- Outline of the steps:
- To see my paintings that illustrate these steps, view these
pages:
- Materials - In addition to the materials that are listed
in the "recipes" that follow, you need:
- Tracing paper, Scotch tape, hard pencil, soft charcoal, India
ink or blue permanent ink.
- Oil paints - Some suggested colors are: Titanium white, Yellow
Ochre, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Ultrmarine
Blue, Viridian, Winsor Blue
- Palette knife
- 3 clip-on cups, one for cheap turpentine, one for good turpentine,
one for medium
- Palette
- A small (@ 10 x 12 ) piece of glass works well. Tape the
edges for safety. Place on top of a white surface such as a piece
of white cardboard. You can see your glaze colors through this.
When placed on a dark surface, you can see your tempera clearly,
too.
- Traditional palette is made of wood. Rub with Linseed oil
on both sides 1 or 2 days before use
- Be organized. For local colors stage, Put dabs of cool colors
on left side of palette, warms on the right
- Paint brushes
- A large brush for applying gesso.
- A wide soft flat brush for applying the imprimatura and glazes
to large areas.
- A variety of fine brushes. Long bristles are good.
- Schtumpfa brushes. German for 'dabbing'. Brush head is round.
Soft, but not too soft. Used as a dabber (or pouncer ) either
after applying color with another brush or by direct use.
- Mahl Stick -used for steadying the hand while painting. Protects
work from being smudged by your hand
- A wooden dowel about 3/4 inch diameter or a broomstick handle,
cut shorter
- Need something on the end to prop it on the easel. It is
good if it is soft, so it won't scratch the painting if you rest
it on the upper edge of the panel.
- Decorate one for Spirit power!
- Some small cups or saucers in which to mix your glazes.
- Lots of rags, some very small ones to use as "brushes",
to remove glazes in selected places
- A few small jars to save extra glazes, a jar for turpentine.
- Soap for cleaning brushes.
- Prepared Panel
- Panel Preparation, traditional
method
- A board must be sanded smooth and free of dust. After sanding,
the panel is ready for the Perleim (or glue solution). This solution
seals the board enabling it to be more durable and preventing
it from being excessively absorbent when applying the Lime emulsion
(Gesso.)
- Perleim (Sealant)
- Materials needed:
- Water
- Perleim
- Heating unit and container
- Proportion of materials - 80 to 100 grams of Perleim to one
liter of water
- Use the double boiler method of heating the solution. Take
the pot of perleim and water and place it within another pot
containing only water. Rest the inner pot upon stones or any
other suitable support to prevent the inner pot from touching
the outer pot directly.
- Boil until good consistency, stirring occasionally.
- Perleim application
- Mix one part of the above mixture with 3 parts of water.
- Spread on the board with a fine brush. Let dry completely.
- Lime Emulsion Preparation (Gesso)
- Ingredients:
- Chalk (Lime)
- lime is the same as chalk and is cheaper at a plant nursery
- Zinc white pigment (dry)
- Perleim
- Leinolfirm (Linseed oil / varnish)
- Water
- Proportion:
- 1 part chalk
- 1 part zinc white
- 1 part perleim
- Mix all 3 until good consistency. Add 1/8 to 1/2 leinolfirnisresin
(linseed oil, varnish). This must be added very slowly to the
solution, small amounts at a time, mixing constantly. It also
must be added before the water to prevent difficulty in mixing
the contents.
- When all the yellow color has vanished from the emulsion,
it is ready for the water. Two parts very hot water (the water
used to boil the perleim can be used for this purpose)
- Stir again for a good consistency
- Lime emulsion application -
- If yellow reappears in the emulsion while applying it to
the board, stir it frequently.
- Float the brush on the surface in one particular direction
(thicker).
- Never go over the same stroke twice as it may remove the
layer below.
- Emulsion should remain at a very warm temperature at all
times.
- This coating process should be done at least 4 times.
- If panel buckles up when dry, saturate the back of the it
with water and weight it down.
- Large board should be nailed to a frame in back to keep it
from warping.
- Hard Board Preparation, the Quick Way
- 1/4 inch Untempered Masonite. If it is small, it doesn't
need to have supports on the back. Or, 1/8 inch Masonite which
must be framed behind to prevent warping.
- Gesso the panel. If you use a commercial gesso, make sure
to thin it out. Paint on 4 to 6 layers, using a large (about
3 inch ) brush. Paint each succeeding layer in the opposite direction.
Sand after each application of gesso dries.
- When absolutely dry, sand down panel very smooth.
