The following is a glossary of terms for techniques used in oil painting.
These are just a few of the techniques you can use. I will be going into more detail in future
blog posts and try to show you an example or two of the techniques:
Dry Brush
This technique
can be used in oils or watercolour, very scant use of pigment on a textured
surface the paint clings to the raised part of the surface only. Therefore it
is a useful method of suggesting texture, for instance, weathered rock or long
grass, but like all special techniques it should never be overdone.
Glazing
A glaze is a
thin-layer of transparent paint laid over a dry layer which can be either thick
or thin. Since the lower layer is
visible through the glaze, the effect is quite different to anything that can be
achieved with opaque paint.
Fat Over Lean
An expression
applied to oil painting, which indicates that pigments mixed with oil (fat)
should be used on top of those thinned with turpentine or other spirit (lean).
Build up several layers, the oil content should progressively increase. If lean
paint has been applied over oily paint the top layer will dry before the lower
one has finished shrinking and this can cause the hardened lean paint to crack
or even flake off.
Impasto
This term
describes paint that has been applied thickly enough to retain the marks and
ridges left by the brush or painting knife.
The ability to build up oil paint is for many people one of its main
attractions. The picture surface can
acquire a three-dimensional quality which can be used to model form an even
mimic the texture of the subject, such as clouds.
Scumbling
An uneven
working of a thin layer of paint over another of a different colour, so that
the under layer shows through. It gives a veiled or broken effect.
Sgraffito (to
scratch)
This technique
involves scoring into the paint after it has been applied; using any rigid
instrument such as a paint brush handle, a knife, fork or even a comb, the
surface layer of wet paint is scratched into to reveal either the ground colour
or a layer of dry colour beneath.
Texturing
A number of
techniques can be used to provide specific textures, among them ‘imprinting’
and ‘knife painting’. One way of
texturing is to mix the paint with one of the special impasto mediums, other
favourites additives are clean sand, sawdust, wood shavings, plaster and
decorator’s filler.
Tonking
Tonking is a
technique that can be used to remove too much applied paint on the surface of a
painting, use a sheet of absorbent paper such as newspaper or kitchen towel,
place over the overloaded area or the whole painting, gently rub with the palm
of the hand and then carefully peel off.
This carries off the top layer of paint leaving a thinned down version
of the original with softer outlines.
Wet into Wet/Wet on Dry
Wet into wet
involves applying colours over and into one another while still wet, each new
brushstroke mixes to some extent with those below or adjacent to it, the result
are softer, with forms and colours merging into one another without hard
boundaries. Wet into wet is the essence of the ‘Alla Prima’ approach; the
entire painting is done in one session. If
you are completing a painting over a series of sessions you will probably find
that you are painting wet on dry.
Best wishes
Lee
