Tutorial 1-5 - Painting!

Contents

Go on then

Considerations for the order of attack

Layers to consider

Opaque pigments

Painting process considerations

Comparisons

Loading a canvas image

Aligning a canvas image

Canvas inclusion in the paint layer

Layer comparison methods

Comparison types

Save the project

• Part 1 - Starting a project
• Part 2 - The virtual palette
• Part 3 - The sketch
• Part 4 - Colour mixing
• Part 5 - Painting

Go on then

So,

• we have a filtered reference photo
• we have a sketch of it on our prepared canvas
• we have chosen some colours from our reference
• we know how to mix them
• we can see those colours should go overlaid on the sketch

Now just put the right colours in the right places.

What more do you want? 😛

I'm trying to put a more complete run-through together but I keep changing my approach half way through. That's both the beauty and the curse of this application, there is no single best way to use it. Bear with me. I'll get there.

The next few sections are about painting in general rather than anything specific to the Artist's Helper application or processes. If you're already cool with all that sort of thing you could skip to Comparisons.

Take all of the following with a pinch of salt. I know something about colour and about mixing paint but not so much about actually painting. Some of this is stuff I haven't tried yet. I just mix it up and daub it on.

Considerations for the order of attack

Your planning should prioritise your learning over the creation of the painting. Try using various layered approaches and techniques even if you don't strictly need them. (But try alla prima too).

Colour mixing speed

At first it may take a long time to mix colours. Depending on our choice of materials it may not be possible to mix everything we need and then just paint. The first mixes will start to dry out before we're ready (I'm looking at you acrylics).

I'm particularly slow and get unnecessarily pernickety about exact colour matching. This can lead to doing one colour at a time. It can make process feel mechanical and a bit paint by numbers.

If I use drying retarder then I can mix a string of values for a single given hue, perhaps with a few variations either side, which allows me to model an object of a single local colour but it can be a race against time.

Working in oils is far more relaxing. I can mix all the basic colours I need before I start and just mix a few intermediates and variations as I go. But I can never get sufficient opacity to work them alla prima.

Opacity and coverage

If we cannot properly cover our canvas in a single pass we are forced to do multiple layers.

Few things make a painting look cheap and amateurish more than a failure to properly cover the background.

Even after choosing paints with good covering power I still find I have to do multiple layers.

Deliberate transparency might work in some places, but having a weak and sickly smear where there should be a rich and lustrous stroke just doesn't cut it.

At its simplest this means repeatedly painting over the same colours until it's completely covered.

However this hurdle actually provides us with an opportunity. We can make the process of painting easier by using multiple layers and giving each a specific goal.

It feels more authentic too.

Layers

Consider using multiple layers each with a different role.

The Artist's Helper gives us enough information to jump straight into the full colour rendering

but that doesn't mean we should.

Each layer should have only one job, but it can be done multiple passes - a layer can have layers.

Keep the lower layers thin and lean.

Some layers are more appropriate to some materials, styles or subjects than others. For example I'd consider a value modelling layer more appropriate for a crisp portrait or still life than a soft impressionist landscape.

Pick and choose.

Layers to consider

Several layers may already have been done. 😀

Preparation

Consider using gesso to smooth and protect the surface and to provide some grip for the paints.

After applying gesso my cheap canvas boards are still a little too rough for my liking. I sometimes run some sandpaper over the areas that are going to need to be more detailed.

Tone, imprimatura

An initial colour stain over the whole surface. This can make colour judgement easier than working on a white canvas.

It can also provide a fall back for coverage but probably shouldn't be relied on for that.

Ophelia John Everett Millais

On the other hand the artists in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood usually painted on top of white preparations in order to maximise luminosity.

These guys were actually post Raphael but they liked the paintings from before him, before the High Renaissance. Very confusing.

I'm not sure it's wise to include paintings by good artists on my website. 🤔

I paint very opaquely so it doesn't seem to make much difference.

Toning can be done after the sketch if using a transparent wash (use a fixative beforehand if necessary).

I just add some colour to my gesso preparation.

Sketch

A minimalist sketch to position the elements should be sufficient.