- Spray the panel with matte fixative.
- Egg Emulsion
- Materials needed:
- Eggs (whole, raw)
- The whole egg is necessary to make the waters and oils work
together. Pure egg tempera painters use just the yolk. Glare
painters of illuminated manuscripts used just the whites
- Sterilized jar or bottle.
- One with a cork is easier to reopen than a screw type top
- Damar varnish
- Brand of Damar varnish is important. Cheap ones have too
much turpentine
- Good: Holbein, Bocure, Talens, La France Burchacher
- Bad: Grumbacher, WindsorNewton, Sucato
- Distilled Water
- Proportion:
- 1 part whole egg
- 1 part Damar varnish
- 2 parts distilled water
- The rotten egg smell issue:
- A few drops of alcohol (rubbing or any kind) can be added
to help preserve it.
- Keep the bottle closed when not in use.
- Refrigerate when not in use.
- Example: Emulsion using 2 eggs: Take one egg, tap shell at
top (or use scissors) to make a small opening. Pour the egg into
the bottle or jar. Pour second egg into the container, too. Using
one of the empty egg shells as a measurer, fill it with varnish
twice and add it to the jar. Shake the egg / varnish contents
vigorously. Now add 4 eggshells of water to this emulsion.
- Always shake your emulsion before use
- Painting Medium
- Use a sterilized jar or bottle. Make sure it is completely
dry. Any water will ruin the medium
- Always shake your medium before use
- Mix together and keep in a jar. Label contents and date.
- Normal (3 to 7 days drying time)
- 2 parts Damar varnish
- 1 part stand oil
- The more oil, the longer it takes to dry
- 1 part rectified turpentine
- The very best turp should be used. Balsam turpentine, if
you can find
- Faster drying
- Add to the above medium Talens quick dry medium. 1/3 volume
talens to 2/3 volume painting medium
- Faster drying
- 1 part Linseed oil (or Stand oil)
- 1 part Damar Varnish
- 1 part (or desired quantity) Rectified Turpentine
- Even faster drying, add cobalt linoleate or japan drier.
- 10 drops to 2-4 oz medium
- 20 drops to 4-8 oz medium
- 22 drops to 8-16 oz medium
- Even faster drying:
- 1 part Linseed oil
- 1/2 part Venice turpentine (Brown, resin-like, dries quicker
and harder)
- 1/2 part Rectified Turpentine
- 1 part Picture Varnish
- Use as little siccative or dryer as possible
- Purpose of the ingredients
- Purpose of varnish and oil
- Make color transparent
- Binding agent. Always use some even if only a few drops
- Makes paint more workable
- Tip: to work with more egg tempera on a painting that has
dried, it is possible to mix oil and varnish and rub it over
the painting and then paint some more
- Purpose of the Egg (the mysterious ingredient - albumin)
- keeps the tempera white, hard, and durable.
- Purpose of Turpentine
- thin the medium
- too much is bad and can eat your painting
- Get your idea/composition
on the panel
- Do a plain line drawing of what you plan to paint. Do it
the same size as it will be on the panel
- Method to use with the Imprimatura #1(goes on top
of the imprimatura)
- Trace the lines you need from your drawing onto tracing paper
- Turn paper over and rub with titanium white powder using
paper towels. It does not need to be thick.
- Do this away from any other work. The powder gets into everything.
Wear a mask. Don't breathe in the dust
- Place paper on top of the dry imprimatura. Tape the corners.
Using a hard pencil, go over the lines. Use a mahl stick so your
hand doesn't press into the paper
- Use thalo blue ink, watered down, to go over the white lines.
Brush away any white tempera remaining. The blue ink is preferred
to the black because it doesn't show through the painting
- Method to use with imprimatura #2 (goes underneath
the imprimatura)
- Rub the back of the drawing with charcoal. Brown or terra
cotta is best. Blow away the dust.
- Transfer the drawing to your panel, using a hard pencil or
ballpoint pen, go over the lines of the drawing
- Go over it with India ink and a brush
- Imprimatura #1 (the traditional
way)
- Another word for it is the Ground. Usually warm colors, such
as English Red (Traditional), ochre, burnt umber, burnt sienna,
even Cadmium red is fine! The warm colors are what causes the
'Optical Grays', beautiful tones as you move from warm to cool
to warm again. But cool colors can also be used for your ground.
Indigo blue is good.
- Mix your powdered color pigment with egg emulsion
- Put powdered pigment (earth tone, dark red, brown) on glass.
