with a spark of color.


Closing Thoughts, ... yes there is more … on technique, Titian and artist's today.


My original intent was to explore the technique of the Master Titian, his method of underpainting and building a painting. I have come to the realization that no single approach truly reflects this master, and that all the methods I have been exploring including this demonstration were employed and exploited to achieve his unique versatility. Titian certainly used the underpainting methods of the Flemish and Venetian schools, but also had approaches similar to that of the French Academic tradition.

He would work directly from life on the canvas, often described as attacking it with a brush. In his underpainting he would use tonal painting in warm earth tones, and use a scale of cool grays for flesh tones. Some areas such as the figure would be highly model into a grisaille, and others simply stated in umber. Painting on to it with a semi transparent paint “velatura” in a layered method, making revisions, with new layers and glazes, building textures and surface with “frottage”, sort of a dry brush of pigment over dried layers and finishing with high impasto for his highlights. Certainly very innovative in his painting approach, but keep in mind, Titian would live a long and productive life. Living to be nearly 90 years old, in some pretty inhospitable times, his life would span and compete with some of the greatest artists in world history. It must be comparable to being there when the first human invented the wheel. He was very inventive and fearless in his approach, seeming to have very little restrictions in his method, pulling from his tool box that which fit best to the problem and imagery at hand.

The artist Jose Parramon referred to Titian as the “founder of modern painting”. A statement I must agree with, for Titian certainly was testing the limits of his medium and thinking outside the box in some very revolutionary ways.
His mastery of techniques and procedures is definitely worth study, centuries of paintings and knowledge for us to copy and enjoy, the Master’s obvious gift to the world.
But it is not just the technical virtuosity we should emulate.
These artists were on a quest of discovery, to describe the mysteries and beauty of nature.
Through that inquisitive thinking, they made great contributions to our artistic vocabulary. They were not just practicing technical gymnastics, but deeply concentrating on the act of painting and the artistic dialogue with the principles of nature.
An Old Master such as Titian painted with intellect, curiosity, and passion.
.

This is what artists today need and must be imitating.

Explore – question – learn – enjoy
Jim

A quote by Titian, said while in his 70’s…………

“I think I am beginning to learn something about painting.” …. Titian

Underpainting Techniques – Demonstration Six - Part I – WIP

In this demonstration, I will attempt to compare the different methods of underpainting technique used and developed by artist prior to the 20th century. Just walk through any museum and compare the 20th century wing to the 19th and on to 15^th century. It becomes obvious that those artists where doing something different, they were using paint differently. They had a vast vocabulary when it came to making marks with paint and with it they could create great illusion of space and form.

Painting in an indirect method, building layers up of transparent, semitransparent, semi-opaque, opaque and impasto layers of paint create different optical effects. The purpose of this is to achieve three-dimensional space, through the refraction of light, what is called “Turning the Form.”

The most important illusions of realism in a painting are Form and Value. And by using the underpainting to divide the image into manageable parts, the drawing, the values and lastly color, they could focus on the actual mechanics of applying paint. They created this amazing tool box of techniques, which liberated them, where they could slowly tune in on the level of realism wanted. Thus allowing these artists to create at a higher level of expression and produce some of the greatest masterpieces in history.

Starting top left moving clock wise- 

Grisaille – (griz-eye’) fr.-  A grey underpainting done entirely in monochrome shades of gray or another neutral color, to produce the illusion of relief sculpture.

Bistre - (the wipe-out method) – An underpainting using warm browns (usually raw umber or burnt umber). A thin coat of umber is painted or rubbed over the canvas and then ‘wiped out’ or lifted using a rag or a bristle brush and a small amount of solvent. Darks are built-up with thicker and leaner layers of umber in a near dry brush approach.

Ébauche – (ay•boash ) fr.  - or first block-in with color or color sketch. This creates the overall general feel and effect of the painting with colors and values.  Leaving a sympathetic underpainting or foundation similar to a watercolor.

Imprimatura is an initial stain of color painted on a ground. It provides a painter with a transparent, toned ground, which will allow light falling onto the painting to reflect through the paint layers. The term itself stems from the Italian and literally means "first paint layer". It's use as an underpainting layer can be dated back to the guilds and workshops during the Middle Ages; however, it came into standard use by painters during the Renaissance, particularly in Italy.

Alla-prima – Italian expression loosely translated “at first try”. Direct painting (wet into wet), a method which is completed in a single session without previous preparation or later layers of paint.

I will be continuing along with the indirect painting technique over these underpaintings, using layering, glazes, scumbles, and velauturas to create a illusion of three dimensional form.

