Painterly is a term which describes a standardised set of qualities which 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 the term to standardise the way art historians at the time described the characteristics of paintings. A painting…

An easel is a wooden or metal stand used for holding a canvas, board or panel. There are many different types of easels, with varying levels of stability and mobility. These are the different types of easels available: A- Frame – a three legged easel which is economical and portable, however it lacks in stability.…

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…

Bloom refers to a phenomenon which 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…

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,…

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…

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…

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 are blending blue into a yellow, the transition color will be a green). Blending required the…

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 it rested on the dry areas of the canvas and the artist can rest their hand anywhere on the wooden stick.

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…