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PY O C W IE EV R ‘Undine’ by Brigid Marlin – Rachel Topham Photography
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Contents Foreword
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Introduction
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Chapter 1
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Portrait painting using Rembrandt’s techniques
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Chapter 2
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Chapter 3
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Painting a landscape – learning from Pieter Bruegel, Jacob van Ruisdael and Peter Paul Rubens 65
Painting a still-life – learning from Jan van Eyck
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Chapter 4
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Art of imagination – learning from Hieronymous Bosch
Chapter 5
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Ernst Fuchs – reviving the techniques of the Old Masters
Chapter 6
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Fellowship and friendship
Chapter 7
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Materials and methods
Glossary Index
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Foreword
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You can see in even a casual museum visit how the light shines out from within these Renaissance paintings and how much less the ravages of time have damaged their smooth surfaces than is the case for those painted in later times. In this practical guide, Brigid reveals the intricate details entailed in this painting technique, and provides exercises for you to try it out. If you are an artist keen to develop your skills, you will find a treasure trove of examples, tips and detailed instruction on how to master these techniques and apply them to your own vision. If you simply love art and want to better understand the Netherlands Renaissance, this book will enhance your knowledge and appreciation.
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This beautifully illustrated book is an insightful guide to how the Old Masters of the Netherlands Renaissance captured such luminosity in their portraits, still-lives and landscapes. These painters were experts in a technique that was lost for centuries, and would have remained so had it not been for its revival by Austrian painter Ernst Fuchs and the many artists he taught and inspired. Brigid Marlin studied and later taught with him and through this book she will show you just how you can capture the magic of these Old Masters.
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I have spent many a vacation gazing in awe at Brigid at work. It’s magical, watching her first transform that red gesso board into a perfect white drawing, then apply glazes of yellow and blue, and at last bring all the different colours into the final painting. Our family is blessed to have been gifted several of her works and to have been able to purchase others. That’s a prime benefit of my fifty years of marriage to Brigid’s wonderful brother John, the renaissance man of my dreams. ‘Loops of Her Hair’ was Brigid’s wedding gift to us. Our home glows with Brigid’s opalescent light and her fantastical visions. – Alice Tepper Marlin
‘Loops of Her Hair’ by Brigid Marlin
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Techniques in Painting
Step 1: Drawing in pencil
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Many portrait painters take a photo of the sitter, enlarging it and tracing the outlines. If you are thinking that sounds like cheating, it is worth remembering that as early as the sixteenth century artists were known to have used the camera obscura, and later adopted the camera lucida. They traced the outlines of the image projected by the camera onto the painting surface and took it from there. Getting the basic proportions correct from the start is a huge help in getting a likeness and saves a lot of heartache later on.
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Having decided on the composition, I drew a pencil sketch of Nicole straight on to the gesso board, using a soft pencil. One of the most difficult things about portrait painting is capturing a three-dimensional figure in two dimensions. If you get this wrong at the start it is very hard to rescue your portrait at a later stage. The beauty of doing a sketch in pencil before starting to paint is that you can correct any errors very easily.
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As it happens, I didn’t use a photograph to do my pencil sketch of Nicole, but I often do use this technique, taking a photo of the pose I want, enlarging it to the size required and tracing the outlines onto the gesso using transfer paper (see Chapter 7 for how to do this).
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Step 3: Applying a red ground colour
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Step 2: Outlining in ink
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Portrait Painting Using Rembrandt’s Techniques
Once I was happy with my drawing I took a black waterproof ink pen and carefully went over the outlines. When the ink was dry, I just wiped the pencil marks off with a cloth dipped in turpentine. You can see how clean it now looks, all ready for the painting to start. The fine details have disappeared but they helped me see the finished painting in my head, so the effort was not wasted.
Most artists today paint straight onto a blank canvas or board, but Rembrandt would have started by covering the whole surface with a glaze – a thin transparent coating of colour. I did this by covering my board with a ‘ground’ colour of Red Iron Oxide acrylic paint diluted with a little water. The paint needs to be spread on thickly enough to create a smooth background but thinly enough to ensure that the ink drawing still shows through. (Waterproof ink will be undisturbed by the paint.) I used acrylic paint for the ground colour as it is quick-drying and there is no risk of it bleeding into oil-based paints.
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Techniques in Painting
Composing a landscape
Single tree
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The advantage of composing your landscape in a studio is that you are not confined to what the eye can see. Using your memory and your imagination, supported by sketches and photos, you can experiment with techniques for creating balance and tension, rhythm and points of interest in your landscapes. Composing a landscape is an excellent exercise in discovering for yourself what makes a painting work.
