At an art show I recently put on, I had the ... well ... privilege of being told I didn't know how to paint first and then told to learn old masters style of painting - which actually and strangely came as a blessing to me. I was told by an older artist that attended, that I should learn the techniques of the old masters. I wanted to take my art to the next level. Push myself and learn paint from a new perspective. The results were more than I had expected. Sometimes blessings come in the strangest ways. The following blog is how I learned the "styles" of the old masters. Please keep in mind that I am not saying this is exactly old masters technique, since I did not have an old master to dig up, but it is based on the information and research I did. One thing to let you know was that I was bitter for a few weeks when I was told that I did not know how to paint, but it quickly became better. Regardless of what anyone says or does, I feel that the steps I have taken are for the better – and if nothing comes of it, then I know the better in me has been found and I can keep “creating” myself in a sense of knowing what that process of becoming better is truly all about. I also realized that I actually DID know how to paint before. It was just a different style of painting that got me some very successful results none-the-less. Plus, I was never taught paint, I just went by feel and I could have kept going with that style and that path would have perhaps been great for me also. However, the situation that happened, happened, and I could not ignore it – no matter how hard I tried. I guess there are benefits to being in the valley at times rather than on the mountain at other times. However, this also does not mean that I will always paint in this manner. But I may continue on this path and learn more from this technique, experiment more or head off into a different direction altogether. I don’t really know for sure. I do feel there is a richness to the colours - a sort of depth that wasn't there before which is really apparent. However, the door feels wide open at the moment – a sense of freedom to be precise. I do have a new series of work, that I am currently working on, that I will probably incorporate this process into, but again I’ll just let it happen as it is to happen. For the six months it felt very much like it was a dark road, but as I pushed forward it was a road that slowly became brighter with each brush stroke and I’m grateful for the experience. I learned a bit about paint, but even more about me.
The first month I spent doing just that- researching, reading, watching videos and talking to other artists involved in such techniques – because I couldn’t just dig up an authentique Old Master, let alone pay them! So I had to make due with the resources I could find. I started seeing common threads in the information I was finding and built my research on it. My inner world was buzzing with delight. I felt connected to something that I could not describe. I put every single expectation of life out of my head and simply focused on what I was to do at that moment – and I did it. For almost 5 months, that was all I did, in every single spare moment. If you saw me hanging out with you for an hour or two, when I left I headed straight back to the task at hand: paint. As I previously mentioned, that what I did is NOT necessarily Old Masters’ technique, but there are similarities for sure. Maybe it is close to Old Masters because I pulled from it what I knew, and (as I said) made due with it what I could, but based on what I researched, there would be more similarities than differences. Perhaps someone out there could enlighten me further. The goal now is keep going further and further with my art and to keep advancing in skill and technique, refining them further with each new series.
Here are some details:
And here is how the painting came to be step by step - thank you for looking!
The first step was to stretch the canvas and then gesso it. I put on 9 coats of gesso, sanding each layer so the final layer was like glass. This took roughly 2 -3 weeks or more.
The next step was to “grey” out the white gessoed canvas. By doing this I took a mixture of cobalt blue, yellow ochre and black and made a wash, which coated the canvas. This killed the harsh whites and gave the canvas a nice aged look.
Next, I took my drawings and photos and assembled them to create a sketch. The sketch was then transferred to the canvas. I did this by sketching right onto the canvas in a light charcoal. This would be my guide for the grisaille.
Then the grisaille (black and white underpainting). This was the hardest step for me, because I did not trust I could actually paint over black and white and have it come out looking OK. I was nervous and took my time painting in the blacks, grays and whites onto the canvas in very thin blocks of tone. I added very tiny amounts of burnt umber and yellow ochre as well to this mix every so often to kill the harshness of the black and whites, but the umber and ochre where hardly noticeable. This step took 2 months. The grisaille was now complete (I used oils for the grisaille, but thinned them down so they dried quickly).
Next, was the washes off colour (or glaze – glazing is layering thinned – almost watery looking - coats of paint on top of one another once dried). At this point I almost froze. “It looked pretty cool as a black and white painting – maybe I should just leave it” I told myself, but knew I had to keep going to see what the glazes would look like. As you can imagine, I spent most of the time staring than painting, hence the reason it took just over 2 months to do this stage of the painting. However, once the first glaze was on, I instantly felt something take over me. This felt right! And I smiled for the first time with this piece since the beginning. My glazes were off of a palette of roughly 8 colours. Thinned down with oil and Dammar varnish. Each section on this painting has each of the 8 colours (or mixes of them) glazed into it. I lost count on the number of glazes, but I am guessing close to 10 in some areas and nearly 30 in others (and some the grisaille still shows through slightly and I left it because it looked right for some reason). Each layer becoming heavier and heavier, thicker and thicker with the lighter colours being applied the thickest and last. The process was slow and tedious. It was pretty much all guesswork for me as well as to how the layers laid on top of one another - and experimenting with the research to customize it to my approach. I layered my work before, but I was thick, thin, thin, thick, thin, etc. Doing thin to thick seemed to straighten out any kinks from my previous painting style. The last stage was details and then varnish.