Or transfer the Outlines layer if we want to do a PBN style block-in.

Underpainting

A good way of simplifying the normal painting process is to focus on only one dimension of colour in the underpainting. Choose either hue first or value first:

Hue first (with a nod to saturation)

Jeff's block-in

Sometimes called the colour block-in.

Paint in the approximate colours of each element. This makes subsequent layers easier without having to worry so much about opacity.

Recommended for those who like to build a scene quickly and then gradually refine it.

I used this method for most of the paintings in the gallery. My initial block-in layer would be four or five colours, rarely more than half a dozen. They each cover a large range of colours so I'm not tempted to tinker with their mixes for too long as they will all be over-painted later anyway.

These simple block colours are a good way to see if a composition has good balance.

Karin's pancakes

Karin Wells discusses something similar in the Secret pancake method.

If we trace the page alignment markers it is easy to retrace any lost sketch lines once this is dry.

Often we won't need to redo the sketch but the fewer colours we use then the more of the sketch is lost.

Painting this layer semi-transparently to preserve the sketch is very unsatisfying.

Simply not painting on the sketch lines and only roughly filling the areas between them works. This also leaves room for different edge treatments later.

Painting opaquely up to one side of a line and increasingly transparently to the other works too.

Another way is to just add a little black or white to slightly modify the colour on either side of a line to retain its visibility.

Value first

The tonal underpainting is often a grisaille (grey), verdaccio or verdaille (green/grey), brunaille or bistre (brown) or dead (blue/grey) layer. This gives the artist the chance to refine the drawing without worrying about hue and saturation. It gives a chance to compare the values across the whole picture, which is much more difficult in full colour.

Burnt/raw umber and zinc white dries faster than ivory black and titanium white. Thin out the paints with a solvent for faster drying times.

Use darker and lighter mixes of the colour rather than glazing with black and white. Darkening a colour by glazing with black always looks bad. Ensure the values are correct between different colour areas across the whole painting.

We shouldn't try to reach the most extreme values with a tonal underpainting, just lay in a relative map. Performing value checking will be explained later.

Using the Artist's Helper can allow us to skip this layer as we can put the right colours in directly in the next. However, performing this stage is very useful for working out any problems before we have put in too much work. We can check our work against the reference in the comparison X layer.

It can also bring each edge to our attention which can prompt the consideration of what will be their final treatment.

It's good practice for when I finally graduate from using the helper. Tonal underpaintings can look great in progress and make me feel more like I know what I'm doing.

Either way, don't paint over any alignment markers.

If I use acrylics for the underpainting and I'm going to use oils for the next layer I'll seal with liquin if I've got time. I've been told that as well as aiding longevity it provides a better grip for the oils - but I've not really noticed any difference.

Live Colour layer

Adding colour to a monochrome underpainting

If the underpainting is good then it may be possible to use transparent washes and glazes to it without doing much more modelling.

I use the terms wash when covering large flat areas and multiple objects and glaze for more localised refinements using gradients for further modelling. Might not be right. 🤷

I haven't had much success with glazes and washes over a value modelling layer and I end up painting opaquely over the top.

Either I'm not subtle enough, too impatient to do enough transparent layers or I'm just doing it wrong. Or it's all a lie and there is no cake.

Refining a colour block-in

This is largely more of the same. Choose a colour, mix it up and paint it in. Simples.

Try to avoid the temptation to blend adjacent colour steps together. IMHO it's a bad habit.

Get your colours right on the palette. Put them on with strong strokes. Don't do any blending with the brush on the canvas. Youtube: Reasons NOT to Blend While Painting (and How to Break the Habit)

Glazing

Final adjustments to the colours using transparent paints.

Finishing

The final opaque additions to the brightest highlights and deepest shadows.

A last oiling-in can even out any differences in glossiness across the whole painting. Followed by the artist's signature.

Varnishing

It's best to leave oil paints for a few months to cure before varnishing but it's not always possible. Apply two layers brushed in different directions.

I wait as long as I can and use a breathable spray varnish.

