Oil painting course "Old Masters Technique". Rose oil painting

Painting technique of old masters - scheme of painting techniques

The old masters never worked in underpainting with pure whitewash: this would create a too harsh, rough effect that would be difficult to soften in the final glaze. More often, underpainting was carried out with whitewash, tinted with ocher, umber, green earth, cinnabar or other paints. Before glaze, such an underpainting still produces an almost monochrome impression and, superimposed on a darkened prescription, gives an aggravated idea of ​​the form due to the contrasts of light and shade. Many caravaggists and Bolognese wrote this way, and in Spain - Ribera, Zurbaran and others. Such an underpainting is always painted lighter than the finished painting, and this "enlightenment" is the sharper, the greater the role the artist assigns to subsequent glazing, since glazing not only revives the underpainting, but also always darkens and warms it. Therefore, lit areas such as clothing of blue color, in underpainting they wrote in a dense blue tone mixed with lead whitewash; green fabric was worked through with green, also very bleached; the face and hands in underpainting were painted in a creamy tone, very light, in the expectation that glazing would warm and revive it. A color whitewashed underpainting can lie on both a weakened and a darkened prescription. Accordingly, underpainting will give a weakened or enhanced chiaroscuro.

When writing on a dark script, you have to make sure that the brightly illuminated form, which is powerfully protruding from it, is correctly "molded". Sometimes it is difficult to achieve this in one layer, and then you have to paint the illuminated places while still thickening the layer. Therefore, the thickness of the underpainting may vary. It depends on the texture and color of the ground (or imprimatura), on the individuality of the master's creative method. Highly important point in painting, underpainting is the formation of the texture of the paint layer. The nature of the underpainting can be determined by the desire of the master to preserve the traces of the working brush, the entire pictorial kinetics, or, on the contrary, it is his intentions to smooth over, proflate these traces. In the writing, as in the general glazing technique, the smear is not plastically expressed. In addition, in the highlights and halftones, the script is covered with dense layers of underpainting, and only in the shadows can it be preserved in the finished picture. In underpainting, on the other hand, the smear can be clearly seen through the transparent layer of the final glaze. Moreover, the final transparent layer sometimes emphasizes individual strokes even more, concentrating around them. On highlights and in the center of the illuminated area, it is sometimes required to put a very dense, whitened stroke; sometimes a brush, applying a flesh-colored layer, draws in a lighter tone wrinkles on the face and other details, which will then be enhanced by glaze, and the glaze paint, most often flowing from convex strokes, collects at their base, further emphasizing every detail.

The processing of the body paint layer underpainting reflects the artist's handwriting. Depending on the nature of the stroke, a dense underpainting can be pictorial, with extremely developed, relief and temperamental strokes, as in the later paintings of Rembrandt, or more restrained, retouching - with a barely noticeable brushstroke - as in Poussin's canvases, and, finally, fluted, when the artist seeks to destroy all traces of the brush touch, as, for example, in Raphael or Giulio Romano.

The pasty layer can have all the features of underpainting, but it can be heavily whitened and require a strong glaze. Often there is a case of a developed, full-scale underpainting, when at this stage the picture approaches completeness. In this case, glazing plays only a retouching role, or it can be completely omitted. The latest system often used by Frans Hals.

Probably the most complex structure of the main layer of Rembrandt's painting "Artaxerxes, Aman and Esther" gave the artist the greatest pleasure while working on this wonderful canvas. It is necessary to come close to this masterpiece, to consider the alternating layers of pasty strokes and glazes on the illuminated places of faces, figures and objects in order to get a complete picture of the highest skill of Rembrandt. Then the perception at a distance of the picture as a whole will be enriched with an awareness of the amazingly complex, unusually vital texture richness.

It would seem that the freer the pictorial method, the closer and more understandable it is to a modern artist. And yet the miracle of Rembrandt's picturesqueness remains incomprehensible. Can such a canvas be copied? If a modern painter decides on such a feat, he must first comprehend the technique of the old masters, because the techniques of even the late Rembrandt are still based on the experience of the three-stage method, which he has enriched.

What else is characteristic of painting the main layer?

In order to imagine all the variety of painting techniques of the old masters, it is necessary to pay special attention to the way in which they created a soft, usually very perfect transition to shadow from a light surface already in underpainting.

It is easy to imagine that when modeling a shape with a thick light paint, the transition from dense highlights to midtones and shadows can be carried out using two different techniques. The unusually soft transition from light to shadow, observed in the paintings of the old masters, especially in portrait painting, can be organized by introducing an underpainting into a light tone of a small proportion of dark paint, usually cold: ultramarine, green earth, and sometimes burnt or natural sienna, depending on the general color scheme of the picture. The same effect can be achieved by gradually thinning the layer of the same paint, applied in partial shade with a through, fading layer due to the weakening and sliding touches of the brush. Of course, with each of these methods, the transition from light to shadow can be further refined with the help of many small, retouching strokes. We usually find a through brushstroke in paintings painted on coarse-grained canvas or on rough ground, which was especially characteristic of Venetian painters, in particular for Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto. At the same time, a soft brush with remnants of the basic tone, laid over the entire area of ​​the "light", glides over small irregularities of the ground, leaving traces of light paint on the smallest elevations, between which a layer of darker writing or imprimatura is visible. This creates the thinnest through layer - a fading transition from light to shadow. However, we will not confuse it with glazing: here we are not dealing with transparent paint, but only with an intermittent layer, which in the smallest points remains, in essence, a covering. (A through stroke has something in common with the dry brush method, although, in contrast to a through stroke, when working with a dry brush, dark dots are superimposed on the unevenness of the base, due to which the necessary shading of the shape is achieved.)

