Fat over lean

This is an oil painting concept that basically prescribes slower drying paints (fat) over quicker drying paints (lean). This is not about thick paint versus thin paint. Lean oil paint is paint mixed with fast-drying oil and/or turpentine. Fat oil paint comes straight out of the tube or has additional oil added. Upper layers of paint shouldn’t dry faster than lower ones. The more oil the slower, the drying time.

Following the practice of “fat over lean” reduces the risk of an oil painting cracking.

More of our oil paint artists are:

Child Portraiture – Bob Byerley
Modern Urbanscape – Peggy Nichols
Still Life and Landscape – Chuck Rosenthal Read more!

Blocking in

One technique some artists use is to “block in” the colors of their painting. This can be a loose painting of the dominant colors in the areas of the canvas where those colors will be. Or it may be the background colors in each appropriate section for a painting.

Here are several examples of what it looks like:

This article and photos by Marion Boddy-Evans is broken down into steps, with steps 1 and 2 being about blocking in: “Landscape Painting: Quiver Tree Step by Step.”

And this watercolor demonstration by Roger Simpson is quite interesting.

Here are a few of our artists, who do oil painting.

Jean Miller Harding – still life paintings

Yuri Klapoukh – portraiture and landscape paintings

Renee DiNapoli – floral paintings Read more!

Underpainting the Canvas

Before an artist starts the actual painting, he may underpaint or tone the canvas. Think of spreading a light color (thinned paint) over the canvas, not evenly, but just to soften the harsh whiteness of the canvas. Some artists, do a sketch or charcoal or thin paint outline of the figure they plan to paint. This may be on top of an underpainting or an artist might not use underpainting at all.

Resources

Underpainting the Canvas – a How To
"Art Glossary: Underpainting" – a definition
“Palettes and Techniques of the Old Masters: Leonardo da Vinci” – discusses how he used underpainting. Read more!

Priming a canvas

Last week I talked about stretching canvases and that they are primed. It’s a lot like priming bare drywall before you paint the actual desired wall color. Priming puts down a surface that takes the final paint well. On canvas, priming can protect the cloth and make it last longer as well.

There are basically two types of priming: acrylic gessos and oil priming materials which include oil gesso, rabbit skin glue, oil painting ground. Acrylic gessoed canvas is more flexible than oil gessoed canvas. These usually result in a white surface.

Here’s an article on the subject: “How To Prime a Canvas For Acrylics or Oils” Read more!

Paint surfaces

A friend of mine paints art directly on the walls in her house. She also uses canvases, paper, and clothing for more portable art. I’ve also seen art painted on about any surface you can imagine—wood, metal, seashells, rocks, ceramic, plastic, etc. Much of fine art, however, is done on a stretched canvas. But what does that term mean exactly?

A stretched canvas is usually cotton or linen fabric that is literally stretched taut over a wooden frame. The frame pieces are called stretchers. Stretcher bars can be equal lengths to create a square or two sets of different lengths to create a rectangle. Before painting is done, the canvas is primed. (I’ll discuss this another time.)

Canvases can be purchased stretched and primed or some artists stretch and prime their own. This can be cheaper, but also allows for the exact size of canvas the artist desires.

Canvases are generally used for oil painting or acrylics.

Sometimes beginning artists use less expensive canvas board, which is primed canvas stretched over stiff paperboard. Read more!

Wei Tai

Traveling? Our featured artist, Wei Tai, will be participating in the Arizona Fine Art Expo, January through March of 2008. Click here for more information.

If your travels are limited to internet surfing, see more of Wei Tai’s work online, “Artist’s Magazine” shows their contest winners, plus a discussion of each painting.
The Artist's Magazine's 2000 Art Competition: Still Life
The Artist's Magazine's 2000 Art Competition: Landscape
In each category, scroll down to Wei Tai’s Honorable Mention to see the art and read about it.

And, of course, you can always go to the artist’s website directly to see more beautiful art. Read more!

Oils, not just a tube of paint

I’m not an artist myself, although both of my daughters are very artistic and through the years have created beautiful works of art in a number of media. This has given me a small intro into the world of art.

So instead of sharing my very limited knowledge on oils, I thought I’d find good resources online.

Marion Boddy-Evans has some good articles on About.com.
This article is clear and concise: “Drying Oils or Mediums Used in Oil Painting.” A companion article is “Oil Painting: Solvents and Resins”

This article by Alina Bradford, “Oil Painting Tips and Terms,” is aimed at someone wanting to learn to paint, but I found it of interest in understanding some of the steps that an artist might go through in their painting.

Many of the artists we feature at the gallery, paint in oils. Read more!