- Make "volcano crater" in center
- Shake egg emulsion and pour some in crater
- Use palette knife and begin grinding by moving and pressing.
Keep it moving. Do for as long as you can, 10 minutes or more.
ALL the pieces of pigment must be ground. A painting can be ruined
by one little piece that later chips off leaving a hole in your
work. Consistency is like soft butter
- If really pressed for time (as in a class of short duration),
elmer's glue can be added to help it dry fast. You wouldn't do
this under ideal circumstances
- Using a large brush, Apply to the panel. Can be thinned with
water for easier spreading. You can rub it on with your finger.
All superfluous glaze should be removed with a rag. The imprimatura
should be lean and barely show a gloss.
- Brush strokes are okay. Doesn't have to be perfectly even.
You may want to create patterns at this point using crinkled
plastic, plants, textured objects pressed into the ground to
create shapes
- Let color dry. Dries overnight.
- Transfer your drawing to the panel, as described above
- Traditional method demands a varnish at this point.
- Mix 1/2 varnish and 1/2 turpentine and paint over the ground
to seal it
- this keeps the white tempera from sinking in so much plus
the medium will stay wet longer
- Should be a very thin coat upon the imprimatura - even, consistent,
smooth. Let dry. Scrape lightly with a razor. Varnish again if
needed. The board should be varnished enough so that you can't
rub off color with a wet finger.
- Apply a coat is of painting medium
- This should always be tacky when the tempera painting begins.
This is necessary in order for it to bond with the tempera.
- Think of how long it will take you to do the egg tempera.
You can do it in sections or you can mix a medium that will stay
wet for as long as you need to paint it
- If your painting is very large or complex, decide on an area
of your painting that you can do a complete white egg tempera
rendering on in 2 or 3 days. Paint over that surface with the
painting medium. Go over it back and forth for good even coverage.
Tilt the panel in the light to check the shine for an even quality
- Wait at least 10 minutes before you begin the white egg tempera.
The proper tackiness is important for the way your egg tempera
goes on.
- Good to do several panels at the same time so they are ready
when you are ready to paint!
- Imprimatura #2, faster method
- Materials:
- Painting Medium
- Tube oil color (deep red tones as described above)
- Mix medium in a small cup with your oil paint and a little
turpentine. Make enough to cover the entire panel. Opacity should
be such that your ink drawing shows through, but color is very
rich. Put a little on your finger and rub. It shouldn't disappear
and it shouldn't be opaque.
- This is painted over the entire board very quickly with a
big fine brush. You never go over an area that has already been
covered. It will eat away everything.
- Then an effort is made to unify the surface texture by pouncing
with a dry, soft round brush (Schtumpfa technique) or by spreading
the paint with the side of the hand using a chopping motion.
Wipe hand off occasionally. OR, you might want to create textures,
as described in the Method#1.
- The imprimatura should always be tacky when the tempera painting
begins. This is necessary in order for it to bond with the tempera.
- Wait at least 10 minutes before continuing with the egg tempera.The
proper tackiness is important for the way your egg tempera goes
on.
- Preparing the White
Egg Tempera
- Materials:
- Titanium white pigment powder (Holbein, Windsor, Grumbacher
- good brands)
- Zinc white will also work, but titanium is better.
- Egg emulsion
- Container, such as a small jar like a face cream jar or pimento
jar. Not deep
- Small thin sponge. Facial sponges work well because they
are smooth.
- Palette knife
- Glass palette
- Preparation
- Put a black surface under your glass palette so you can see
the white more easily
- Pour about one tablespoon of the white powder pigment on
the glass. Chop it with the palette knife to break up any hard
lumps. Create a 'crater' pile.
- Shake the egg emulsion and pour a half teaspoon of it in
crater.
- Mix it with the palette knife until you have a toothpaste
consistency or like cream cheese. Add just a few drops at a time
as necessary. This is thicker than the imprimatura mixture. The
longer you mix, the better the quality of white. Higher whites.
You can do it for hours while you watch TV or talk on
the phone
- Dampen the little sponge and put in the bottom of the jar.
- Place the white paste on top of the sponge. The moisture
will keep the tempera soft. Keep the container closed and refrigerated
when not in use.
- Traditionally, the tempera is mixed fresh for each subsequent
tempera layer.
- Tempera Underpainting
- Have a separate rag for use with egg tempera so you don't
pollute the tempera brush with turpentine
- Using the titanium white egg tempera, the entire painting
is done in white upon the imprimatura. The painting medium used
in the imprimatura absorbs the tempera and makes it steadfast.