Speaking about a continuous smear, first of all, it should be noted the relative ease of applying liquid paint on an even ground and, conversely, the difficulty of working with a thick paste on a rough surface. The ease and freedom of the stroke in the first case can be enhanced by first wiping the surface of the painting with a solvent. Under similar conditions, for example, a free-stroke painting style characteristic of a fresco or a free-painting style found in modern tempera developed. On the contrary, with pasty paint and rough ground, which was especially characteristic of the Venetians, a dense and clearly defined smear is difficult. With an even more uneven base, dense overlap is impossible even with very strong brush pressure, and we inevitably meet with the appearance of a through stroke. A hard bristle brush less often gives such a result under strong pressure, while a soft, ferret or kolinkny brush, with a sufficiently viscous paint and with the various sliding movements characteristic of the old masters, gives a through stroke as a natural result. In this case, the paint is applied in an intermittent layer on the elevations of an uneven base or underpainting, and in its gaps the soil, imprimatura or the underlying layer of paint can be seen.

In a glaze, a transparent color film almost always overlaps with a lighter underpainting. Conversely, a through smear was usually applied over a darker layer. The moment of light scattering, which determines the visibility of the image, takes place under the glaze, in the depth of the underlying lighter layer. With a through stroke, we do not deal with transparent paint at all, but only with a crushed layer of dense and opaque paste. Light scattering here occurs mainly on the surface of the paint layer, which emphasizes, as it were, the flickering dullness inherent in the through layer, if it is not covered with varnish or glaze.

Depending on whether a through smear is laid with dark paint on a light underpainting or, conversely, with light paint on a dark layer, the impression changes dramatically. For the old masters, a stroke of the first type, associated with the texture of a drawing, could have arisen by chance and never had the character of an intentional technique. Therefore, the final painting-line work in a dark tone by the old masters, as a rule, was carried out by glazing or, in extreme cases, with a translucent, but liquid paint.

A through stroke - light on top of a dark layer - makes a completely different impression: it emphasizes not only the nature of the texture, but, which is especially important, its depth, since the depth of the dark gaps between light particles of paint in this case increases. There is not only a layering of paint on the irregularities of the texture and an increase in its roughness, but the impression of this roughness from the optical effect grows even more. The gaze involuntarily goes into the depths of the material, noting its irregularities accented with light paint. The expressiveness of the texture increases, the persuasiveness, clarity of the structure, materiality, physical sensation of the texture layer increase.

This impression is also facilitated, as we will see, by the technique of rubbed glaze, which naturally occurs under the same conditions that stimulate a through smear, that is, with a rough ground or underpainting.

Let us now turn to the third stage - glazing. The artist unwittingly encountered not only the transparency of paints, but also the very principle of glazing back in ancient times, when oils and varnishes were used as a binder, which gave a smooth, shiny surface when solidified.

We have the right to distinguish between three main tasks of glazing, and, consequently, its three main types. Let's call them like this: tinting glazing, modeling and retouching. When is it appropriate to apply each of them?

If the copy was heavily darkened, and an exaggeratedly sharp volume and relief was created in the tinted whitewash underpainting, then an even layer of toning glaze is needed. This technique can easily be achieved to enhance and revitalize the color of weakly colored areas of painting, and at the same time soften the overly emphasized modeling, the bulge of the form. Tinting glaze usually enriches the color, most often by warming it, softens the contrasts of light and shade, saturates the color of light and only slightly tints the shadow areas.

Let's imagine another case. The script was weakened, and the underpainting did not create a completely convincing relief of the form. Then the glaze is designed to enhance the volume. However, this cannot be achieved by applying an even layer of tinted glaze. In this case, a modeling, sufficiently intense in color glaze is needed.

Masters classical painting the body and face, as a rule, were worked out with a modeling glaze, enhancing and at the same time softening the shape, easily detailing the halftones. Very often, modeling glazes in the paintings of old masters are also found when depicting fabrics, in contrast with tinting glazes. These basic types of glaze are almost always found when comparing several draperies. Hinting at different character fabrics, they diversify the shape. Only tinted glazes would give an indifferent combination of colored silhouettes devoid of modeling, and some modeling ones - a variegation of uniformly reinforced folds that are difficult for the eye. Using a modeling glaze, first cover the entire surface with an even layer, and then partially remove it from illuminated places, depending on the scale of the image, with the edge of the palm or finger. In this case, the shadows turn out to be more intensely colored than the light places, where, emphasizing the molding of the folds, the painting of the main layer appears. In the paintings of the old masters, you can often see draperies, whitened in the highlights and intense full color in the shadows - a typical result for modeling glazing.

The two fabrics shown side by side can be processed in different ways, and an evenly enhanced color, say brick red fabric, can coexist with green-blue, where a particularly intense color is left in the shadows. Since red and brick-red colors are especially common among images of draperies in classical painting, it is not difficult to trace the effect from the canvases of the old masters different methods glazing. In some canvases, we will see that some of the heavily modeled red fabric is enclosed between dark, tinted draperies or contrasted with poorly modeled blue planes. In others, the warm toned silhouette of a red spot is contrasted with the clear sculpting of the surrounding. We will find this wonderful coloristic technique in Rembrandt's "The Holy Family", and among the "little Dutchmen", and in the "Magnanimity of Scipio" by Poussin, and among many other old masters. In Fornarina by Giulio Romano, we encounter transparent layers that shape the body and tint the green drapery.

In the case when the shape is highlighted quite clearly in the main layer and the full strength of the color is found, when the texture of the paint layer is convincingly expressive, only retouching glazing can be applied, the task of which is only to slightly enrich, enhance or weaken the already found modeling of the shape.

