the
practical
magazine
for
artists
by
artists
whats the issue? h a n d m a d e a r t te chnique s fe at urin g l ola dup re i n mp rov e yo u r wate rc olour c omp os i ti on s
paint en plein air in oils
le t go & take risk s w it h p hil ip rundal l
dear artist,
Many people aspire to learn how to paint, but few know where to begin. Painting is relaxing and touches the creative side of our personalities. Plus, you'll have tangible expressions of your effort and imagination. It's important to find the right instruction, though, or you could spend hundreds of dollars in supplies and never use them. Learn & Master Painting is the best home instruction course available to learn to paint with oils and acrylics. Master artist, Gayle Levee, has designed interactive lessons to provide you with a solid, comprehensive foundation for your own artwork. Learn & Master Painting consists of 20 professionally produced DVDs, 3 Music CDs (to listen to while you paint), a thorough Lesson Book with supplemental information, and access to a free online student support site. It is the only instructional package you’ll ever need on your journey toward painting mastery and to seeing the world through the eyes of an artist. All you need is the desire to create incredible works of art! From the onset, learning how to paint can seem like an overwhelming endeavor. But when you study with Gayle Levée she’ll walk you through step-by-step video instruction, taking you from any skill level—even if you’re a total novice—to painting with advanced techniques used by professional painters. You’ll learn how to make your paintings look realistic and believable. Gayle will teach you how to setup your studio, properly care for your materials, choose colors to best communicate your theme, and how to develop your compositions and draw objects in perspective. You’ll learn all the foundational painting skills you’ll need to become an accomplished artist. By the end of the course, you’ll understand how to get the illusion of depth and distance in a painting and you’ll be amazed at how you are able to record your experiences and the world around you in your paintings. You’ll complete several paintings—together with Gayle—from start to finish and discover a whole new way to create! Not a beginner? That’s ok. Just review the basics (you might be surprised what you don’t know) and jump into the more advanced training on perspective and color theory. Many classical and formal training programs don’t include the information you’ll learn here. When not accompanied by detailed video instruction, printed materials alone can leave you frustrated and confused. Online instruction is difficult to follow. Private instruction is costly and inconvenient. Learn & Master Painting is the perfect solution to learn how to oil paint—you’ll be thrilled by what you can create! You'll learn to make art, think about art, and discuss art.
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the
practical
magazine
for
artists
by
artists
barret jones editer in chief
whats the issue? ha ndm a de art technique s fe at urin g lola d up re inm p rov e you r wate rcol ou r compo s itio n s
pain t en plein air in o ils
le t go & take ris k s w ith ph ilip run dall
last issue handmade art
Contents
issue 211
features
practicals
12 16 19
23
setting the scene with people masterclass with chris myers
rex preston in conversation the artist talks to caroline saunders
royal institute of painters in water colours an overview of the society and its aims, by member ian sidaway
54 55
new on dvd robin capon’s selection hasa plein-air bias
piggy-back galleries paul vincent defalco reports on a new trend
57 66
drawing matters: verticals and horizontals third in charles williams’ series on observational drawing
26 30
pastel sticks and pencils kengofton’s new guide to working with pastels
well-oiledwheels tom benjamin’s plein-air oil paintings
33 design improve your watercolour painting: new series by paul talbot-greaves
36 derwent fine art xl charcoal and graphite blocks product report by david winning
artbook reviews
colour triads soraya french looks at a traditional triad of cadmiium yellow medium hue, cadmium red medium hue and ultramarine blue
www.painters.online.co.uk
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contents plus
38 41 46
taking risks and loosening up philip rundall’s solutions to being in a rut
pastels on an acrylic base soraya french says this is a heavenly mix of media
a ground of gesso gesso makes an ideal base for watercolour, writes ian sidaway
49
urba nnocturnes adebanji alade enjoys a spot of night-time plein-air oil painting
52 atmospheric landscapes liz sewars’s acrylic landscapes
8 10 61 62
you write
i n
v i e w
opportunities
exhibitions
the beauty of by smashing editorial Âť
paper art can be traced back to japan, where it originated over a thousand years ago.
paper art
T
he times when paper was considered to be the primary medium for artistic expression is long gone. Many writers and designers use digital media to improvise and develop their ideas. However, there is something particuliar in this “physical” canvas — something that keeps us getting back to paper when we want to brainstorm ideas in a notebook, doodle around in a sketcbook, collect inspiration in a scrapbook or just draw some sketches for the next project. In fact, paper is even more powerful than that. It is a very flexible medium. You can use it paper only for giving your ideas and feelings forms, but also as an expressive medium for creative artworks formed out of paper. You can create a sharp-edged paper plane or ship, but also form twisted curves of nature or complicaed geometrical shapes. In this weekend’s post we present a showcase of paper art; you wil find many beautiful carved, folded, cut out paper objects and realistic 3D paper sculptures, all using paper, cardboxes or even books as materials. Please make sure to follow the links to explore further works of the artists presented below.