Two trees in balance
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Painting a Landscape
Balance and Tension
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My mother, Hilda van Stockum (1908–2006), a Dutch-born writer and artist, used to say that composing a picture was like writing a story. If there is no problem and everyone is happy, there is no story. The painter’s job is to create a problem and then resolve it in a way that leaves a sense of that tension in the resolution. On the facing page are two compositions without tension: everything is perfectly balanced, and arugably a bit boring.
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Now see what happens if we introduce a problem. In the tree off-centre image ((left, top) we have a tree dragging down one side of the picture; how can this be resolved? Adding three little trees on the other side partially restores the balance, but still leaves a tension which gives life to the picture.
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Tree off-centre
Off-centre tree balanced
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Techniques in Painting
Step 11: Finishing
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needed strengthening and I needed to emphasise a highlight reflection of the clouds creating a white reflected path coming down connecting to the brown rocks in front. I added more white to the foamy water around the brown rocks in the front and a white highlight on to the big rock right in the front.
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I wanted to bring the front of the picture forward so I added thin glazes of Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red and Indian Yellow to the grasses. In the front, I used a warmer Cadmium Yellow with a touch of Titanium White over the grassy area, and, as it got near to the bottom edge of the painting, a glaze of Burnt Sienna mixed in. I picked out the nearest grasses in red to complete the forward movement.
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You now have the basis for completing your painting. While you let it dry consider how to finish it. Check that the balance of your colours is right – you may need to bring out some details to enhance the painting as a whole or darken some places that are taking too much attention. You are free to go back to your egg tempera to highlight any feature that needs it or you can add more oil glazes to get the right depth of colour. There is no limit to the glazes you can add. Rubens boasted that sometimes he added as many as 30 glazes to get exactly the colours he wanted. (I don’t recommend this!) If you do want to touch up the egg tempera, remember this important rule: Never leave any egg tempera without a covering! If it is not covered by a colour glaze then put on a clear glaze of oil-painting medium to protect it. Egg tempera without a coating of oil-painting medium is very vulnerable to air and moisture.
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How you finish your painting will be down to your artistic eye and judgement, but I will explain how I finished mine.
The trees at the back needed bringing out, so I darkened them with Monestial Green and Burnt Sienna – and then put highlights in with white egg tempera. I added a glaze of Burnt Sienna to the middle-ground hills on the left and on the rocks and grasses in the front. I felt the clouds in the back
The unusual rocks in front were a point of interest and needed to be painted with care. I began to see them as a kind of still -life, with their astonishing yellow lichen and dark crevices. They also needed warm touches, bearing in mind the rule that ‘warm colours come forward, cold colours go back’. Finally I added Lemon Yellow glazes at the back, on the tree and mountain highlights, and above all on the strip of land above the lake, and its reflection below. Once that was done I was happy and my painting was finished.
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Painting a Landscape
‘Rocks in the Ring of Kerry, Ireland’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique
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Step 5: Applying a yellow glaze
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Techniques in Painting
When your painting is dry, prepare the next coating which is a yellow glaze, made of oil paint thinned with a painting medium of half linseed oil and half Damar varnish. You can choose which yellow you prefer, but I used Cadmium Yellow here. I thought Lemon Yellow would be a bit too delicate and Yellow Ochre a bit heavy for this subject. On your palette, squeeze out as much of your chosen yellow as would cover a toothbrush and beside it squeeze just a pea-size amount of Titanium White. Carefully add a small amount of the white to your yellow. You need to do this very cautiously. Too much added white creates a pasty look and spoils the effect; not enough white and the yellow will look too thin, like cellophane toffee paper. Don’t mix too much paint to start with, it takes practice to get it just right.
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Next add your oil-painting medium, adding only a few drops, just enough to help spread the paint. You can add a little more as needed. When it comes to spreading the glaze on your picture, there are two ways of doing this. You can use a big brush but this will need more painting medium to get it to spread and that means it will take longer to dry. I prefer to apply the glaze with the side of my hand. I put a little of the mixture on the picture and thump it in an up-and-down motion with the side of my hand to spread it. Don’t smear the paint sideways or it will pick up any irregularities in the board and look patchy. If you thump it on it will look totally magical and flawless (opposite).
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Painting a Still-Life: Learning from Jan Van Eyck
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