The painting of Eric was mostly the very slow drying cadmium red and ivory black so it took months to cure. It was going to be a birthday present, … then Christmas, … then for a baby shower, … getting desperate here!

Drying time considerations for layering

When painting in layers I struggle to put new paint on unless the old layer is thoroughly dry.

If using oils for the early layers use fast drying mediums/thinners. We can add more oil for more control in the upper layers. Fat over lean.

If we use oils for the lower layers then it's good to work on multiple paintings at once so we're not blocked whilst waiting for layers to dry.

Each layer should leave room for the next.

Using a soft brush and gently laying the new paint on top of the old helps but unintended mixing still occurs.

Mixing paints on the canvas and over bending adjacent colours should be avoided.

Either scrape off as much of the old layer as possible or factor in the inevitable mixing of its colour when mixing the new paint.

Before each new layer the canvas (ideally dried during 7 weeks) is carefully wiped with a half of an onion (in order to prepare the dried surface to absorb better) and then with linseed oil Alexei L. Antonov

Textured paint

We may want to paint with a thick impasto texture.

It's ok for the final layer or for single layer alla prima painting but I'd advise against it when working in layers, it creates all sorts of problems.

It is difficult to work in an iterative way unless the early layers are thin and smooth. It's also very hard to glaze over textured paint to perform any final adjustments.

Changing the colour of a thickly painted area is difficult without scraping away the existing paint.

Colour texture

Rembrandt

Large flat areas of colour can sometimes come across as dull in a painting even when they are like that in reality. Consider adding some variety to such areas. Slight variation of hue and saturation can add interest. Varying the value may make a surface look uneven or textured. Don't vary the value so much that an area in shadow becomes lighter than an area in the light or vice versa.

Refine verses render

We have previously mentioned the different approaches of the refiners verses the renders. The first requires layers with their associated problems. The second requires multiple colours be available at the same time and has opacity and coverage problems.

Take your pick.

Opaque pigments

From a post on wetcanvas

Here is a general list of opaque pigments that should work very well to help you easily paint opaquely:

Titanium White (PW6)
Flake/Cremitz/Lead White (PW1)
Titanium Buff or Unbleached Titanium (PW6:1)
Genuine Cadmium Reds (PR108, 108:1)
Genuine Cadmium Yellows (PY35, 37, 35:1, 37:1)
Nickel Yellow (PY53, PY157)
Bismuth Yellow (PY184)
Chromium Titanate Yellow or Naples Yellow Deep (Pbr24)
Cerulean Blue (PB35, PB36)
Venetian Red (PR101)
Mars Black (PBk11)
Carbon Black (Pbk6, 7)
Terra Rosa (PR101)
Indian Red (PR101)
Some brands of Burnt Sienna (PBr7), Raw Sienna (Pbr7, PY43), Yellow Ochre (PY42, or 43), and Burnt Umber (PBr7)
Mars Yellow (PY42)
Mars Red (PR101)
Mars Violet (PR101)
Chromium Oxide Green (PG18)
Some brands of Cobalt Green (PG19, PG26, PG50)
Ivory Black (PBk9)
Manganese Violet (PV16)
Cobalt Turquoise (PB36)
Cobalt Teal (PG50)

Other opaque paints are rumoured to include Payne’s grey, lemon yellow, scarlet lake, Indian red and Vandyke brown.

From another post on wetcanvas

Generally, if the paint comes out of the tube shiny, it's transparent. If it comes out of the tube dull, it's opaque.

Painting process considerations

Brush stroke visibility and economy

Less is more.

Though it is a matter of taste.

Many of the great painters I admire, masters like Sargent, Velazquez, Zorn and Rembrandt, created powerful, bold paintings, combining realism with looseness. They had excellent brush stroke economy. Deliberate and telling.

Though they were all extremely skilled at tighter work before they began to paint loosely.

Make every stroke count. Mixing plenty of paint saves a huge amount of time.

Brush size

Use the biggest brush you can get away with for a particular passage. Or bigger.

Paint consistency

I like my paints to be as liquid as possible but still cling to a vertical palette and canvas. Adding medium usually makes paint more transparent but the first little bit can, counter intuitively, actually aid coverage. Sometimes I add a little dab more medium when taking paint from the palette to the canvas.