So, I invite you to visit again as the paintings evolve.

You can access more Underpainting Demos through the labels in the side bar or use the search box at the top left of the blog.

A couple of quick Links:

Underpainting Techniques    

Bistre Method – “wipe out”     
Grisaille Underpainting  

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Underpainting Techniques – Demonstration Six - Part II – WIP

First Color Pass: These are the first color layers over the underpaintings. I have attempted to develop each one equally and establish a similar refinement. It is obvious from the beginning the degree of finish or resolution is more observable in the further developed monochromatic underpaintings.

When I speak of “resolution” I am using it to describe the degree of focus, that with each color pass over the image you make small corrections and adjustments, slowly tuning in the image to the level of three-dimensional reality you wish to see in your painting. With this slow dialing in, each pass should be about fine tuning not correcting and selective focus instead of detail. That is key to moving forward towards you’re vision. The artist Sadie Valeri explains this dialing in like this, “that in every layer of the painting you get 50% closer to reality “and in each additional layer fifty percent more so on. Each one growing exponentially (building) on the last until you achieve a high degree of realism.

Form Painting: So, in the First Pass I wish to make the big statements of color, shape and edges over the value study and drawing.  I want to think about color relationships comparing abstract passages of paint by chroma and temperature. To think about form, that each brush stroke exists in three-dimensional space and state where it is in light and where it is in shadow. The concept of light on form or modeling dimension like a sculpture is often referred to as Chiaroscuro – The contrast of light and shade. The act of modeling light and dark is called “Turning Form”. I like that adage because it simply describes the goal of representational painting to create the perception of depth.

My paint consistency varies depending on which underpainting I am working with but basically, over top of the underpainting I am using thinned transparent glazes which I then work into with more opaque paints wet into wet. Building up of transparent, semitransparent, semi-opaque, opaque and impasto layers of paint (glazes, scumbles, velauturas, impasto) that create different optical effects.

Starting top left moving clock wise- Grisaille, Bistre, Ébauche, Imprimatura.

I am not quite ready to lose my drawing yet, plus I need the values to affect the color passages and to build luminosity and depth. In each paint passage I continue comparing hue, value, chroma, edges, and textures.

I think form and atmosphere, not things. Painting the points of contact, reflected light, the hills and valleys as light rakes across the subject I look for delicate passages and subtle shading. I look for the “air” around the subject, (as odd as that sounds) and try to paint the atmosphere.

Hue - is a color’s characteristic, where it lies in the color spectrum, (the color name)

          and which temperature it leans towards, warm or cool.

Value – is the relative degree of grayness, lightness or darkness of a color.

Chroma – is the colors intensity, the degree of brilliance of a color, from intense to dull.

Chiaroscuro, (from Italian: chiaro, “light,” and scuro, “dark”) 1. The contrast of light and shade and the art of distributing these elements in a picture planes. 2. Light and shade as they define three-dimensional objects

Summary: The main purpose of underpainting is to solve the problems of composition, drawing and value so that you can concentrate solely on the application of paint. Using a variety of techniques to realistically create the illusion of depth, form and atmosphere. (The amount of light, depth and atmosphere you can achieve in this manner is almost magical.) Multiple veils of transparent color contrasted by opaque light passages, produces a level of realism that I believe cannot be matched with other approaches. You literally carve out volume with this method.

Which type of underpainting to use, Grisaille, Bistre, Ébauche, or Imprimatura is about knowing the strengths of each and being able to look at an object as say, “Yes this approach will work best to achieve that", kind of knowing which tool to reach for in the tool box. I was going to go into my thoughts on each and compare strengths and weaknesses? But feel it better to not muddy the waters with that and let people come to their own conclusion. Maybe I will touch on it later, but for now I will say there is a wealth of knowledge within these methods to explore and doing so will expose how to get the maximum impact of what the material can do.

As a Realist, it is important to have a comprehensive range of techniques to draw from and expand your artistic vocabulary.

“The whole is more than the sum of its parts.”   Aristotle

You can find Underpainting Techniques – Demonstration Six - Part I – WIP here.

You can access more Underpainting Demos through the labels in the side bar or use the search box at the top left of the blog.

A couple of quick Links:

Underpainting Techniques    

Bistre Method – “wipe out”   
Grisaille Underpainting  

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
 Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

The Flemish and Venetian Schools

If you research the oil painting history of the past, especially those techniques that produced the remarkable results of the Old Masters between the sixteenth and seventh centuries, or are interested in any modern effort to emulate them. We will find those roots lead to the Flemish and Venetian Schools.

