ShowFlipper Presents

1. ShowFlipperPresents 40 PAINTING TECHNIQUES OF FINE ART

2. The following is an alphabetical list of techniques used in Painting. The list comprises devices used to introduce the illusion of three dimensions on a two- dimensional surface, methods of paint application, and different mediums chosen by the artist to create the desired visualeffect. Introduction

3. Painting, the expression of ideas and emotions, with the creation of certain aestheticqualities, in a two-dimensional visuallanguage. The elements of this language—its shapes, lines, colours, tones, and textures—are used in various ways to produce sensationsof volume, space, movement, and light on a flat surface. These elements are combined into expressive patterns in order to represent real or supernatural phenomena, to interpret a narrative theme, or to create wholly abstract visual relationships. An artist’s decision to use a particular medium,such as tempera, fresco, oil, acrylic, watercolouror other water-based paints, ink, gouache, encaustic, or casein, as well as the choice of a particular form, such as mural, easel, panel, miniature, manuscript illumination, scroll, screen or fan, panorama, or any of a variety of modern forms, is based on the sensuous qualities and the expressive possibilities and limitations of those options. The choices ofthe medium and the form, as well as the artist’s own technique, combine to realize a unique visualimage. What isPainting?

4. Earlier cultural traditions—of tribes, religions, guilds, royal courts, and states—largely controlled the craft, form, imagery, and subject matter of painting and determined its function, whether ritualistic, devotional, decorative, entertaining, or educational. Painters were employed more as skilled artisans than as creative artists. Later the notion of the “fine artist” developed in Asia and Renaissance Europe. Prominent painters were afforded the social statusof scholars and courtiers; they signed their work, decided its design and often its subject and imagery, and established a more personal—if not always amicable—relationship with theirpatrons.

5. During the 19th century painters in Western societies began to lose their social position and secure patronage. Some artists countered the decline in patronage support by holding their own exhibitions and charging an entrance fee. Others earned an income through touring exhibitions of their work. The need to appeal to a marketplace had replaced the similar (if less impersonal) demands of patronage, and its effect on the art itself was probably similar as well. Generally, artists can now reach an audience only through commercial galleries and public museums, although their work may be occasionally reproduced in art periodicals. They may also be assisted by financial awards or commissions from industry and the state. They have, however, gained the freedom to invent their own visual language and to experiment with new forms and unconventional materials and techniques. For example, some painters have combined other media, such as sculpture, with painting to produce three-dimensional abstractdesigns.

6. Other artists have attached real objectsto the canvasin collagefashion or used electricity to operate coloured kinetic panelsand boxes. Conceptualartists frequently express their ideas in the form of a proposal for an unrealizable project, while performance artists are an integralpart oftheir own compositions. The restless endeavour to extend the boundaries of expression in Western art produces continuous international stylistic changes. The often bewildering succession of new movements in painting is further stimulated by the swift interchange of ideasby means of international art journals, traveling exhibitions, and artcentres.

7. Acrylic painting, paintingexecuted in themedium of syntheticacrylicresins. Acrylics dry rapidly, serve as a vehicle for any kind of pigment, and are capable of giving both the transparent brilliance of watercolourand the density of oil paint. They are considered to be less affected by heat and other destructive forces than is oil paint. They found favour among artists who were concerned about the health risks posed by the handling of oil paints and the inhalation of fumes associated with them. Because of all these desirable characteristics, acrylic paints became immediately popular with artists when they were first commercially promoted in the 1960s. Notable 20th-century artists who used acrylic paint include Popartists Andy WarholandRoy Lichtenstein, Opartist Bridget Riley, colour fieldartists Mark Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly, and Barnett Newman, and British artist DavidHockney. What is AcrylicPainting?

8. Action painting, direct, instinctual, and highly dynamickind of art that involves the spontaneous application of vigorous, sweeping brushstrokes and the chance effects of dripping and spilling paint onto the canvas. The term was coined by the American art critic Harold Rosenbergto characterize the work of a group of American Abstract Expressionistswho utilized the method from about 1950. Action paintingis distinguished from the carefully preconceived work of the“abstract imagists” and “colour-field” painters, which constitutesthe other major direction implicitin Abstract Expressionismand resembles Action painting only in its absolute devotion to unfettered personal expression free ofall traditional aestheticand socialvalues. What is ActionPainting?

9. The works of the Action painters Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Bradley WalkerTomlin, and Jack Tworkovreflect the influence of the “automatic” techniques developed in Europe in the 1920s and ’30s by the Surrealists. While Surrealistautomatism, which consisted of scribblings recorded without the artist’s conscious control, was primarily designed to awaken unconscious associations in the viewer, the automatic approach of the Action painters was primarily conceived as a means of giving the artist’s instinctive creative forces free play and of revealing these forces directly to the viewer. In Action painting the act of painting itself, being the moment of the artist’s creative interaction with his materials, was as significant as the finishedwork.