Of course, this is just a schematic diagram. In reality, glazing is more diverse both in its expressiveness and in its purpose, and the method of glazing itself is as individual as the work of the master at all previous stages of painting. Largely final result The glaze is determined by the texture of the paint surface.

When weakening the modeling layer of glaze, when removing excess color film from illuminated places, the latter reacts differently to the unevenness of the canvas, soil, painting, underpainting. It can be easily removed from the elevations and is even more densely embedded in all the recesses. If a master, after painting a fragment of a painting with a very high relief of strokes or painting on a coarse-grained canvas, not only resorts to modeling glaze, but, removing excess dark glaze paint from illuminated places, leaves glaze in all recesses, we have a case of a glaze glaze.

Rubbed-in glaze, especially characteristic of Venetian painting, where it is due to the density and height of the strokes of the main layer, as well as the coarse-grained texture of the canvas, which these painters loved so much, can be put on purpose or arise by itself. To implement this technique, after glazing the fragment, the painting could be placed horizontally. Then the glaze flowed by itself into all the grooves and grains of the canvas and the underpainting strokes were accented. And yet they often preferred to remove the excess glaze paint from all small elevations and thus rub in the glaze.

On very coarse canvas and uneven ground, glaze paint always tends to flow into the recesses, highlighting the canvas pattern. This phenomenon is sometimes so intense that the artist often had to take certain precautions in order to weaken the resulting ripples.

This is especially true for the image of the nude body. Face painting needs to be used carefully dark tones for glazing, no matter how thin they are applied on an uneven canvas. Even with the most fluid, thin and transparent layer, the glaze with burnt umber or sienna lingers in the recesses of the texture, accentuating all its irregularities. Therefore, when painting women and young faces, the paint of the main layer, even applied impasto, was smoothed out, and glazing was carried out on the basis of ocher tones, cloudy with a minimal addition of whitewash, which, even filling the recesses, did not highlight the texture irregularities too much.

On the contrary, when painting wrinkled faces or rough objects, such an emphasis on texture could be desirable, and the old masters knew how to use it perfectly. The effect of the rubbed-in glaze could be further enhanced if the artist removed the excess glaze paint with the palm of his hand or with a cloth, as is done when printing etchings. (However, it should be noted that the often encountered impression of a kind of rubbed glaze can be caused by washes and restorations, in which the glaze is more easily removed from the texture bulges and, remaining in its recesses, acquires the character of rubbed in.) For example, in Rembrandt, in whose painting extremely expressive in its rough strokes and bedding, the main layer is often laid on a relatively smooth ground of a thin canvas or board, glaze, accumulating in the depressions between the irregularities of the strokes, clearly distinguishes their character and the specifics of the main layer. On the contrary, among the Venetians, who, as a rule, used exclusively coarse-grained canvases of twill (oblique) weaving *, they often emphasize not the peculiarities of the paint layer, but the structure of the base.

If a coarse-grained canvas in many places of the picture is accented with a through stroke and rubbed glaze, then the eye easily begins to feel the pattern of its fibers underlying or penetrating the entire image. Since painting retains its volumetric and spatial character, there is a combination of impressions of two kinds: the emphasized plane of texture and the spatiality of the image itself. This comparison is one of the completely natural expressions of the total perception of the image and material. Such a textured spatial solution can be seen in many of Titian's works, for example, in the Hermitage Danae, in the canvases of Veronese, Tintoretto and other Venetian painters.

It often happened that the master preferred to glaze the underpainting with a not too dark, somewhat cloudy paint, mixing a little white or light ocher into ultramarine, dark brown or burnt sienna. Such a muddy glaze could be used with any method - toning, modeling, and retouching. Of course, in this case, it was necessary to ensure that the slightly whitewashed glaze did not destroy the intensity of the shadows, but, lying on the darkened parts, took on the role of a reflex. Such glazing can sometimes be seen in the works of the greatest masters of painting - Titian, Velazquez, Rembrandt. A muddy bleaching glaze was often used by artists of various schools to depict lace, veils, and glass objects on a dark background. In the painting by Giulio Romano, one can observe the effect of a muddy glaze in the image of a transparent veil draped over a naked body.

This technique is partly close to the method of merged glazing, which is clearly noticeable in cases when the glazing is placed in the places of a viscous, non-dry base layer.

The alternation of body and transparent paint layers is associated with the need to dry the bottom layer before glazing. At the same time, the old masters, to one degree or another, resorted to glazing over a wet or semi-dry layer, that is, to merged glazing, which merges with it, fusing into a single, viscous paste. Such glazing can be found in the picturesque texture of the greatest painters of the past. This method of writing requires the use of relatively large, soft brushes saturated with transparent paint, which allows a quick painting technique to apply a glaze over the still viscous base layer.

In this case, two typical phenomena arise: on the one hand, a certain amount from the whitened or ocher mass of the lower layer is inevitably mixed into the glaze paint, causing its characteristic turbidity, and on the other, the process of applying liquid paint on the wet layer smooths out its irregularities and sharp strokes , as if fluting the surface. Both of these phenomena can naturally arise in texture only at an exceptionally free, pictorial stage. Therefore, observing such a glaze in Titian, Rembrandt and even Velazquez, we almost never notice it in Ribera and other strict caravaggists.

In a transparent glaze layer, the smear is hardly noticeable. Fro can be seen only at the edges of the stained spot, where glaze can be used to outline a particular pattern of fabric, tree foliage, hair. However, in the free painting technique of the best masters of the 17th and 18th centuries, we often encounter a special form of glaze, which can be called pictorial-hatching and which allows the introduction of a strong brushstroke into the technique of a transparent layer.