I read that a brush should be wet enough so that you cannot hear its stroke. I like that concept a lot but I always forget to listen.

I recently watched Single Stroke Lettering Demo by Glen Weisgerber. I'd love to know what paint he's using. It's so smooth and has got such great coverage.

Overworking

At the opposite end of the brush stroke economy is overworking the paint. It's not so bad with acrylics and oils but pushing paint back and forth can cause it to ball up and look gritty and dirty. There is a tendency for adjacent areas to bleed into each other until all contrast is lost and the painting becomes murky and flat.

So just don't do it.

Keep your strokes lively. Aim to make it look like you've only touched the paint once.

Make one or two paint strokes, stop, scoop up some fresh paint on your brush, and make another one or two strokes. Repeat. Do not make too many brush strokes before you stop to reload. David Limrite

Every stroke should serve a purpose. Every touch should make the painting better or it shouldn't be done.

Put down the brush and back away slowly.

Edges

Hard, soft and lost. Be conscious of your treatment edges. Variation of techniques can be used to lead the eye. Our eyes tend to be drawn towards hard edges so use them near the focal point.

The edge of the profile in the Portrait of Madame X by John Singer Sargent is so sharp it's almost been outlined by a darkening the background. Conversely most edges in the Mona Lisa are softened with sfumato. The feelings of daring haughtiness or soft gentleness are emphasised by these treatments of edges.

sfumato: the technique of allowing tones and colors to shade gradually into one another, producing softened outlines or hazy forms.

Madame X
The Mona Lisa

Leading the eye

Choose a focal point where you want to lead the viewer's attention. Emphasise lines and paths that lead the eye there. Elsewhere be sparing with details, high contrasts, sharp edges, saturated colours and tight rendering.

I've just seen a comment on someone else's painting: … it’s so unfussy and pure … and I'd like someone to say something that about my next painting.

Using saturation to draw attention
Claude Monet, Sunrise, 1872

Using value to draw attention
El Tres de Mayo, by Francisco de Goya

Comparisons

There are many stages of the painting process when it's useful to compare our work in progress with our reference. From checking the placement of the lines of the initial sketch to the finding the colour differences during painting.

Checking the right places and right colours.

When we transferred the sketch or outlines to the canvas we should have also transferred the image alignment markers. These should be visible in our photos of our work in progress.

Loading a canvas image

A canvas image can be loaded via the menu:

Project Load an image Subject…

or, once the layout is locked, by dragging an image and dropping it onto the work area.

The application can also monitor a directory for images using:

Miscellaneous Monitor image directory

and direct an automatically loaded image to be a canvas image using:

Miscellaneous Monitor destination canvas ⌥⌘C
or C or using the checkbox in the toolbar at the bottom.

With my camera set up on a tripod and connected to my laptop with a USB cable this can allows me to automate the whole process. I can take the picture from an app on the laptop and have it appear in the application almost immediately.

Aligning a canvas image

canvas image loaded

When a new canvas image is loaded the Canvas layer is shown centered and rescaled so we can see all of it and we can reposition the alignment pointers.

drag to position the pointers

Hold down the key and drag the pointers to the approximate positions of where their corresponding image alignment markers were traced.

We don't have to position the mouse accurately over a pointer, whichever one is nearest one will move when we start dragging.

{cursor key} to zoom to a pointer

With the the key still held down press a cursor key for the view to become centred on a pointer and zoomed in to the centre_on_pointer_scale so we can make finer adjustments.

drag to finely position a pointer

Continue to hold down the key and position the pointer on the marker.

Press different cursor keys to focus on each of the pointers to adjust them all.

Remember all the don't cross the beams malarkey from before and make sure each pointer matches up to its own marker.

A to align the canvas

When we are happy with the pointers we call the canvas alignment filter:

Filters Canvas Align ⇧⌥A

or just A

Once the canvas image has been aligned switch between the Canvas layer and the other layers to check the alignment is correct.

This last image shows the Canvas layer with the semi-transparent Outlines, sKetch and Paints layers being shown above. Not a bad alignment 😀

TODO explain how to rescue bad alignment by moving the pointers the wrong way.