10. It is generally recognized that Jackson Pollock’s abstract drip paintings, executed from 1947, opened the way to the bolder, gestural techniques that characterize Action painting. The vigorous brushstrokes of de Kooning’s “Woman” series, begun in the early 1950s, successfully evolved a richly emotive expressive style. Action painting was of major importance throughout the 1950s in Abstract Expressionism, the most-influential art movement at the time in the United States. By the end of the decade, however, leadership of the movement had shifted to the colour-field and abstract imagist painters, whose followers in the 1960s rebelled against the irrationality of the Action painters. SeealsoTachism.

11. Aerial perspective, also called atmospheric perspective, method of creating the illusionof depth, or recession, in a painting or drawingby modulating colour to simulate changes effected by the atmosphere on the colours of things seen at a distance. Although the useof aerial perspectivehas been known since antiquity, Leonardo da Vincifirst used the term aerial perspective in his Treatise on Painting, in which he wrote: “Colours become weaker in proportion to their distance from the person who is looking at them.” It was later discovered that the presence in the atmosphere of moisture and of tiny particles of dust and similar material causes a scattering of light as it passes through them, the degree of scattering being dependent on the wavelength, which corresponds to the colour, of the light. Because light of short wavelength—blue light—is scattered most, the colours of all distant dark objects tend toward blue; for example, distant mountains have a bluish cast. Light of long wavelength— red light—is scattered least; thus, distant bright objects appear redder because some of the blue is scattered and lost from the light by which they are seen. What is AerialPerspective?

12. The intervening atmosphere between a viewer and, for example, distant mountains, creates other visual effects that can be mimicked by landscape painters. The atmosphere causes distant forms to have less distinct edges and outlines than forms near the viewer, and interior detail is similarly softened or blurred. Distant objects appear somewhat lighter than objects of similar tone lying closer at hand, and in general contrasts between light and shade appear less extreme at great distances. All these effects are more apparent at the base of a mountain than at its peak, since the density of the intervening atmosphere is greater at lowerelevations.

13. Examples of aerial perspective have been found in ancient Greco-Roman wall paintings. The techniques were lost from European art during the “Dark” andMiddle Agesand were rediscovered by Flemish painters of the 15th century (such as Joachim Patinir), after which they became a standard element in theEuropean painter’s technical vocabulary. The 19th-century British landscape painter J.M.W. Turnermade perhaps the boldest and most ambitious use of aerial perspective among Western artists. Aerial perspective was used with great sophistication and pictorial effectivenessby Chinese landscape painters from about the 8th century on.

14. What isAnamorphosis? Anamorphosis, in the visual arts,an ingenious perspectivetechnique that gives a distorted image of the subject represented in a picture when seen from the usual viewpoint but so executed that if viewed from a particular angle, or reflected in a curved mirror, the distortion disappears and the image in the picture appears normal. Derived from the Greek word meaning “to transform,” the term anamorphosis was first employed in the 17th century, although this technique had been one of the more curious by-products of the discovery of perspective in the 14th and 15thcenturies.

15. The first examples appear in Leonardoda Vinci’snotebooks. It was regarded as a display of technical virtuosity, and it was included in most 16th- and 17th-century drawingmanuals. Two important examples of anamorphosis are aportrait of Edward VI(1546) that has been attributedto William Scrots, and a skull in the foreground of Hans Holbein the Younger’s painting of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, The Ambassadors(1533). Many examples are provided with specialpeepholes through which can be seen the rectified view that first eluded theviewer.

16. A modern equivalent of anamorphosis is the so-called Ames Room, in which people and objects are distorted by manipulation of the contoursof the room in which they are seen. This and other aspects of anamorphosis received a good deal of attention in the 20th century from psychologistsinterested inperception.

17. Artists and architects in the 21st century continued to experiment with anamorphic designs. In 2014 Swiss artist Felice Varini—known for large-scale anamorphic installations—created Three Ellipses for Three Locks, for which he painted three ellipses, segments of which covered roads, walls, and nearly 100 buildings in the historic centre of thecity of Hasselt, Belgium. Thedesign became coherentonly when viewed from a particular vantage point in thecity.

18. What isCamaieu? Camaieu, plural camaieux, paintingtechnique by which an image is executed either entirely in shades or tints of a single colouror in several hues unnatural to the object, figure, or scene represented. When a picture is monochromatically rendered in gray, it is called grisaille; when in yellow,cirage. Originating in the ancient world, camaieu was used in miniature paintingto simulate cameos and in architectural decoration to simulate reliefsculpture.