Here we must first note one more difference in the technique of modern and old masters. While the modern artist, working with a large number of colors, seeks to give each stroke a color that is as different as possible from the neighboring one (a system developed by the Impressionists), the old masters, working with a very limited number of colors, tried to use each tone in a more varied way. In classical painting, the artist introduced only one tone in the copy and in the main layer within the boundaries of one color, and the picture was brought up to the final glazing with only two colors.

Also in glazing, we find the desire to diversify the techniques within a given tone, a desire limited by the peculiar properties of the transparent layer. Therefore, differently applied modeling glaze is more common than tinting. And we can consider the picturesque-line glazing as one of the modifications of the model.

A layer of glaze, especially tinting, smoothes the details of the underpainting. In this case, it may be necessary to re-shade the shape and emphasize the details. The simplest technique is to work with the same glaze tone, a little thicker taken on the brush. With such a brush, you can shade a shape over an already applied glaze, apply a pattern, deepen folds, darken shadows.

It would seem that. with this method, along with the strokes applied with a brush, the elements of the drawing penetrate into the painting. However, it is not. It is among the greatest painters — Rubens, Rembrandt, Tiepolo — that we meet in glaze painting with strokes. So great painters strove to introduce elements of greater mobility, an energetic brushstroke, and expressive modeling into the area of ​​a motionless transparent layer.

This is the basic scheme of classical painting techniques. But we must not forget that this is, of course, only a diagram. A lively pictorial process was only based on its elements, combining them in various ways, varying and changing.

The modification could go in the direction of complication, and the process of painting developed, as it were, in a spiral, and three stages went on, periodically repeating. But, although rarely, we also meet with the truncated method, when one of the links in the chain is dropped. Obviously live creative process you can get a perfect image both by the method of pure glazing and pure body paint. In some pictorial methods that deeply vary the usual techniques, the basic scheme almost escapes observation. But careful analysis can still reveal the individual stages of the three-stage sequence.

In general, among the masters who professed the statuary-plastic solution of the form, one can clearly state the traditions that more strictly protect the three-stage method; the masters cultivating picturesqueness were inclined to modify it, sometimes simplifying it, but much more often complicating it.

In addition, it should be noted that different parts of the same painting may have a different structure of the paint layer depending on the intentions of the artist, different ways conveying the nature of the surface of individual objects. But the amplitude of these variations among the old masters always fits within the boundaries of a certain circle of several methods chosen by the artist.

If in the early period of development oil painting Much attention was paid to glazing, then in the 16th century the emphasis is shifted to underpainting - the main layer - as an area of ​​corpus, free-pictorial writing. This underpainting development proceeds rapidly in Italy, especially in Venice, and from there spreads to Spain and north.

The Venetians are characterized by a normal force of writing on colored primates, a developed picturesque underpainting, a variety of glazes. spiral, complex-pictorial development. For caravaggists, a strict three-step method is typical; darkened prescription on dark soils, whitewash tinted underpainting, glazing, modeling the body and toning draperies.

It was by this method that most of Ribera's works were written, including "Anthony the Hermit", where the lead whitewash acquired some proficiency over time and through their thin layers appears dark color soil and prescription.

A fully pictorial pasty layer, perfectly worked out with a specific sharp-pointed brushstroke, can be seen in the underpainting of Guardi's painting "Alexander the Great at the body of Darius." Freely applied, now retouching, now very thick glazes diversify and emphasize the exceptional skill of the brush and the perfect color of this picture.

The three-stage method can be clearly seen through the various layers of paint in the canvas "Morning young man"Peter de Hooch. In the whole picture, it is as if a bright brown tone of the writing is felt, in places clearly visible in the shadows. The heightened-enlightened color underpainting is overlaid by color-enhancing pink and brown-red, olive, ocher-lemon glazes. The general tone of the picture is emphatically hot. The pattern on the background and the folds of the canopy are developed in the main layer and are emphasized by the picturesque-line glaze, while the fringe of the canopy, developed already in the light underpainting, clearly shines through the thick translucent olive layer. If, after going through all three steps of the three-stage method, the master wanted to continue his work, what should he have done?

For the masters of the 15th century, such a task practically did not arise. But the painters of the next century faced this problem very often.

In such cases, the master resorted to a repeated-step method. As a rule, this method was used only in lights, on top of the pasty layer, and consisted in the following. The artist conditionally took the final glazing for a new copy, laid over a fragment that required the continuation of the painting. Then, on top of such a second prescription, the artist had the right to apply strokes of the second main layer. And this second pasty layer was again covered with glaze. In turn, this glaze could become the third word and be enriched with strokes of the third main layer. So, using the repeated-step method, the artist could create an extremely expressive, high texture in the lights.

However, there is no need to describe in detail the result of this pictorial method. Consider carefully the texture of Rembrandt's later paintings, in particular the already mentioned painting "Artaxerxes, Haman and Esther". True, the painting darkened a lot, but the most complex layers of pasty strokes and glazes can still be clearly seen.

Yes, this painting is so expressive, so lovingly demonstrates free texture that even time is powerless to extinguish its flame ... 17th century. A hundred years have not yet passed since the death of Titian! But the craving for picturesqueness, for complete emancipation from all the norms and shackling traditions of the Middle Ages, from any sign of the requirements of the workshop, seized the workshops of painters from Italy and Spain, Holland and Flanders. And it is no coincidence that after Titian's "St. Sebastian "the next peak of picturesqueness in our collections of paintings by old masters should be considered" Return prodigal son»Rembrandt.

Without setting goals detailed description one or the other paintings or the peculiarities of painting schools, it is necessary, however, to note that the three-stage method, opening up many paths for the old masters to enhanced detailing of the image ("little Dutchmen"), to the ultimate power of chiaroscuro (Caravaggio, Ribera), to high academic excellence (Bolognese), in at the same time it provided the opportunity for exceptional pictorial freedom.