- A fundamental principal of this technique is that white must
be used over every part of the imprimatura. Otherwise, if a new
glaze is put over that part of the imprimatura which has received
no tempera white, the upper coat of varnish will tear off the
lower.
- If the medium is drying faster than you can finish, do a
wash of tempera over the remainder of the panel. The tempera
can be a very thin wash. Wipe the brush on your rag to help prevent
beading. After a thin wash has dried, you can paint more tempera
on top of it and it will bind, but it is always best to paint
it into the wet medium. Think of it as a protective skin. It
must be a complete layer
- You can stipple, cross-hatch, pounce, dab, use sponges for
texture, etc. The tempera can be thinned with a little water.
- Decide the highest lights and darkest darks of your composition.
Stay away from specific details at first. Concentrate on the
big picture and create a sculptural 3-D feeling
- Be strong and bold with these highlights. These will not
be possible to create with the same strength at later stages
of the painting.
- After you have the forms, you can go in and do more detail,
Crosshatching is particularly successful with this technique.
You can see the light develop beautifully.
- Brushes should be cleaned immediately after tempera painting.
When using the Schtumpfa technique with the tempera, brush should
be washed every 15 minutes
- It is best to stand while painting so you develop the habit
of standing back from your painting regularly. Every 15 minutes,
stand back and go wash out your tempera brush. It gets gooey
- Take your time with the first underpainting. It is the spirit,
the light, the essence of the painting
- Tip: Use a mirror to check your painting. Flaws appear that
were not previously visible
- Tip: do the thing that creates the most change first
- On erasing - This should be avoided as much as possible.
However, in the case of a problem, one can only erase the tempera
with turpentine.
- Razor Blade
- This is done to smooth off any impurities when you have finished
the egg tempera step. It can also be done after glazing
- Use a double edge razor. Put tape on one side to protect
from cuts. It is more flexible than the single edge razors
- Place panel on floor. With rhythm, go back and forth quickly
so you don't scratch the painting
- When finished, it may feel a bit sticky again, because the
drier surface has been removed.
- It is done pretty vigorously after the first tempera painting
and less vigorously as you go along
- Application of the First Glaze
- The egg tempera must be completely dry. Allow a few days.
- Have at your easel: cups with cleaning turpentine, painting
medium, and good turpentine
- Glaze whole Painting with yellow ochre or cadmium yellow
- Mix small amount of good turp into medium. Mix this into
the oil color.
- Test it with your finger. Rub paint between your thumb and
a finger. If the color disappears, it is too thin. If it is opaque,
it is too thick
- Use a broad brush with soft bristles
- Brush onto the panel, NEVER going over your strokes a second
time. You run the risk of making a hole right through to the
panel!
- Brush one stroke across the top of the painting and then
use the side of the hand to 'chop' the glaze out evenly. The
2nd stroke goes close to the spreaded glaze and then is chopped
into the first spread and also spread the other direction. Repeat
till done. QUICK AND EVEN
- Glazes are best worked with the ball of the hand or with
the fingers as was the custom with the Old Masters, but a Schtumpfa
brush may be used instead, especially if you are painting on
canvas instead of a panel. Pounce over the whole painting, cleaning
the brush on a rag regularly to remove excess paint. Do this
till surface is uniform.
- Tilt the panel in the light to check for even satin sheen.
No really glossy spots, dark spots, light spots
- You can lift out some of the glaze on spots where you want
more light by dabbing with your finger, a clean rag, cotton swabs,
or a smaller brush
- Examine the painting and remove any hairs with a needle
- Highlight with white egg tempera into the wet glaze.
- Using this method, it is only necessary to do the highlights,
not all the details again
- Do the highest lights first. This will soak in. By the time
you finish them, you can go back into the painting and bring
them up more
- There will be some variation in the whites
- Tip: you must have ONE strong place of light, the very highest
light to give life to the darks. If you don't have it, they are
dead
- Let it dry
- Local Color
- Local colors are now applied as transparent glazes.
- In general, colors are laid one over the other and are not
mixed with one another. The effects produced are very different
from those obtained with directly mixing colors.
- You don't have to always glaze. You can paint Á
la prima where it is called for, but try not to destroy the lights
you have created.
- Beginning with the shadows, accents are set in with black
and suggestions of the local color, and finally the sharpest
highlights and the most precise details are put in as finishing
touches in both light and dark.
- At the very last, tones as thin as a breath are spread over
the glazes (ex: white over light to modify excessive warmth)
Must be thin so tones beneath them aren't lost, but gain in refinement
- Tips:
- Shadows are transparent. Highlights are opaque.