Paper art can be traced back to Japan, where it originated over a thousand years ago. From complex paper cutting to book carving, this is an ever expanding area of design that is hardly talked about. These intricate paper designs grace museums and exauhibitions throughout the world and is becoming yet another exciting medium of expression for many designers. Some of the artists featured here use simple materials, such as A4 printing papeel, while others resort to unexpected materials, such as actual books, as their prime materials. In this article, we’ll take a look at 13 remarkable artists and showcase their truly amazing pieces of paper art.
Billowing clouds of cut paper installations that cast dream-like shadows on a gallery wall, delicate paper drawings plastered on gritty urban surfaces, complex layered sculptures of hand-sliced paper and intricately crafted sheets the size of tapestries: paper art in its many forms is elevated to new heights by these 14 (more) masters of the craft. Bovey Lee, Hunter Stabler, Jen Stark and 11 other artists transform an often-disposable material into stunning works of art that will make your jaw drop.
Paper artist Mia Pearlman fills entire rooms with her billowing, cloud-like installations. “My process is very intuitive, based on spontaneous decisions in the moment. I begin by making loose line drawings in India ink on large rolls of paper. Then I cut out selected areas between the lines to make a new drawing in positive and negative space on the reverse. 30-80 of these cut paper pieces form the final installation, which I create on site by trial and error, a 2-3 day dance with chance and control.” Looking like some kind of organic growth, these rolled paper sculptures by Nava Lubelski are crafted from tax returns, rejection letters and other unwanted papers. Says the artist, “Shredded paper sculptures, such as the Tax Files, reconfigure a mass of paper that has been grouped and saved due to written content, into slabs reminiscent of tree cross-sections where the climate of a given year, and the tree’s overall age are visible in a single slice. Historical information is revealed in the colors of deposit slips, pay stubs, receipts and tax forms. The cellular coils spiral outward, mimicking biological growth, as they are glued together into flat rounds, which suggest lichen, doilies or disease.” The delicate, ephemeral qualities of paper are a stunning contrast to the grit and solidity of urban environments in the hand-drawn street art of Australian artist ‘Miso’ (Stanislava Pinchuk). “Like folk art, it comes to have a very particular, practical function,” Miso says. “It brings us together as makers, viewers and consumers, finding new pieces and exploring the possibilities of our cities.” Philadelphia artist Hunter Stabler renders arcane symbols and imagery in his complex paper cut-outs, often in shades of gray with pops of brights. A current exhibition at the Observatory gallery in Brooklyn, entitled ‘Alchemically Yours’, focusing on the “art of transmutation. Of taking the rough and raw, and rendering it more precious. Rather than accepting the literal “lead into gold” definition, Carl Jung believed that alchemy is a process of individuation, a symbolic and active language which guides one’s personal journey toward the realization of selfhood. An alchemist is a shape-shifter, a mystic chemist.”
China-born, Pittsburgh-based artist Bovey Lee creates what might just be the most intricate paper art of all, hand-slicing the tiniest pieces of paper into amazingly flawless shapes and patterns. “The underlying themes in my paper cutouts are power, sacrifice, and survival,” she told the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. “Drawing ideas from my cultural identity and gender, headline news, environmental issues, and socio-political commentaries, I painstakingly hand cut each work on a single sheet of paper that depicts layered and dramatic narratives. The deep paradoxes in my works contrast starkly with the airy, fragile laces of the cutouts.”
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taking risks & loosening up philip rundall describe how he went about climbing out of the particular rut that he found himself in, and the work that emerged from the process
The Allotment Boss, watercolour, 22•30in (56•76cm)
A
lthough watercolor painting is extremely old, dating perhaps to the cave paintings of paleolithic Europe, and has been used for manuscript illumination since at least Egyptian times but especially in the European Middle Ages, its continuous history as an art medium begins in the Renaissance. The German Northern Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) who painted several fine botanical, wildlife and landscape watercolors, is generally considered among the earliest exponents of the medium. An important school of watercolor painting in Germany was led by Hans Bol (1534–1593) as part of the Dürer Renaissance.