In the still life of the Spaniard, Antonio Pereda involuntarily draws attention to the parsimony and severity of color. The color scheme is based on a contrast between pinkish brown and brick tones and a few cold blue spots. Almost the same brick-pink glaze - barely modulated in tone - covers the drapery, and the jugs, and the pink vase, and the shells. But it is in this convergence that coloristic strength and courage are read. The range of grayish-yellow-brown tones, alternating with whitened ocher and smoother brick-red spots, is shaded by cold, greenish-blue inserts, enhanced, as usual, during the last glazing. The coloring of this painting is based on a simple color system, often used by artists of the 17th century. What the ultimate pictorial freedom of the nose - in contrast to the Spanish still life - appears in the same colors Rembrandt. With what expressiveness the first glance does not fit with the information about the exceptional speed of his work. Peering, however, one can see how lightly and artistically the pasty underpainting is put on the darkened copy in his paintings. The general impression of completeness is associated with the division of the pictorial task into two main phases: the corpus stroke and the glaze. It is easy to imagine that with such a division, the master could create a rather complex finished work in three days, giving each construction layer one day of work.

The general course of the work of the artists of Giordano's circle could have proceeded, probably, in this order. On a brown or brick-colored ground, a dark brown drawing with a brush was applied and brushed off - a prescription. This first coat, painted with glaze paint on thinned varnish, could be carried out with great freedom, since the liquid paint allowed any kind of processing and any changes. As a result, the recipe could be on a scale large canvas the appearance of a strongly darkened free drawing in sepia or bistrome, which was common in that era.

According to this quickly drying recipe, right on its slightly sticky, drying transparent layer, sometimes on the same day, and more often on the next, work began on the underpainting.

V a large number the prepared tinted bleaching paste in a conditionally enlightened tone: yellow-pink for the body, greenish, cream, pink for draperies, was laid out with a bold, free brushstroke according to the highlights of objects. Of course, some paints from among those already prepared for other items could and were mixed with this light, body paste. Thus, a colder shade was achieved for the undertones of the body, a warmer shade for the face and hands. But the artist's main attention in this layer was nevertheless directed only to the stroke, to the movement of the brush, sculpting the form. The result of working on the main layer, on the underpainting, was a picture, sustained in sharp contrasts of chiaroscuro, extremely poor in color, but with a very masterly brushstroke that varied depending on the nature of the subject. Such underpainting usually gives the impression of being applied in one step over the copy. At the same time, transitions to the shadow were achieved by darkening the tone, and by thinning the layer, and by using a through underpainting. Taking into account the variety of the learned painting effects, it can be assumed that the second layer could sometimes be applied by the masters of this circle with this technique in the same day. The shadows in the main layer were touched, probably only in reflexes, with a thin half-body layer in a darker tone.

While painting underpainting could be carried out according to a half-baked prescription, which played the role of an adhesive varnish, which binds the body layer to the ground even more tightly, after underpainting, a sufficiently long time had to pass for the paint to completely dry before glazing. That is why the masters often worked simultaneously on several paintings and.

Although the glazing was carried out, probably in several stages, gradually increasing, it could hardly take more than one day with Giordano's artistry. A solid knowledge of the coloristic task led the artist to quickly cover large surfaces of the canvas with abundantly prepared liquid transparent paints.

The fabrics were often tinted with a smooth layer, and the body was covered with a modeling glaze, warm - in highlights and cold, greenish - in semitones, and the shape was softened and controlled again. A variety of shades, soft transitions were created by glazing without difficulty. With this method, the unevenness of the paint could be smoothed out and the excess removed with a cloth or soft brush.

The background could be once again worked out by glazing, and the same dark transparent paint, going over the edges of the forms, softened the contours, and sometimes took away an entire arm, shoulder or part of the back into the shadow.

Name: Secrets of Painting by Old Masters.

Descriptions of painting techniques, which can be conventionally called classical. The book has two authors: one- famous painter and a graphic artist, the other is a specialist in the history of painting technology. Useful as a practical guide to contemporary artists, and contributes to a better understanding of the work of the masters of the past.

Despite the fact that this book has a very specific title, it is nevertheless necessary to clarify its content. This is not a reference or tutorial, not essays about the great masters of the past, although some of them are described on its pages. Most likely, these are sketches, reflections, conversations about the peculiarities of painting techniques, which today, rather conditionally, are usually called classical. To make the content of the first part of our book clear to the reader from the very first pages, let us first of all try to outline the range of problems considered in it. The history of painting, as a rule, is built using the terminology of Hildebrand on the basis of the study of the "share image". And yet it is worth regretting that art historians rarely come close to the picture, do not sufficiently study the specifics of what I.E. Grabar called "artistic cuisine", considering it "extremely uninteresting and boring matter." In books about painting, it is too rare to talk about those creative, constructive processes, the living evidence of which is the painting itself.