- Direct mixtures of cold and warm colors are avoided
- It is easier to have too much light and then darken it, than
to go too dark and try to bring the light back.
- Harmony and contrast are uniformly established throughout
the whole picture.
- Some additional Painting Tips
- Light & Shadows
- Light areas always go a bit into the shadow areas to melt
the composition together
- One always works in layers, beginning with light effects,
later darkening, then highlighting.
- For a background or area that goes from light to dark
- Using the in-between color of the dark-light that you want,
you first cover the entire area with this middle color. Let dry.
- Then, using the Schtumpfa technique, apply lighter color
at the bottom up to the middle.
- With a clean schtumpfa, go over entire area, unifying it.
- Painting Human hair
- To make the bulk of the hair coloring, put one glaze over
the entire tempera composition of the hair.
- Form the hair in 2 ways:
- Create the dark and light areas of the hair with glazes.
- Structure the hair with egg tempera on the wet glaze
- To bring out the highlights of the fine hair, use an alternating
method of painting first a glaze and then in tempera to highlight,
going over the tempera again with a glaze.
- Repeat until desired effect is reached.
- Painting eyes:
- Egg tempera construction is lighter close to the iris
- When the eye is already 'well formed', glaze over the cornea,
iris, and pupil with a blue glaze. Cobalt blue and white is good.
- Schtumpfa it. Use finger on pupil to bring it back out darker.
- Can be glazed like this a few times. Wait for it to dry between
glazes! Might follow the blue glaze with a pink glaze, then a
white.
- Then do local colors.
- A very thin line of green around the iris softens the edge.
- Paint a stronger blue in the corners of the eye and outside
of cornea to create roundness.
- Paint white around the iris and parts of eye that are closest
to viewer.
- Dark accents on corners, iris, and pupil.
- To create a transparency (like a ghost or crystalline image)
over a completed and painted composition.
- Let painting dry. Paint a thin film of medium over the area
to be painted
- Begin new form upon this tacky medium. Use very little tempera
where you want the most translucency. Use more tempera where
it is to be more opaque.
- This process is best for paintings that are nearly completed
other than the thin glaze to go over this tempera. Tips:
- Painting jewels. Put the darkest dark of the jewel around
the highest light
- Glaze / Turpentine trick to create various constructions
- Especially good to make rock, stone, earthen effect
- Apply one even coat of glaze over all
- Take a separate brush (Schtumpfa brush is good) dipped in
turpentine (Wiping off excess) and dab over the glaze. The turp
splits the glaze, coagulates, and creates interesting constructions
- This can be done over and over again (Drying in between,
of course), creating beautiful texture and depth.
- A FEW RULES FOR OIL PAINTING:
- Always use the simplest ingredients possible and see that
their quality and purity is beyond doubt
- Begin a painting 'lean' and finish 'fat'. There is a greater
danger of the painting cracking when oil paint is used heavier
in the first session than in subsequent sessions. 'Little oil
to begin' and 'more to finish' is the rule.
- Two thin coats are usually better than one thick one.
- Be sure your paint is perfectly dry before painting over
it. (Exception: when painting tempera over imprimatura and glazes,
it must be tacky) Otherwise the undercoat will contract as it
finishes drying and crack the one over it. Being fresher, it
has a different rate of change.
- If the paint does not 'take' well, rub the surface which
is too smooth with a little piece of fine sandpaper, some powdered
pumice, or water and a stiff brush.
- Never use any more medium or diluents for the colors than
is necessary. Remember that the pigment itself should be the
main ingredient. The colors, if permanent, will stay fresh and
luminous.
- Wear neutral clothing so colors and/or white don't reflect
off painting
- Always work with opposites in a painting
- complementary colors
- smooth and rough
- dark and light
- cool and warm
- Do not have a white backdrop for a painting while working
on it or when displaying it. It is distracting and uncomplimentary
- Create space. Foreground has the brightest bright and darkest
darks and sharpest lines
- If one thing is done very perfectly, it fools the viewer
into seeing that the whole painting is detailed. This is a good
trick for fantastic realism
- At the local color phase, if you are stuck, do just one small
section and finish it and then proceed. But generally, you want
to develop a whole painting all at once
- Notice colors in nature and fashion and see what looks good
together
- When doing anatomical paintings, don't let objects interfere
with the body. Still feel the sculptural structure
- When is a painting finished?
- When your intention has been fulfilled
- When it is sold and paid for - Dali
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