The invention of oil painting is attributed to the Van Eyck brothers, Hubert and Jan in or around 1400 in the city of Bruges, the capital of West Flanders. Disenchanted with the use of egg tempera, the common painting medium of the time, they experimented with various oils and resins. According to the story, they were looking for a medium “that would dry in the shade”, and developed what we today would call Oil Painting.
The Flemish Technique continued with the practices of the earlier egg tempera painters, using detailed preliminary sketches transfer to small wooden panels. The qualities of this new oil paint medium was that it could be apply transparently or opaquely creating a much greater illusion of depth than prior egg tempera works. Also overcoming the slow drying time of tempera, it allowed them to develop more elaborate underpaintings. A brownish transparent underpainting;(bistre), to establish a tonal range for the subject, over which they applied thin veils of transparent local color, modeling light and darks with further glazes very similarly to a modern water colorist. It was a revolutionary process, and was what my earlier post “Spring Flowers” was exploring.


Jan van Eyck, Saint Barbara, Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp


The innovations of the Flemish painters found their way to the Italian artists of the Early Renaissance, presumably through Giorgio Bellini and his teachings. It was not long before leading artists in Rome and Venice were experimenting with the method, including Leonardo da Vinci. The Venetians were quick to see the possibilities and limitations of this method and made some unique adaptations to the process.
The thin bistre earth tone underpainting was difficult to make corrections on in the underpainting stage, was rigorously tight for many of the large mural sized canvases the Venetians were working on at that time.
And though not as noticeable in the small wooden panels of the Flemish painter, the oil-resin medium produced unwanted glare. The Venetians answer was to modify the medium by removing the resin, replacing it with beeswax to reduce glare. They used opaque mixtures of values such as a gray (grisaille) or greenish-gray (verdaccio) to paint a detailed underpainting in monochromatic, which allowed easy modification and revisions directly on the canvas before applying glazes of colors. With the advancement of the grisaille and techniques such as scrumbling, dry brushing (frottage) and impasto, the control of soft and hard edges, along with semi-glazes, and glazing allowed the Venetian painters to stretch oil painting beyond anything that came before. All adding to the painter’s tool box. The Venetians were able to propel the art of painting into the High Renaissance, and collectively produced some of the greatest works of art of Western civilization. In the painting “Woodland Phlox” I humbly attempt to explore this approach.


The majority of the Old Masters employed some type of underpainting in some variation. For example the unfinished work by Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna and Child with St. Anne, shows a brown transparent underpainting such as used by the van Eycks, but the Master begins finishing the underpainting with opaque white and tones of green- gray (verdaccio).


In Michelangelo’s unfinished work, Madonna and Child with the Infant Baptist and Angels, we have underpainting not only in verdaccio, but black and white, using the canvas as the white. Raphael, Durer, Rembrandt, Vermeer, David, all used some variation of the technique and of course as did Titian.




Attempting to understand who was doing what, and when, can get very confusing. Many of the Old Masters were contemporaries of each other, and they must have shared knowledge or observed the efforts of each other. Interesting that in 1510, about mid point of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci was 58 years old, Michelangelo 35, Raphael 27, Durer 39, Titian 26, and all were recognized artist. Leonardo da Vinci would live for about another ten years, while Michelangelo would live on to the age of 89. Having great influence on the next generation of painters such as Rubens, Caravaggio, Veronese. Titian would live to be nearly 90, his life would span da Vinci’s and Michelangelo’s making him a contemporary of both. His work was based in the Venetian method, but was much more aggressive. Titian, painted and composed directly from life, attacking the canvas with a brush. In areas he would model form with grays and other areas earth tones, and use glazes and velaturas of color over them. He would finish with sessions of direct painting, using half impasto, full impasto, rubbing and dragging colors in the technique of (frottage). He threw everything but the kitchen sink into his paintings. For his energetic direct approach, Titian is often referred to as the founder of modern painting.


In my last installment on the techniques of underpainting I will be attempting to understand Titians method and painting a third small floral. At the bottom of this post are some links and references for those interested in the Flemish and Venetian schools.
Enjoy.

Links:
The Flemish and Venetian Schools on Explore
The teachings and writings of Artist, Virgil Elliot
The Painter in Oil, By Daniel B. Parkhurt, online at ARC.
The Materials of the Artist, by Max Dormner, online at Google books.