Albrecht Dürer, Young Hare, 1502, watercolor and body color, Albertina, Vienna Despite this early start, watercolors were generally used by Baroque easel painters only for sketches, copies or cartoons (small scale design drawings). Among notable early practitioners of watercolor painting were Van Dyck (during his stay in England), Claude Lorrain, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, and many Dutch and Flemish artists. However, botanical and wildlife illustrations are perhaps the oldest and most important tradition in watercolor painting. Botanical illustrations became popular in the Renaissance, both as hand tinted woodblock illustrations in books or broadsheets and as tinted ink drawings on vellum or paper. Botanical artists have always been among the most exacting and accomplished watercolor painters, and even today watercolors—with their unique ability to summarize, clarify and idealize in full color—are used to illustrate scientific and museum publications. Wildlife illustration reached its peak in the 19th century with artists such as John James Audubon, and today many naturalist field guides are still illustrated with watercolor paintings. About two years ago I became aware that i had reached a point where I was producing watercolour paintings with competitions and society elections very much in mind, work that avoided, as much as possible, the risks, so I decided to ‘play’ for at least a year and not worry if a single finished picture failed to materialise. Surprisingly, some of the finished pictures that were created purely for myself ended up being accepted for exhibitions and competitions - but I won’t go into that!
photo rethink
A
s part of the ‘letting go’ process I decided to abandon still life, which had been the focus of my life for many years, and consider a quite different areaof concern - landscape. This was quite a big step for me, for I had neglected this subject matter for many years. One of the main reasons for this neglect is that an imperial size watercolour can engage me for many days, which is quite unrealistic when working out of doors in front of the subject. Working from landscape in a notebook is another matter entirely, something I do regularly The way through the time problem, in relation to the pictures featured in this article, was to use digital photos viewed on a large computer screen. Now, I normally take a rather dim view of the proctice of using photos. But, with my recent landscapes, I have to admit that I have found using photos quite liberating. For a start, responding to a large image on a screen is very different to responding to a small print on paper. I’m not interested in blindly reproducing photos. I want my pictures to be painterly responses to the chosen images, responses that involve memory, imagination and feeling. The last thing I want is for my pictures to look exactly like photos. So, to help me avoid the potential tyranny of the photo, I begin by making quick drawings in a notebook, ofton using a biro or a dip pen loaded with ink. I might make several drawings based on an individual image. I sometimes mix up elements from different photos in a single drawing. For example, in The Path, the gardener was taken from another photo. Looking at landscape drawings and paintings that inspire helps me hold on to the idea of pictures as being marks on a flat surface, ordered in a particular way; that pictures are, above all, expressive and personal. I sometimes develop an idea first explored in a notebook, ending up with a larger pen and ink drawing, often adding tonal washes.
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We have showcased different media of art and the different routes that you can take to express your creativity. We covered vexel artworks, graffiti, light paintings, handcraft, Moleskine art and many more. Now, to provide you with some fresh perspective, we decided to showcase a list of some inspiring watercolor artworks. We believe that watercolor art is a very powerful way to express your feelings — in particular, watercolor can be effectively used to represent the artistic vision on a piece of paper. Watercolor paintings are considered a unique way to creatively represent dreams, illusions, emotions, and bright feelings using water-soluble pigments. This medium of art is still very popular nowadays, and therefore we have prepared a list of some really impressive watercolor artworks that will surely inspire you. So get ready to be fascinated by these brilliant and vibrant watercolor paintings and let us know what you think in the comments to this post! Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth and Ireland), also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper; other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather, fabric, wood, and canvas. Watercolors are usually transparent, and appear luminous because the pigments are laid down in a relatively pure form with few fillers obscuring the pigment colors. Watercolor can also be made opaque by adding Chinese white. In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese painting it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns. India, Ethiopia and other countries also have long traditions. Fingerpainting with watercolor paints originated in China.
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taking risks Several factors contributed to the spread of watercolor painting during the 18th century, particularly in England. Among the elite and aristocratic classes, watercolor painting was one of the incidental adornments of a good education, especially for women. By contrast, watercoloring was also valued by surveyors, mapmakers, military officers and engineers for its usefulness in depicting properties, terrain, fortifications or geology in the field and for illustrating public works or commissioned projects. Watercolor artists were commonly brought with the geological or archaeological expeditions funded by the Society of Dilettanti (founded in 1733) to document discoveries in the Mediterranean, Asia and the New World.