19. Casein painting, paintingexecuted with colours ground in a solution of casein, a phosphoprotein of milk precipitated by heating with an acid or by lactic acidin souring. In the form of homemade curd made from soured skim milk, it has been a traditional adhesive and binder for more than eight centuries. Refined, pure, powdered casein, which can be dissolved with ammonia, has been used for easel and muralpaintings since the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, and, more recently, ready-made casein paints in tubes have come into very wide use. An advantage of casein painting is that it can create effects that approach those of oil painting. It permits the use of bristle brushes and a moderate impasto, like oil painting, but not the fusion of tones. It is preferred by some because of speedy drying and matte effects. When dry, the paint becomes water resistant to a considerable degree. Casein paintings may be varnished to further resemble oil paintings, and they are frequently glazed or overpainted with oil colours. Because casein is too brittle for canvas, it must be applied to rigid boards orpanels. What is CaseinPainting?

20. Chiaroscuro, (from Italian: chiaro, “light,” and scuro, “dark”) technique employed in the visual artsto represent light and shadow as they define three- dimensionalobjects. Some evidence exists that ancient Greek and Roman artists used chiaroscuro effects, but in European paintingthe technique was first brought to its fullpotential by Leonardo da Vinciin the late 15th century in such paintings as his Adoration of the Magi(1481). Thereafter, chiaroscuro became a primary technique for many painters, and by the late 17th century the term was routinely used to describe any painting,drawing, or printthat depended for its effect on an extensive gradation of light anddarkness. What isChiaroscuro?

21. In its most dramatic form—as in the works of those Italian artists of the 17th century who came under the influence of Caravaggio—it was known as tenebrismo, ortenebrism. Caravaggio and his followers used a harsh, dramatic light to isolate their figures and heighten their emotionaltension. Another outstanding master of chiaroscuro was Rembrandt, who used it with remarkable psychological effect in his paintings, drawings, and etchings. Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velázquez, and many other, lesser paintersof the Baroqueperiod also used chiaroscuro to great effect. The delicacy and lightness of 18th-century Rococopainting represents a rejection of this dramatic use of chiaroscuro, but the technique again became popular with artistsof the Romanticperiod, who relied upon it to create the emotive effects they considered essential to theirart.

22. In the graphic arts, the term chiaroscuro refers to a particular technique for making a woodcutprint in which effects of light and shade are produced by printing each tone from a different wood block. The technique was first used in woodcutsin Italy in the 16th century, probably by the printmaker Ugo da Carpi. To make a chiaroscuro woodcut, the key block was inked with the darkest tone and printed first. Subsequent blocks were inked with progressively lighter tones and carefully measured to print in register with the key block. Chiaroscuro woodcuts are printed in only one colour, brown, gray,green, and sepiabeing preferred. The process attemptedto imitate washand watercolourdrawings and alsobecame popular as an inexpensive method of reproducingpaintings.

23. Divisionism, in painting, the practice of separating colour into individual dots or strokes of pigment. It formed the technical basis for Neo-Impressionism. Following the rules of contemporary colour theory, Neo-Impressionist artists such asGeorges Seuratand Paul Signacapplied contrasting dots of colour side by side so that, when seen from a distance, these dots would blend and be perceived by the retina as a luminous whole. Whereasthe term divisionism refers to this separation of colour and its optical effects, the term pointillism refers specifically to the technique of applyingdots. What isDivisionism?

24. What is EaselPainting? Easel painting, paintingexecuted on a portable support such as a panel or canvas, instead of on a wall. It is likely that easel paintings were known to the ancient Egyptians, and the 1st-century- ADRoman scholar Pliny the Elderrefers to a large panel placed on an easel; it was not until the 13th century, however, that easel paintings became relatively common, finally superseding in popularity the mural, or wall painting.

25. What is EncausticPainting? Encaustic painting, paintingtechnique in which pigments are mixed with hot liquid wax. Artists can change the paint’s consistency by adding resin or oil (the latter for use on canvas) to the wax. After the paint has been applied to the support, which is usually made of wood, plaster, or canvas, a heating element is passed over the surface until the individual brushor spatula marks fuse into a uniform film. This “burning in” of the colours is an essential element of the true encaustictechnique.

26. Encaustic wax has many of the properties of oil paint: it can give a very brilliant and attractive effect and offers great scope for elegant and expressive brushwork. The practical difficulties of using a medium that has to be kept warm are considerable, though. Apart from the greater sophistication of modern methods of heating, the present-day technique is similar to that described by the 1st-century-CE Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. Encaustic painting was invented by the ancient Greeks and was brought to the peak of its technical perfectionby the genrepainter Pausias in the 4th centuryBCE.

27. Foreshortening, method of rendering a specific objector figure in a picture indepth. The artist records, in varying degrees, the distortion that is seen by the eye when an object or figure is viewed at a distance or at an unusual angle. In a photograph of a recumbent figure positioned so that the feet are nearest the camera, for instance, the feet will seem unnaturally large and those body parts at a distance, such as the head, unnaturally small. The artist may either record this effect exactly, producing a startling illusionof reality that seems to violate the picture plane (surface of the picture), or modify it, slightly reducing the relative size of the nearer part of the object, so as to make a less-aggressive assault on the viewer’s eye and to relate the foreshortened object more harmoniously to the rest of the picture. What isForeshortening?

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