Painting Techniques: Glazing, Scumbling, Filling, and Modeling
Painting Techniques
Mixing on the palette is a technique used by the Impressionists.
Glazing
Glaze: This effect is achieved by applying a layer of transparent oil paint over a dull, dry layer. This changes the color of the first layer and produces a polished, brilliant surface. To make a glaze, a transparent color is mixed with a binder, most commonly boiled linseed oil, with a little turpentine and lavender oil added. The binder does not change over time and produces a strong, elastic film. To apply the glaze, first apply a thin layer to the desired area. Light passes through the transparent layer and is reflected by the lower layer, giving brightness and luminosity.
Scumbling
Scrub: This consists of applying a light and opaque color to a darker, dry color layer. This forms loose patches of color. It can be applied unevenly, moving about the area quickly with a heavily loaded bristle brush. The countless specks of color combine with the dark background, adding life to a flat tone. Scumbling can also be applied in a layer so thin that it allows light to reach the underlying layer.
Filling
Filling: This term is used in two senses:
- The mass of paint deposited on the substrate.
- The technique of filling: applying a thick layer of paint to the canvas with a brush or spatula. The paint builds up and is pressed onto the fabric and dried. It preserves a rich texture of spatula or brush strokes, and drying can take weeks or even months.
Strokes
Strokes: The way strokes are applied serves to show forms, give the impression of volume (modeling), shed light on the subject, give expression, and in many cases, are the painter’s signature.
Modeling
Modeling: This is used to show gradations of color values, achieving solid forms and representing different levels with a three-dimensional illusion of depth. With this technique, adjacent areas of different values are mixed, forming buffer zones. Without modeling, the planes of the surfaces of objects would be seen as silhouettes. Incorrect modeling breaks the overall balance and prevents a natural look.
Light
The light is an aspect of great importance, used by painters to achieve volume, enhance figures, and point to the main scene. It allows the artist to represent three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. The method of bringing light and shadow to objects is called chiaroscuro, and the gradations of light are called values.
Vanishing
Vanished: Alberti called the edge the limit where two light values meet, saying that the colors were mixed on both sides of that edge to finish “gradually dissolving like smoke in areas close to both sides.” This technique is achieved by carefully mixing the tone in separate transparent layers, so the paintings look like they are seen through smoke. The figures are shrouded in degraded or soft shadows. This technique allows light to shine through the layers of paint.
Tenebrist Technique (Chiaroscuro)
Technical tenebrist (chiaroscuro): Chiaroscuro is the arrangement of figures in a painting with a strong contrast of light and shadow. The light parts stand out violently against the dark.
Tonal Technique
Technical tone: There is more emphasis on light in color. A painting can be rich in values (gradations of light) with limited use of color. A picture can be painted from one dominant tone.
Aid to Compose
Camera Obscura
CAMERA OBSCURA is a device designed to intercept light rays passing through a narrow opening and form an inverted image on a screen. In the late seventeenth century, angled lenses or mirrors were used to reinvest or straighten the images. Some artists used it to guide their compositions.