Resources, and great reads.
How to Paint Like The Old Masters, by Joseph Sheppard
The Big Book of Oil Painting, by Jose Parramon
Encyclopaedia of Oil Painting, by Frederick Palmer
Formulas For Painters, by Robert Massey
Preparation For Painting, by Lynton Lamb

Underpainting Techniques – Demonstration Five- Part II the ébauche underpainting - WIP

So here I am at the end of my first pass over the ébauche. I am using the color ébauche over a white ground, but different types of ébauche have been done through history, artist have used the color ébauche over top of a grisaille and in conjunction with a wipe out or bristre underpainting. So the main differences here in this type of underpainting compared to that of a grisaille (monochromatic underpainting) is that you have light passing through the thin layers of paint reflecting back off of the white ground the base color or local color. And as I work through the first pass the ébauche underneath supports the new color note and gives this very nice and sympathetic foundation to paint over top of. 

So I push through the first pass, relating each color note (hue-value-chroma) and passage, following the pattern of light, I keep dialing in closer and closer the resolution and fine tuning the image. In this layer I wanted to think more about dimension, where light hits and does not hit, what catches light and what is in shadow.

In some ways this is harder than using a grisaille because you are working color with form at the same time and you need to be very aware of the values you are using, building up your darks. In others ways easier because your color notes are in harmony with the layer underneath and you are describing the major forms so much quicker and getting the “big” picture, dialing in the finished image. What it does give you is an understanding of why through history artist have used this indirect painting process in its different variations, each had its advantages, and it was up to the artist to determine which method would be best suited for a given picture.
Next post - the finish.

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” ~Leonardo da Vinci

Pronunciation -  ébauche: ay•boash

Links:

Underpainting Techniques

Bistre Method - wipe out

Grisaille underpainting

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Coffee with Rothko - Underpainting Techniques – Demonstration Five- Part III the ébauche underpainting - WIP

                           

Here is the final work on the ébauche painting, titled Coffee with Rothko. I have always enjoyed Mark Rothko’s work. His paintings are surprisingly meditative and contemplative, and if you have ever been up close to one, they are very spatial with a remarkable simplicity. He could go into great descriptions about the hidden meaning and symbolism in his work, alleging his work is based on mythology and philosophy, conveying the spiritual. What Rothko’s paintings lack in skill and craftsmanship he made up for by creating a dialogue about his work and inspiring people to discern their meaning. Don’t get me wrong Rothko was one of my early artistic influences and I would love to sit down, have a cup of coffee with him and ask just how much of his rhetoric was art speak and bullshit. 

Jim Serrett, Coffee with Rothko, oil on panel, 12 x 16 in, © Jim Serrett Studio

You will read over and over that art is subjective. What moves one person may not move another… on that I will agree. But there is a means by which we can quantify a work of art and it has very little to do with what explanation is written, what critics state or academics affirm about a work of art.

It is why people work hard and intensely all their lives creating art.

  “He who works with his hands is a laborer.

  He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.

  He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”

                                                                            ― Francis of Assisi

Pronunciation -  ébauche: ay•boash


Links:
Mark Rothko

Underpainting Techniques

Bistre Method - wipe out

Grisaille underpainting

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim

Website - jimserrett.com

Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings 

Brown Teapot - WIP - Underpainting Techniques

I am laying out the image on the canvas panel with a thinned mix of brown made from umbers, almost a sepia tone. Wiping out and editing the lines as I go, attempting to get as accurate a drawing as I can. What I want is the basic structure and design over which I will lay my first color pass.

You can find more information and demos on underpainting techniques here.

Links:

Underpainting Techniques

Bistre Method - wipe out

Grisaille underpainting

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings

Feather Vase - WIP

Current work in progress. Progress shots, drawing, wipe-out, first pass, last pass.

Preliminary pencil drawing. Most of my still lifes begin with a simple but descriptive contour drawing, which works out the composition and suggests the shadow side or turning point on the form. This is typically more than enough information to move on to the next stage of paint. Especially for any monochrome underpainting.

Bistre - (the wipe-out method) – An underpainting using warm browns (usually raw umber or burnt umber). A thin coat of umber is painted or rubbed over the canvas and then ‘wiped out’ or lifted using a rag or a bristle brush and a small amount of solvent

First Color Pass: These are the first color layers over the underpainting, with each color pass over the image you make small corrections and adjustments, slowly tuning in the image to the level of three-dimensional reality and “resolution” you wish to see in your painting. When I speak of “resolution” I am using it to describe the degree of focus.

Feather Vase, 11 x 14, oil on panel, Jim Serrett

Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim 

Website - jimserrett.com 
Studio Blog - jimserrettstudio.com 
Landscape Blog - Pochade Box Paintings