CONTENT
Technical traditions of European easel art 7
Introduction
The emergence of oil painting techniques 14
Some Concepts of Painting Technique 23
Three-stage painting method 49
Five Roots of Picturesque 81
The Two Branches of the Classical Tradition 117
The Birth of a New Sense of Picturesqueness 203
The experience of mastering the three-stage painting method 236
Development ways wall painting 245
Encaustic. Resin and Oil in Antique Painting 246
Oil Wall Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance 253
Fresco technique and its varieties 259
Mosaic and fresco in the interior 263
The proximity of easel and monumentalism in the painting of the old masters
Spatiality and flatness in wall painting and plafond
Methods and technique of work with wax, resinous oil and silicate paints 294
How This Book Was Created 309
List of Figures 315

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Painting secrets of the old masters
Old techniques of oil painting

Flemish oil painting method

The Flemish method of painting with oil paints basically boiled down to the following: the drawing was transferred to a white, smoothly polished ground from the so-called cardboard (a separate drawing on paper). Then the drawing was outlined and shaded with transparent brown paint.(with tempera or oil). According to Cennino Cennini, even in this form, the paintings looked like perfect works. This technique has changed in its further development. The surface prepared for painting was covered with a layer of oil varnish with an admixture of brown paint, through which the extinguished drawing shone through. Painterly work ended with transparent or translucent glazing or half-body (half-covering), in one step, a letter. The brown preparation was left to show through in the shadows. Sometimes for brown preparation, they painted with the so-called dead paints (gray-blue, gray-greenish), finishing the work with glazes... The Flemish method of painting can be easily traced in many of Rubens's works, especially in his sketches and sketches, for example, in the sketch of the triumphal arch “The Apotheosis of the Duchess Isabella”.

To preserve the beauty of the color of blue paints in oil painting (blue pigments, rubbed in oil, change their tone), the places written in blue paints were sprinkled (over a not completely dry layer) with ultramarine or smalt powder, and then these places were covered with a layer of glue and varnish. Oil paintings sometimes glazed with watercolors; for this, their surface was preliminarily wiped with garlic juice.

The Italian method of painting with oil paints

The Italians changed the Flemish method, creating a peculiar Italian way of writing. Instead of white soil the Italians did it in color; or the white primer was completely covered with some kind of transparent paint... On gray ground, they painted with chalk or coal (without resorting to cardboard). The drawing was outlined with brown glue paint, shadows were laid with it and dark draperies were prescribed... Then they covered the entire surface with layers of glue and varnish, after which they painted with oil paints, starting with laying the lights with whitewash... After that on dried bleaching preparation, they wrote corpuscularly in local colors; gray soil was left in the penumbra. Finished painting with glazes.

Later they began to use dark gray primers, performing underpainting with two paints - white and black. Even later, brown, red-brown and even red soils were used. The Italian method of painting was then adopted by some Flemish and Dutch masters (Terborch, 1617-1681; Metsu, 1629-1667 and others).

Examples of the application of the Italian and Flemish methods.

Titian originally painted on white ground, then switched to colored (brown, red, finally, neutral), using pasty underpainting, which was done by grisaille. In Titian's method, a significant proportion was acquired by a letter at a time, in one step without subsequent glazing (the Italian name for this method is alia prima). Rubens mostly followed the Flemish method, greatly simplifying brown shading. He completely covered a white canvas with light brown paint and laid shadows with the same paint, painted on top with grisaille, then in local tones, or, bypassing grisaille, wrote alia prima. Sometimes Rubens painted in local lighter colors for brown preparation and finished painting with glazes. Rubens is credited with the following, a very fair and instructive statement: “Start writing your shadows easily, avoiding introducing even an insignificant amount of white into them: white is the poison of painting and can be introduced only in highlights. Once the white breaks the transparency, golden tone and warmth of your shadows - your painting will no longer be light, but will become heavy and gray. The situation is completely different in relation to the lights. Here, paints can be applied as hulls as needed, but it is necessary, however, to keep the tones clean. This is achieved by superimposing each tone in its place, one next to the other in such a way that with a slight movement of the brush it was possible to shade them without disturbing, however, the colors themselves. You can then pass through such a painting with decisive final blows, which are so characteristic of great masters "".

The Flemish master Van Dyck (1599-1641) preferred corpus painting. Rembrandt most often painted on gray ground, working through forms with transparent brown paint very actively (dark), and also used glazes. Rubens applied strokes of various colors one next to another, and Rembrandt overlapped some strokes with others.

Techniques similar to the Flemish or Italian - on white or colored soils using pasty masonry and glazes - were widely used until the middle of the 19th century. The Russian artist F.M. Matveev (1758-1826) painted on brown ground with grayish underpainting. VL Borovikovsky (1757-1825) painted with grisaille on gray soil. KP Bryullov also often used gray and other colored soils, painted with grisaille. In the second half of the 19th century, this technique was abandoned and forgotten. Artists began to paint without the strict system of the old masters, thus narrowing their technical capabilities.

Professor DI Kiplik, speaking about the meaning of the color of the ground, notes: Painting with a wide flat light and intense colors (such as the works of Roger van der Weyden, Rubens, etc.) requires a white ground; painting, in which deep shadows prevail, is of a dark ground (Caravaggio, Velazquez, etc.). ”“ A light ground gives warmth to the paints applied to it in a thin layer, but deprives them of depth; dark soil gives depth to the paints; dark ground with a cold tint - cold (Terborch, Metsu) ”.

“In order to induce the depth of the shadows on a light soil, the effect of a white primer on paints is destroyed by laying the shadows with a dark brown paint (Rembrandt); strong lights on dark ground are obtained only when the effect of dark ground on paints is eliminated by applying a sufficient layer of white in the highlights ”.

"Intense cold tones on intense red substrates (eg blue) are obtained only if the action of the red primer is paralyzed by the cold tone preparation or the cold paint is applied in a thick layer."

“The most universal in color primer is a light gray primer in a neutral tone, as it is equally good for all paints and does not require too pasty painting” 1.

Soils of chromatic colors affect both the lightness of the paintings and their overall chromaticity. The influence of the color of the soil in the case of corpus and forest writing has a different effect. For example, green paint placed on a red ground with a non-translucent body layer looks especially saturated in its surroundings, but applied with a transparent layer (for example, in watercolor) loses its saturation or completely achromatizes, since the green light reflected and transmitted by it is absorbed by the red ground.

