Knowledge List of Oil Painting

Opaque or Transparent?

FRPM:portraityourlife
AUTHOR:unknown

 Different pigments have different covering properties. Some are extremely transparent, barely showing on top of another oil protrail. Others are extremely opaque, hiding what's beneath. Considering painting from the photo, and not just what the colour is, can enhance a photos into painting. For example, using a transparent blue in a sky gives a greater feeling of airiness than an opaque blue will.
Make a Test classicality:
Compiling a chart of the colours you regularly use, like this one here, shows at a glance how transparent or opaque a copy point is.
You will need:
All the colours you usually emulsion stuffwith.
Medium-size brush.
Cloth to wipe the brush on.
Jar of clean water.
Pen or pencil to record the name of the colours.
Piece of white paper. If you've got about a dozen colours, you want a sheet about A5 size.
Ruler (optional, perfectly straight lines aren't the objective here).
Hairdryer (optional, if you haven't got the creation tone to wait for the stripes of paint to dry).
How to Make a Chart:
Sort out your colours in an order that makes sense to you, such as the colour spectrum (rainbow): red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, plus black and white.
Mix up a little of each colour. Paint a vertical stripe of each. Wait for them to dry.
Paint horizontal stripes for all the colours, in the same order.
If you're using a ruler, wipe the edge after each stripe so you don't contaminate the next one.
Record the names of the colours next to each stripe.
Check the Results:
Opaque pigments are dense and tend to block out other colours. This makes them ideal for subjects that are solid and heavy, such as tree trunks or cars.
Transparent pigments are light and airy, barely showing on top of other colours. This makes them ideal for atmospheric subjects such as a misty morning or diaphanous fabrics.
Semi-transparent are somewhere between the two.
With time, you won't have to refer to the chart, but will instinctively know the properties of a particular colour. Until then, stick the chart up on the wall where you can see it while you're painting.

Which Subjects Sell Best?

from:oilpaintingstar

All painters know that some creation tone sell better than others. Whether these are emulsion stuff you want to paint and whether you should be painting specifically for the market are two thorny copy point . Only you can decide whether you want (or need) to paint with a view to classicalityas much as possible, or whether you can focus on painting subjects you choose. Of course, if your favourite subject happens to be the same as the market's, you're sitting pretty.
According to Art Business Today, these are the Top 10 best-selling subjects for paintings in the UK:
1. Traditional landscapes.
2. Local views.
3. Modern or semi-abstract landscapes.
4. Abstracts.
5. Dogs.
6. Figure studies (excluding nudes).
7. Seascapes, harbour, and beach scenes.
8. Wildlife.
9. Impressionistic Protect pet portrait.
10. Nudes.
So, having seen the list, are you reconsidering painting landscapes? I'm certainly pleased to discover that semi-abstract landscapes are on the list as this is one of my favourite subjects.
The survey also researched what the best-selling media are. I’m not really surprised prints sell more than original photos into painting, as they are cheaper; price is a major consideration for many people. But it’s worth noting that it’s limited-edition prints (where a set number of prints are made and each one is numbered), not open-edition oil protrail(where the number of prints isn’t set; more can always be produced) that top the list.
1 Limited edition offset-litho prints.
2 Limited edition giclée prints.
3 Open edition offset-litho prints.
4 Oil and acrylic paintings.
5 Watercolours.
6 Artists' original prints (eg etchings, engravings).
7 Open edition giclée prints.
It’s interesting to compare the list of the Top 10 best-selling deceased artists to the best-selling subjects. Top of the painting from the photois Lowry, whose paintings are not what I’d call “traditional landscape”, though they are “local views”.
1 L S Lowry.
2 Monet.
3 Alan Ingham.
4 Russell Flint.
5 John Miller.
6 Rothko.
7 Van Gogh.
8 Picasso.
9 Klimt.
10 Matisse.
The survey was conducted by Art Business Today on behalf of The Fine Art Trade Guild; more than 800 galleries across the UK were asked to name their best-selling prints (limited and open editions) in 2003.