These stimulated the demand for topographical painters who churned out memento paintings of famous sites (and sights) along the Grand Tour to Italy that was traveled by every fashionable young man or woman of the time. In the late 18th century, the English cleric William Gilpin wrote a series of hugely popular books describing his "picturesque" journeys throughout rural England and illustrated with his own sentimentalized monochrome watercolors of river valleys, ancient castles and abandoned churches; his example popularized watercolors as a form of personal tourist journal. The confluence of these cultural, engineering, scientific, tourist and amateur interests culminated in the celebration and promotion of watercolor as a distinctly English "national art". Among the many significant watercolor artists of this period were Thomas Gainsborough, John Robert Cozens, Francis Towne, Michael Angelo Rooker, William Pars, Thomas Hearne and John Warwick Smith. William Blake published several books of hand tinted engraved poetry, illustrations to Dante's Inferno, and also experimented with large monotype works in watercolor.
From the late 18th century through the 19th century, the market for printed books and domestic art contributed substantially to the growth of the medium. Watercolors were the used as the basic document from which collectible landscape or tourist engravings were developed, and handpainted watercolor originals or copies of famous paintings contributed to many upper class art portfolios. Satirical broadsides by Thomas Rowlandson, many published by Rudolph Ackermann, were also extremely popular. The three English artists credited with establishing watercolor as an independent, mature painting medium are Paul Sandby (1730–1809),
Often called "the father of the English watercolor", Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), who pioneered its use for large format, romantic or picturesque landscape painting, and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), who brought watercolor painting to the highest pitch of power and refinement and created with it hundreds of superb historical, topographical, architectural and mythological paintings. His method of developing the watercolor painting in stages, starting with large, vague color areas established on wet paper, then refining the image through a sequence of washes and glazes, permitted him to produce large numbers of paintings with workshop efficiency and made him a multimillionaire in part through sales from his personal art gallery, the first of its kind. Among the important and highly talented contemporaries of Turner and Girtin were John Varley, John Sell Cotman, Anthony Copley Fielding, Samuel Palmer, William Havell and Samuel Prout. The Swiss painter Louis Ducros was also widely known for his large format, romantic paintings in watercolor.
water colour society
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he confluence of amateur activity, publishing markets, middle class art collecting and 19th-century painting technique led to the formation of English watercolor painting societies: the Society of Painters in Water Colours (1804, now known as the Royal Watercolour Society), and the New Water Colour Society (1832). (A Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colour was founded in 1878.) These societies provided annual exhibitions and buyer referrals for many artists and also engaged in petty status rivalries and esthetic debates, particularly between advocates of traditional ("transparent") watercolor and the early adopters of the denser color possible with bodycolor or gouache ("opaque" watercolor). The late Georgian and Victorian periods produced the zenith of the British watercolor, among the most impressive 19th century works on paper, by Turner, Varley, Cotman, David Cox, Peter de Wint, William Henry Hunt, John Frederick Lewis, Myles Birket Foster, Frederick Walker, Thomas Collier and many others. In particular, the graceful, lapidary and atmospheric genre paintings by Richard Parkes Bonington created an international fad for watercolor painting, especially in England and France, in the 1820s.
The popularity of watercolors stimulated many innovations, including heavier and more heavily sized wove papers and brushes (called "pencils") manufactured expressly for watercolor painting. Watercolor tutorials were first published in this period by Varley, Cox and others, innovating the step-by-step painting instructions that still characterizes the genre today; "The Elements of Drawing", a watercolor tutorial by the English art critic John Ruskin, has been out of print only once since it was first published in 1857. Commercial paintmaking brands appeared and paints were packaged in metal tubes or as dry cakes that could be "rubbed out" (dissolved) in studio porcelain or used in portable metal paint boxes in the field. Contemporary breakthroughs in chemistry made many new pigments available, including prussian blue, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, viridian, cobalt violet, cadmium yellow, aureolin (potassium cobaltinitrite), zinc white and a wide range of carmine and madder lakes. These in turn stimulated a greater use of color throughout all painting media, but in English watercolors particularly by the Pre-Raphaelite painters. Watercolor painting also became popular in the United States during the 19th century; outstanding early practitioners include John James Audubon, as well as early Hudson River School painters such as William H. Bartlett and George Harvey. At mid-century, the influence of John Ruskin led to increasing interest in watercolors and particularly in use of a detailed "Ruskinian" style by such artists as John W. Hill Henry, William Trost Richards, Roderick Newman, and Fidelia Bridges. The American Society of Painters in Watercolor (now the American Watercolor Society) was founded in 1866. Major late-19th-century American exponents of the medium included Thomas Moran, Thomas Eakins, John LaFarge, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, and, preeminently, Winslow Homer.