If you want to take part in the training, please fill out the pre-registration form. We will notify you about the start of the course by e-mail.

Who are the "old masters"? This is how artists are called, starting with Jan van Eyck, who discovered oil painting for the world and showed its stunning beauty. The painting of the old masters reached its heyday in Holland and the Netherlands in 17th century, when painters unsurpassed until now worked, such as Rembrandt, Rubens, "little Dutchmen" and their followers.

In the 18th century, this painting gradually faded away, supplanted by the academic school, and, later, by impressionism. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the secrets of the painting of the old masters had already been lost, and, it seemed, had sunk into oblivion forever.
Many artists of the twentieth century and of our time are trying to figure out what painting techniques the "old masters" used to achieve in their works the stunning expressiveness of still lifes, the vitality of portraits and bewitching, almost mystical realism.

Many people know that this technique is based on glazes - the thinnest layers of paint, like filters that cover paintings. But to say that this is a glazing painting is to say nothing about the technique of work. Indeed, in this painting, the secrets begin with the most seemingly simple and ordinary processes: with the preparation of the canvas, the choice of colors. And if in general the stages of work on a painting are generally known, then the actual secrets and methods of work remain a secret.

Arina Daur has been studying the art of old masters for many years, bit by bit collecting knowledge from old books, in conversations with restorers, copying masterpieces of the past in museums. She not only unraveled many of the secrets of this painting, but also created a school where everyone can learn this skill.

In the old days, the only school for a novice artist was the practice of copying: the student copied the teacher's work, comprehending all the secrets of the skill. And we will do the same.

What will you do on the course? You will copy the work of the Dutch artist Jacob van Hulsdonk. This still life with a jug has become a kind of business card Arina Daur's studios. It is with copying this picture that all beginners begin their training here. Despite its small size, this painting gives you a chance to learn the basics of the old masters' technique, conduct research and paint your own "Jug" with all the details of this still life. You will learn how to convey the texture of warm clay and cold metal, the lively shine of berries and the bewitching shimmer of glass, you will learn how to "immerse" an image in a mysterious haze and show light on objects. This still life, filled with golden light, will be the foundation for your success in oil painting.

And it doesn't matter in what manner you prefer to work, even if you write modern subjects, choose unexpected compositional solutions and bright colors for working in the a la prima technique (in one session), the ability to work in the technique of the old masters will give you a huge advantage. This is best said by Salvador Dali, an artist who cannot be suspected of being devoted to antiquity: "First, learn to draw and write like the old masters, and only then act at your own discretion - and you will be respected."

For everyone who cannot visit the school of painting by old masters in St. Petersburg, our online course is intended. And in this video you can find out the recommendations of Arina Daur about which books will be useful on this topic.

Materials and tools

Canvas on stretcher (fine-grained), primed with water-based or acrylic primer, size 30x40 cm;
... primed cardboard 24x30 cm for making your own palette;
... oval wooden palette for paints (or the one you have);
... double oiler;
... acrylic primer and acrylic paint(natural ocher or sienna);
... polymerized oil;
... dammar varnish;
... "Pinene" odorless or thinner No. 4;

. Brushes:
- No. 1 round for small parts,
- No. 2 or 3 round columns,
- a synthetic brush cut into a corner.

. oil paints"Master Class":
1) titanium white;
2) light ocher;
3) red ocher;
4) mars orange;
5) ultramarine;
6) Indian yellow;
7) olive;
8) natural umber;
9) dark kraplak;
10) cadmium light red.

There are artists who feel a vocation for one type of creativity and have been passionately engaged in it all their lives. They reach heights in the chosen direction, but are known in one single role. There are other masters who try a lot and improve in several types of art. The world knows them at the same time as watercolors and stained glass painters, architects and graphic artists, illustrators and sculptors. Arina Daur is just such a versatile artist.

Arina was born in Krasnodar, but already in early childhood ended up in Leningrad. By her own admission, she felt like an artist at the age of four. And from that moment on, creation became the work of life.

Then there were bright years at an art school, a difficult admission to the V.I.Mukhina School in Leningrad, there was a misunderstanding in the Union of Artists and a happy coincidence of circumstances that gave hope to be understood by the viewer and colleagues in the profession. By different difficult paths life led to the recognition by society of the value of what Arina invested strength and time, knowledge and energy of the soul.

As an artist, Arina did a lot: she painted finds and earthen walls in the excavations of archaeological expeditions, worked on the creation cartoons, was fond of modeling and clay casting. Her creative energy was used in the creation of puppets and theatrical costumes, in painting and in graphics. And inspiration was drawn from the cultural atmosphere of those places where fate led.

One of these significant places in her life were the Pushkin Hills, where Arina spent the summer months, "resting" at work in the workshop. Here she taught children "all kinds of pictorial things": to work with the special clay of those places, to look for images in the shapeless blots of monotypes. At the same time, I was imbued with the "spirit of the place", I was reading Pushkin. As a result of this immersion, illustrations for the works of Alexander Sergeevich appeared. And in 2012 the novel "Eugene Onegin" was published with drawings by Arina Daur.

A person with a philosophical turn of mind, Arina tries to comprehend each of her practical experiences, "take" the topic deeply and broadly, studying the works of her predecessors, establishing connections with various phenomena in the history of culture, gathering like-minded people around. When the silhouette drawings caught her eye, her own paper exercises were followed by historical research. And naturally the case brought Arina together with the descendants of the famous artist “ Silver Age»Elizaveta Kruglikova, whose prints, monotypes and silhouette graphics have become a bright page in the history of Russian art. And in April 2009, Arina organized the Fourth international festival monotype dedicated to the memory of the famous artist.

