The aim of this method is to finish the whole painting before the paint starts to dry. Lucian Freud would have used this technique in his portrait (pictured above).
In contrast to the glazing technique, Alla Prima, Italian for ‘all at once’, is an incredibly spontaneous, quick and direct method of oil painting. Supplies you need for this technique: oil paint, stiff brush Alla prima (wet-on-wet) Claude Monet: Water Lilies However, you don’t have to use the technique throughout the whole painting, you can apply a layer of glaze or two in the final stages to alter colours and contrasts. Glaze works well applied over a monochromatic tonal underpainting, to create the colour layers. Find some glaze recipes and further details about the technique in this glazing guide. Then you’ll need to mix a small amount of the transparent pigment with a medium until it’s fluid. If you want to try this technique, make sure you select transparent pigment to work with. Also, layers of glaze can blur the appearance of detail, so details should be applied after, or glaze should be selectively applied to enhance it. Of course, each layer alters the last, so paintings can very quickly darken if care is not taken. There are some drawbacks to using the method, aside from having to wait for each layer to dry, it’s difficult to predict the resulting colour harmony of the painting before each layer of pigment has been applied. Such as transparent looking thin wisps of hair. The glazing method can also facilitate the creation of details that would be difficult to achieve by applying thick opaque paint. The luminosity that can be achieved by painting with the glazing technique is what draws artists to paint in this manner. They are both masterful paintings, but this demonstrates the contrast in effects a painting can have on a viewer when different techniques are used. The colours in Freud’s painting appear more opaque, due to him applying colour directly without glazing. See this compared to a painting where colours are applied directly and opaquely to the canvas: Lucian Freud: Reflection (Self Portrait)Ĭan you see the differences? Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring has a softer, more luminous appearance. Johannes Vermeer: Girl With a Pearl Earring This technique has been used for centuries, by the likes of Rembrandt and Vermeer. Due to the multiple layers of hardened oil, the appearance of the painting has incredible depth and an intensity of colour that a painter couldn’t achieve from mixing colour on a palette and applying it in one opaque, slightly matted layer. This means that the colour on the canvas is mixed optically rather than physically. Then it refracts through consecutive translucent layers of colour. When light hits layers of pigmented oil that sit separately from one another, it reflects off of the first opaque layer it hits. Glazing creates an incredibly unique effect in oil painting. Artists can create warm or cool areas, enhance detail, deepen shadows and colour contrasts. This is spread over dried areas of the painting to create subtle shifts in hue. Supplies you need for glazing: transparent pigment, glazing medium, soft brushesĪ glaze in oil paint is the application of a very thin, transparent and oily layer that usually contains only a single pigment. Read on for more detail about each technique. For example, to paint realism, you may want to use a combination of glazing and blending.Īlla prima and impasto work wonderfully together, to create thick, textural ‘ painterly’ artworks. Use multiple oil painting techniques in conjunction with one another to achieve a particular effect. There are 12 main oil painting techniques, each of which can form the basis of an artist’s oil painting practice. 7 Oil painting techniques: Pin it! 12 Oil Painting Techniques