The Oil Painting Knowledge Introduction

from:portraityourlife

The oil painting has experienced several different developing period: the ancient, the medieval, the renaissance, the mannerism, the baroque, the neoclassicism, the romanticism, the academism, the realism and the modern time. The paintings of different times, as are dominated by art idea and limited by techniques of different age, appear style.
The historical background decided the realism of oil painting in its initial developing stage. In the European Renaissance Movement of 15th century, the Humanism which was against the religion, actively pay more attention to the social reality. Many artists in order to break away from the single Classical Christian theme, they began to observe and describe the people, landscape and objects in daily life, and added the secular factor into the religion painting. Some artists` paintings are completely the reflection of the real life. The artists of Renaissance inherited the art idea of Roman and Greece which emphasized not only in depicting an event in the works but also disclosed cause end effect of the event. Thus the art technique of conceiving typical plot and building obvious image were formed. At the same time, the artist also had an exploration in application the knowledge of the anatomy and perspective for oil painting as well as the effect of the light and shade to oil painting thus creates the scientific sculpting theory. The anatomy made the character of the oil painting be exact and real in proportion, form and structure. The foreshortened figure helps the composition of the picture a sense of depth space. The objects in painting can be the same as the true object in the vision. The shading unified all the objects under a main lamp-house and forms the clear layers from near to far on the painting. The humanistic art theme and its pursue for the reality in the image-building can` t be expressed completely in other kind of painting for the limitation of the tools, while oil painting tools can be fully competent for that. Thus the oil painting was the highly true-life products took by long time to make.
The classical oil painting was on a whole a comprehensive application of the oil painting language and other factors. The artists in different period showed different emphasis on factors, which results the different oil painting style. The Renaissance Italian artist paid attention to the application of shadow. The objects in the dark side were all under the shadow. The light was in the appropriate transition to shade, so the painting became concentrative and turbid. Virgin of the Rocks done by Leonardo Da Vinci was just the kind of style, while at the same period the Netherlands artists syllabify depicted the every detail of the painting. They used the color difference between the objects while not the transition from light to shade. The Annunciation by Robert Campin (1378?a1444) was displayed particularity of all the goods indoor and outdoor. The Italian Titian was the first person who makes emphasis on the painting color. He always worked the dark side and always used the different bright colors in the same light to construct the magnificent golden tone. The repetition of the transparent oil layers, the thin and thick brush stroke, connected the color and the objects naturally and created the quality painting.
The 17th Century witnessed the fast development of the European oil paintings. The artists of different countries and regions explored differently on the oil painting language according to their social living background and people temperament. Oil paintings could be classified by the theme into history, religion tale, collective portrait, and personal portrait, landscape, still life and genre painting and so on. The oil painting techniques were rich and different schools come into being.
Some of the 17th century oil paintings made stress on the light of oil painting. They applied the contrast between cool color and warm color, light and shade, thick layer and thin layer to the creation of a sense of light in order to make the dramatic result on the painting .The Italian artist Caravaggio broke his order and harmony in light effect of his former oil paintings and intensified the light and shade contrast in the painting. He usually used large area of the dark background to foil the bright figure on the foreground so that the glare of the light can be reflected from his painting.
The Spanish Artist E1 Greco usually made his objects under the spotted light and shade on his painting. His image building was not from the complete light or shade, but from the disconnected distribution of the light and shade. The warm color and cold color were also disconnected. His brushwork was heavy. The color layers melted and penetrated by pushing each other. All brought a complicated and confusing result on the painting. Sometimes the result even can be mysterious and nervous. The Holland artist Rembrandt also used the sense of light as one kind of technique to express the mental state of the people on his painting. In most of his portrait paintings, the characters were all involved in the dark. Only the face and hand and other important parts for expression were in light. He applied the imperturbable color on the multi-layers in scumble in dark place to create the profound effect and in light place he used thick painting and piling colors by painting knife to create the sense of massive quantity. At the same time, the brushwork was also explored by many artists. The brushwork is an artist` s distinctive technique of applying painting with a brush on canvas. For the early oil paintings, the same thick paint layers and the even strength of the drawing makes no signs of brushwork. In 17th Century, it was discovered that the movement of the brushwork was driven by the artist` s mood and emotion. The artist would bear the sensibility which could control the trends of the brushwork when painting. The brushwork ,or light, or heavy, or relaxed or urgent together with its direction will not only outline the live image but also indicate the expression art of the brushwork.. The Flemish Artist Peter Paul Rubens used the big strokes by the subtle bright color in most his jumbo works. The lines according to shape of figure, the strokes of freedom and curves bring the result of violent movement of posture and the histrionic conflict of the story plots, while the Netherlandish artist F. Hals uses the flexible and springy brush stroke to depict the portrait. His portrait features in the vividness of the expression of the charater, which fits for his preference in creation for the optimistic and heroic character. Antoher Netherlandish artist Johannes Vermeer is good at using the brush strokes as thin and round as the pearls to depict the people in door and his painting looks silent and warm.