Arina Daur knows how to "infect" others with her interest - many. Her sincere enthusiasm, benevolence, understanding of the deep essence of art amaze and attract not only creative people, but also completely non-artists. Around Arina, the energy of human relationships seethes and boils, and joint efforts give amazing results. This is how many festivals were organized, including international ones dedicated to monotype. This technique, which professionals are seriously engaged in, attracted many artists of the past, and simply bewitched Arina. From childhood, she was attracted by the opportunity to "get" the image out of the colorful chaos. The ability to look and see, multiplied by artistic experience and many years of practice, yielded results: in 2002, at an exhibition in the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the name of Arina Daur thundered and literally became a discovery for the European public. The “queen of monotype”, as she was presented at this event, inspired by the success in the far abroad, thoroughly “plunged” into the topic, having studied history, finding like-minded people. Exhibitions, master classes, lectures, organization of festivals filled the 2000s.

And in 2013, Arina opened her own studio, where she teaches the painting technique of the old masters. And this is not a sudden change of interests, this is another facet of the life of the same person.

Each conversation with Arina reveals her personality from an unknown, often unexpected side: for example, her graduation project - a faience service for the sailing ship "Nadezhda" of thirty-six items is in the collection of the museum of her native school, which has long since changed its name to its original - the Academy of Arts and Industry them. A. L. Stieglitz. She also illustrates fairy tales and hosts an author's program on Radio Russia, telling about the artists in the cycle "Ours for you with a brush." Arina's works are in the collections of museums different countries... The film “A man came out of the house”, in the creation of which she participated as an animation artist, in 1990 received the Big Gold Medal at the Baltic Film Festival. These are just a few bright facts from the artist's biography. She works in different types, techniques and genres of art and fascinates others with them. Children and adults learn the main thing in communicating with Arina - the ability to see beauty: in the paintings of old masters and in a black blot on paper. And having seen it once, they remain fascinated by the endless process of cognition of artistic creation in its most diverse manifestations.

Do you want to become creative personality? See the lessons of Arina Daur.

Works by Arina Daur

Course program

The video course "Technique of the Old Masters" consists of 21 lessons. These are theoretical and practical video lessons with 16 tasks for mastering the material. In each lesson, Arina tells and shows one stage of working on a painting and you repeat it yourself at a speed convenient for you. Through the form feedback You show the results to Arina, get answers to questions and move on, mastering the material step by step.

Program:

1 part. Preparatory. Theory. Talk about paints and canvas. Making your own palette. Preparing the canvas. 6 lessons, 3 practical tasks.

Part 2: "The Ghost" of the painting. 1 lesson, 1 task.

Part 3: The main stage of writing. 7 lessons, 4 assignments.

Part 4: Painting stage of writing. 7 lessons, 8 assignments.

What will you get at the end of the course? A self-written copy of the painting using the technique of old masters and a huge store of knowledge, with the help of which you can create many more copies and independent work in the technique of the old masters.

Required skills: This course does not require oil painting skills.

Who is this course for? It will fit:

• those who are delighted with the painting of the old masters and want to master their method of work,
• creators who like to try new things to diversify their skills, to enrich their own style of writing.
• and even for beginners in painting who have not yet practiced much, or have barely touched their brushes. Don't believe me? Watch a video with students of the St. Petersburg school of old masters, in which they talk about themselves and their studies in the studio.

Who is this course not suitable for?

Those who do not like the still lifes of the old masters, who are indifferent to the painting of the small Dutchmen, Rembrandt and Rubens, who are sure that they already know everything and will not be surprised with anything.

Your work will be displayed here soon.

1. Correct construction of objects in space

This skill is the foundation for anyone professional artist... It will create a sense of volumetric space in your painting, which is very important. Already he alone will greatly improve your paintings.

2. Correct stroking

With the help of strokes, a background is created for the future volume of forms and objects - this is the main basis. When you learn how to apply them correctly, everything you paint will become more saturated and clear.

3. Tone stretching with a pencil

Another secret of the masters. When you learn how to make tone stretching with a pencil from simple to complex, to gain tone with pencils of different softness, you yourself will be surprised how much more realistic your drawings will become.

4. The art of drawing volumetric figures

Another skill that separates people who draw great from newbies to drawing. This is the ability to give volume to objects that differ in shape, work with light and reflex, with one's own shadow and penumbra. These skills will make your work much better.

5. Ability to work with your own shadow on figures to add volume

It is also important to be able to if you want to masterfully depict volumetric objects and create realistic paintings.

6. Effective construction of falling shadows

The type and shape of the falling shadows depends not only on the figure, whipping it casts, but also on the location of the light source. Having mastered this skill, you will be able to draw falling shadows of various geometric shapes, but also apply this knowledge to objects of various shapes.

7. Ability to distinguish objects by tone

Thanks to this, you will not only be able to show the difference between objects and shapes, but also indicate the compositional center, which is very important for building a composition.

8. Skill of adherence to composition

But this is the most important knowledge that will "revive" your picture and fill it with meaning, make the viewer think about what mood you had at the moment of creating the picture, what exactly you wanted to tell the viewer. Knowing the composition will allow you to “say” with the help of your painting what you cannot say with words ...

... and many other skills and secrets that the world's best artists possess.

How to quickly master the essential skills of professional artists?

You can of course enroll in an art school. However, this is possible if you have a lot of free time. Unfortunately, not everyone can spend several hours a day getting to school and back.

In addition, you can start learning on your own - from books. But this is a very slow and difficult path, and without a professional mentor, you will study for a very long time, making many mistakes.

The easiest way is to study the video course at home. In just 46 days, you can learn how to draw gorgeous drawings at home!

HOW TO LEARN TO DRAW