What Does Painterly Mean? Painterly is a term that describes a set of qualities that are perceived as being distinct to the art of painting. These qualities include the use of color, stroke and texture. The term was popularised by Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin, who used it to describe the characteristics of paintings. A … Read more
Grisaille is a monochrome painting executed entirely in different shades of gray or a grayish tone. ‘Gris’ is a french term for gray. Paintings in a brown scale are referred to as brunaille and paintings in a green scale are referred to as verdaille. Grisaille was typically used during the Renaissance period as a stand-alone painting technique … Read more
Bloom refers to a phenomenon that occurs on a varnished surface of a painting if kept in damp conditions. This results in dull and cloudy areas on top, or sometimes below the varnish. Blooming is basically a result of moisture building up on the painting. It if occurs on top of the varnished surface, you may … Read more
Cool/warm generally refers to the position of a color on a color wheel. Half of the color wheel is cool (purple to green) and the other half is warm (green-yellow to red). By using colors just from either the warm or cool side of the color wheel, you can achieve interesting color harmonies. For example, … Read more
Blocking in refers to an initial painting process of blocking in the general colors and shapes on your canvas. This is a starting procedure used mostly for oil painting. The purpose of blocking in is to lay down the general composition and color harmony without having to worry about the tedious details. You can really get … Read more
Tinting strength refers to how much a color is altered with the addition of another color. Tinting strength is influenced by the quality and amount of the pigment used in the paint and how fine the pigment has been ground. The higher the tinting strength of a color, the more resistant it will be to a … Read more
Blending is a painting technique where two different colors are slightly mixed together when wet, giving a smooth transition from one color to the next. The transition color will be a product of the two blended colors (i.e., if you blend blue into yellow, the transition color will be green). Blending requires the paint to be … Read more
A mahl stick is basically a long wooden stock with padding at one end which is used to lean on to provide stability when painting finer details. The padded side is rested on the dry areas of the canvas and the artist can rest their hand anywhere on the wooden stick. Thanks for Reading! Thanks for taking … Read more
Atelier is a French term for “workshop” or “studio”. In art, an atelier is an intimate group of students, apprentices, and assistants who work under the instruction of a master to produce artworks in the master’s name. An atelier was standard practice for apprentices from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century. Apprentices would start young … Read more
A glaze is a thin, semi-transparent layer of paint. Glazing is a popular technique in oil painting, where glazes are applied on top of an opaque layer of paint that has been allowed to dry. The general practice is to create a monochrome under-painting using opaque colors and then gradually building up glazes on top, allowing each … Read more
Alkyd medium is an alternative to using oil in oil painting. Alkyd medium is made from a synthetic resin and dries faster than oil mediums but slower than acrylics, whilst retaining many of the benefits of oil mediums. Alkyd medium is popular as it removes the need for a solvent when oil painting. I personally do not … Read more
Wash refers to a very thin layer of paint used generally just to stain the canvas with general tones. For oil painting, you would thin the paint using a solvent and for acrylic painting, you could simply use water. A wash will dry fast and is painted over, with some of the paint often being exposed … Read more