Mr Light gives Queenie a Stroke, watercolour, 13 1/2•16in (34•40.5cm)
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urban
nocturnes
Rain, Rain, Rain I, London Streets, 48 x 30, oil on canvas
T
raditional oil painting techniques often begin with the artist sketching the subject onto the canvas with charcoal or thinned paint. Oil paint is usually mixed with linseed oil, artist grade mineral spirits or other solvents to create a thinner, faster or slower drying paint. Because these solvents thin the oil in the paint, they can also be used to clean paint brushes. A basic rule of oil paint application is 'fat over lean'. This means that each additional layer of paint should contain more oil than the layer below to allow proper drying. If each additional layer contains less oil, the final painting will crack and peel. There are many other media that can be used in oil painting, including cold wax, resins, and varnishes. These additional media can aid the painter in adjusting the translucency of the paint, the sheen of the paint, the density or 'body' of the paint, and the ability of the paint to hold or conceal the brushstroke. These variables are closely related to the expressive capacity of oil paint. Traditionally, paint was transferred to the painting surface using paint brushes, but there are other methods, including using palette knives and rags. Oil paint remains wet longer than many other types of artists' materials, enabling the artist to change the color, texture or form of the figure. At times, the painter might even remove an entire layer of paint and begin anew. This can be done with a rag and some turpentine for a certain time while the paint is wet, but after a while, the hardened layer must be scraped. Oil paint dries by oxidation, not evaporation, and is usually dry to the touch within a span of two weeks. It is generally dry enough to be varnished in six months to a year. Art conservators do not consider an oil painting completely dry until it is 60 to 80 years old.
Although the history of tempera and related media in Europe indicates that oil painting was discovered there independently, there is evidence that oil painting was used earlier in Afghanistan.[2][3][4][5] Surfaces like shields — both those used in tournaments and those hung as decorations — were more durable when painted in oil-based media than when painted in the traditional tempera paints. Most Renaissance sources, in particular Vasari, credited northern European painters of the 15th century, and Jan van Eyck in particular, with the "invention" of painting with oil media on wood panel. However, Theophilus (Roger of Helmarshausen?) clearly gives instructions for oil-based painting in his treatise, On Various Arts, written in 1125. At this period it was probably used for painting sculptures, carvings and wood fittings, perhaps especially for outdoor use. Early Netherlandish painting in the 15th century was, however, the first to make oil the usual painting medium, and explore the use of layers and glazes, followed by the rest of Northern Europe, and only then Italy. Early works were still panel paintings on wood, but around the end of the 15th century canvas became more popular, as it was cheaper, easier to transport, and allowed larger works. Venice, where sail-canvas was easily available, led the move. The popularity of oil spread through Italy from the North, starting in Venice in the late 15th century. By 1540 the previous method for painting on panel, tempera, had become all but extinct, although Italians continued to use fresco for wall paintings, which was more difficult in Northern climates.
water colour society
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raditional artists' canvas is made from linen, but less expensive cotton fabric has gained popularity. The artist first prepares a wooden frame called a "stretcher" or "strainer". The difference between the first and second is that stretchers are slightly adjustable, while strainers are rigid and lack adjustable corner notches. The canvas is then pulled across the wooden frame and tacked or stapled tightly to the back edge. Then, the artist applies a "size" to isolate the canvas from the acidic qualities of the paint. Traditionally, the canvas was coated with a layer of animal glue (size), (modern painters will use rabbit skin glue) and primed with lead white paint, sometimes with added chalk. Panels were prepared with a gesso, a mixture of glue and chalk. Modern acrylic "gesso" is made of titanium dioxide with an acrylic binder. It is frequently used on canvas, whereas real gesso is not suitable for that application. The artist might apply several layers of gesso, sanding each smooth after it has dried. Acrylic gesso is very difficult to sand. One manufacturer makes a sandable acrylic gesso, but it is intended for panels only, not canvas. It is possible to tone the gesso to a particular color, but most store-bought gesso is white. The gesso layer will tend to draw the oil paint into the porous surface, depending on the thickness of the gesso layer. Excessive or uneven gesso layers are sometimes visible in the surface of finished paintings as a change in the layer that's not from the paint. Standard sizes for oil paintings were set in France in the 19th century. The standards were used by most artists, not only the French, as it was – and evidently still is – supported by the main suppliers of artist materials. The main separation from size 0 (toile de 0) to size 120 (toile de 120) is divided in separate runs for figures (figure), landscapes (paysage) and marines (marine) which more or less keep the diagonal. Thus a 0 figure corresponds in height with a paysage 1 and a marine 2.[6] Although surfaces like linoleum, wooden panel, paper, slate, pressed wood, and cardboard have been used, the most popular surface since the 16th century has been canvas, although many artists used panel through the 17th century and beyond. Panel is more expensive, heavier, harder to transport, and prone to warp or split in poor conditions. For fine detail, however, the absolute solidity of a wooden panel gives an advantage.