The new tendency of the development of oil painting in 19th century is in the reformation of the oil painting color. The English artist J.Constable was the earliest artist to do painting out door and gains a lot of sense of the colors. He used the small brush to combine and mix the colors to make the bright color block. His picture is much brighter than the classical brown tone. The complementary color?acolors of two polars can improve the brightness and intensity when they are placed together, which theory is proved by the science later. But J.Constable knows this theory according to his observation from nature and practices it in the nature. His works enlighten the French artist E.ugne Delacoix, whose creation is dominated by the Romanticism and is huge theme painting about the historical events at his time. The more application of the complementary color in the color expression in his creation and the use of active strokes form the color contrast at many parts of painting and increase the brightness and braveness of the color, which shakes the style of art circle at that time.
Many artists of French Barbizon Art School created their landscape painting under the natural condition. They realized the relationship among lamp-house color, inherent color and surrounding color and the important meaning for the color tone to indicate the time, environment, atmosphere, to foil the art theme and to construct the painting artistic conception and sentiment. A large amount of their landscape paintings created the color atmosphere of the wind, rain, morning and evening in the nature. On the above base, the artists of French Impressionism make innovation in the application of color. They assimilate the knowledge from Optics and Coloration of Chemistry and solve the color problem by the theory of color light mixture. Alfred Sisley, C. Monet and other artist captured the instant color impression from the changing light on the surface of the scenery. They juxtaposed the contrasting colors by thick paint of scrappy brush strokes and they realized the changing of dark side and shadow do not just come from the depth of black color, so they changed the traditional way to use the single color to paint the dark side and apply the juxtaposing of the spot contrasting colors. Because of the biologic effect of the eyesight, the juxtaposed spot colors looked like the transparent color block with tendency of cold and warm tone and thus the delicate transition was formed. The Impressionism weakened the sense of the volume of the scenery and strengthened the color factors. It didn` t depend on the light and shade and the line to construct the space any more, while it created the space by the light reflection theory and the cold and warm colors. The works of Impressionism produces the unprecedented vividness and brilliance and it also indicates the comprehensive as well as pure expressive force of the color.
There appear the genres which held the bright art claims in the area of European oil painting in 19th century. Although their claims are mainly indicated in the art theme and art contents, there are also many different oil painting techniques. For example, Neoclassicism stressed on the precise and stability of the image-building and the accordance of the image-building principle with traditional classicality, Romanticism focused on the tragic subject and tried best to create the tense sense of the plot in the picture by color, brush stroke factor and moving line of composition of the picture and the Pre-Raphael School emphasized on the feeling expression of the characters in painting and most paintings applied the blue, purple and green tone to construct sad and still artistic conception.
Although the modern oil paintings were much more abundant, they all have the common true-life characteristic.An oil painting is the unity for the art forms. Its main color tone control all colors in every part. The colors in every part becomes harmonious each other in transition and there is not single color block. The brushwork is basically used in image-building, its indication on painting is not very clear and it is united in wove tendency of some kind brief or bending cloth. The depicted objects were united in the central focus of the composition of the picture and formed the same result of the true vision.

In the end of 19th century, the fundamental change took place in the western oil painting. The narrow art function and incorporate realistic approach of the traditional oil painting had reached to its saturated degree and came toward disintegration in the transformation of philosophy and art concept. To imitate and reappear of the nature was not more the artistic principle of oil paintings. Free creation of the oil painting was taken as the new verity by the artists. The artists will not use the oil painting to depict the nature any more, while they used it as the media to express their mental and emotional world and created works by imagination and fantasy. The last three artists of Impressionism had abandoned the traditional mode of oil painting firstly. Vincent Van Gogh expressed the tension in the heart by using the rush strokes to strengthen the force of the thick and bright color. P. Gauguin constructed the picture by the symbolic color and image. The space of the works was disobeyed the traditional mode and bore mysterious atmosphere without description. Paul Cezanne explored to build up the art image with geometric figures and created the painting as a world with its own order. Their works became the symbol of the upheaval of oil paintings..

In the 20th century, different art concepts formed different genres for the oil painting which limits the art form to develop into multi-directions. Some factors of the traditional oil painting techniques are always intensified as the form of the art concepts, or even be pushed to the extremity. The oil painting form language is paid by great attention. For example, the Cubism, neglecting colors and commtting to free construction o the body, the expressionism, indicating the mental distortion by colors and strokes , the nonobjectivism, constructing the painting just by spots, lines, and surface of the color and the abstract expressionism, throwing, spilling, drooping the paint on canvas freely. During the recent one hundred years, there are numerous genres of western oil paintings, which replaced one by one successively. As long as take the oil painting tools as the medium for image-building, the artists can create on oil painting arbitrarily.With the continuing expansion in art concept, the oil painting material combines with the other kind painting material and thus creates the comprehensive art which doesn` t belong to any kind of the painting. Thus little by little oil painting loses its status as the main kind of painting in the western world.