Dutch oil painting techniques. Exploring the secrets of Old masters methods of painting.

The Secrets of Old Masters - The Flemish technique of oil painting. This short tutorial teaches you how to apply colours step by step in the same way as the Old Masters did.

What materials are used and what is this process?

This is a brief overview which will be beneficial to form a basic understanding of the principles, materials and process followed. By following these techniques one can achieve such beautiful depth and richness of colour. The result is quite stunning!

1. Support

As we read earlier the Flemish painters used wooden panels. These would typically be single or folding panels (triptychs) in oak or mahogany. Today panels tend to be made of poplar and can be purchased pre-gessoed or blank. One can always use good quality plywood or a modern non-archival support such as MDF board.

Limitations of wooden boards were size. They needed to be joined together, however when joined together they would split and crack. They could be braced on the back with cloth, however this never really worked, probably due to the use of animal glues.

2. Grounds

This depends on the nature of surface and the painting manner to be used. If one is painting classically then ground comprises of glue and powder. If using a canvas, consider the flexibility of gesso.

3. Preparatory drawing (drawing for a painting)

One can interchange the earliest stages of the process in that one can prepare the support or complete the compositional work first in order for them to be brought together at the right time.

We then need to compose an image and make a drawing towards a painting. This is different than making a finished drawing as an artwork. In fact, it is a structural drawing or a very precise line drawing of the composition to be used to transfer on to the support.

4. Transferring the image

Having prepared the support, the next stage is to transfer the image of the drawing onto the support. You can draw this directly on the support or by covering the back of the drawing with charcoal. After removing the excess charcoal, you can then trace over your drawing thereby leaving the outline on the support. Fix the drawing and outline the image using diluted raw umber making a thin paint. This will be fast drying. A thin paint is a paint diluted with a suitable solvent.

As mentioned it is recommended that you use an earth colour such as an umber as they are faster drying oil paints. I use burnt umber or raw umber diluted with odourless mineral spirits. In the 1400’s they would have used turps but be careful as this is very toxic and there are safer modern alternatives.

5. Imprimatura

This is an initial stain of colour painted on a ground over the drawing which should be visible through the imprimatura. It provides the artist with a transparent toned ground, which will allow light falling onto the painting to reflect through the paint layers, and it should be transparent enough to see the painted transferred image through the imprimatura. This also provides harmony and a unity to the painting.

6. Under painting

The next stage is to make an underpainting which is built on the drawing on the surface which one can see through the imprimatura. This is a painting in a monochrome colour such as burnt umber and a tonally completed version of the work.

7. Painting to completion

There is a very important principal in the technique of the old masters which should be understood.

The initial ground is white due to the use of whiting. With the use of an imprimatura and then subsequent layers of thin transparent paint (glazes) light is allowed to travel through the transparent glazed colours to the reflective white ground.

The light then reflects back through the layers of paint to the eye of the viewer producing such rich and vivid colours that have a luminosity and seem to have light shining from them. This is because the colours become optically mixed, rather than being opaquely mixed on the palette.

It isn’t that one doesn’t use opaque colours but rather that by the use of the correct balance of opaque and transparent colours, one can create such richness and depth which can be achieved no other way.

Highlights were always opaque and added last. As an example, if one were painting a green grape there would be a refined line drawing followed by the transparent imprimatura, this drawing would then be firmed up if required with thin paint, then would come the monochrome underpainting, then successive glazes.

Each one should dry before applying the next glaze of transparent yellow then blue, then yellow then blue and so on. You are then optically mixing the green grape. This would then be finished off with the opaque highlight.

Ghenadie Sontu is an artist based in Israel and working in fine art oil painting and academic drawing techniques for over 25 years

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