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Evening light, from battersea bridge, 24 x 30, oil on board
urban nocturnes
mediums
T
he artist might sketch an outline of their subject prior to applying pigment to the surface. "Pigment" may be any number of natural substances with color, such as sulphur for yellow or cobalt for blue. The pigment is mixed with oil, usually linseed oil but other oils may be used as well. The various oils dry differently, creating assorted effects. Traditionally, artists mixed their own paints from raw pigments that they often ground themselves and medium. This made portability difficult and kept most painting activities confined to the studio. This changed in the late 1800s, when oil paint in tubes became widely available. Artists could mix colors quickly and easily, which enabled, for the first time, relatively convenient plein air (outdoor) painting (a common approach in French Impressionism). The artist most often uses a brush to apply the paint. Brushes are made from a variety of fibers to create different effects. For example, brushes made with hog's bristle might be used for bolder strokes and impasto textures. Fitch hair and mongoose hair brushes are fine and smooth, and thus answer well for portraits and detail work. Even more expensive are red sable brushes (weasel hair). The finest quality brushes are called kolinsky sable; these brush fibers are taken from the tail of the Siberian mink. This hair keeps a superfine point, has smooth handling, and good memory (it returns to its original point when lifted off the canvas); this is known to artists as a brush's "snap." In the past few decades, many synthetic brushes have come on the market. These are very durable and can be quite good, as well as cost efficient. Floppy fibers with no snap, such as squirrel hair, are generally not used by oil painters. Sizes of brushes also are widely varied and used for different effects. For example, a "round" is a pointed brush used for detail work. "Flat" brushes are used to apply broad swaths of color. "Bright" is a flat with shorter brush hairs. "Filbert" is a flat with rounded corners. "Egbert" is a very long "Filbert" and is rare. The artist might also apply paint with a palette knife, which is a flat, metal blade. A palette knife may also be used to remove paint from the canvas when necessary. A variety of unconventional tools, such as rags, sponges, and cotton swabs, may be used. Some artists even paint with their fingers.
Most artists paint in layers, which is simply called "Indirect Painting". The method was first perfected through an adaptation of the egg tempera painting technique and was applied by the Flemish painters in Northern Europe with pigments ground in linseed oil. More recently, this approach has been called the "Mixed Technique" or "Mixed Method". The first coat (also called "underpainting") is laid down, often painted with egg tempera or turpentine-thinned paint. This layer helps to "tone" the canvas and to cover the white of the gesso. Many artists use this layer to sketch out the composition. This first layer can be adjusted before moving forward, an advantage over the 'cartooning' method used in Fresco technique. After this layer dries, the artist might then proceed by painting a "mosaic" of color swatches, working from darkest to lightest. The borders of the colors are blended together when the "mosaic" is completed. This mosaic layer is then left to dry before applying details.
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Artists in later periods, such as the impressionist era, often used this Wet-on-wet method more widely, blending the wet paint on the canvas without following the Renaissance-era approach of layering and glazing. This method is also called "alla prima". This method was created due to the advent of painting outdoors, instead of inside a studio. While outside, an artist did not have the time to let each layer of paint dry before adding a new layer. Several contemporary artists use a blend of both techniques, which can add bold color (wet-on-wet) as well as the depth of layers through glazing. When the image is finished and has dried for up to a year, an artist often seals the work with a layer of varnish that is typically made from damar gum crystals dissolved in turpentine. Such varnishes can be removed without disturbing the oil painting itself, to enable cleaning and conservation. Some contemporary artists decide not to varnish their work, preferring that the surfaces remain varnish-free.
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# n o r th ci rcl e s tudie s