If the preference align_on_new_canvas has been set to true the next canvas image will automatically be aligned using the previous marker positions. The view layer, pan or scroll won't change.

This is an extremely quick option for repeat shots if you have a really stable easel and camera mounting. With a USB cable I can take a shot from an app on my laptop and have it automatically appear in the Artist's Helper colour corrected and aligned.

When I remember to get out of the way.

Canvas inclusion in the paint layer

As previously discussed in the virtual palette, when the Paints layer is updated it is rendered the from colours of the the enabled palette entries that are nearest to the filtered subject. But once we have loaded an image of our work-in-progress we're really interested in working on those areas where the palette entries are a better match than what is already on the canvas.

We can change what we mean by nearest in the Distance 7 tool tab.

We can allow the good bits of the Canvas layer to be included in the the Paints layer using the Canvas weighting slider control on the Palette 2 tool tab.

When it is set at zero the canvas is not included at all. Slide it up to one and the canvas is shown at those places where it is a better match than any enabled palette entry. If you have a good selection of entries this is still a big ask and it's probable that not much will be of the canvas shown. In order to show up the physical painting has to be better than the entries that were probably used to paint it!

When the slider is set above one the Canvas layer is being given some leeway, a palette entry has to be significantly better to be used instead of the canvas.

It can be hard to see where the canvas is used and where the palette entries are. Showing the seLections layer above the Paints layer and selecting all the palette entries so they are highlighted just leaves the canvas contribution showing. The reverse can be shown by highlighting the canvas contribution on the seLections layer with:

Work area Selections layer Highlight canvas contribution

The work in progress on the Canvas layer
The Paints layer showing some of the WIP
All palette entries selected
Canvas contribution highlighted

Layer comparison methods

Comparison by eye

Simply flip between the layers to see that everything is lined up.

There are a variety of ways of quickly between layers. We can use:

• the buttons in the toolbar at the bottom
• the menu View Work area layer or, more usually, their associated hotkeys {layer key}

We can also use the Layers 3 tool tab were we can use the sliders to fade layers to fade a comparison layer in and out.

Trippy.

Specifying comparison layers

We can specify two particular layers as the comparison layers with:

Work area Comparisons Comparand 1

Work area Comparisons Comparand 2

or from the drop-downs in the Comparison 4 tool tab.

We can quickly toggle between the two comparison layers with the menu item:

Work area Comparisons Toggle comparison layers ⌘/ or more usually, the hotkey /

Comparison timer

We can also set the comparison layers to alternate on a timer with:

Work area Comparisons Alternate comparison layers ⌘ or more usually, the hotkey ;

The timing can be adjusted with:

Work area Comparisons Alternate layers timing ⇧⌘;

Automated comparisons

The Comparison 4 tool tab allows us to select any two layers and perform comparisons between them. The slider controls the sensitivity of the comparison.

Comparison types

The comparison types can be selected from a drop-down control or from the menu

Work area Comparisons Comparison type

The choices are:

► Highlight out of threshold areas

Highlight those pixels where the colour difference is greater than threshold slider value.

Show unmatched colours

The pixels are the same as for the Highlight option above but are shown as the colour from comparison comparand 1

Δ E

The colour shown indicates the colour distance between the subject image and a photo of the canvas.

Luma

The colour shown indicates the difference in the luma between the layers
where luma is the vertical coordinate for the current colour space.

Saturation

The colour shown indicates the difference in the saturation between the layers
where saturation is the radial coordinate for the current colour space.

Hue

The colour shown indicates the difference in the hue between the layers
where hue is the angular coordinate for the current colour space.

Hue and saturation

The colour shown indicates the difference in the hue scaled by the saturation between the layers.

Difference

Difference: the same as the difference blending mode in GnuIMP.

May not be very useful?

Glaze

The colour of the glaze that would get the canvas closer to the subject. Colour difference extended and exaggerated by a slider value. Pay particular attention to colours that aren't simply an exaggerated version of the subject.

Of course, just because the comparison layer is showing a difference doesn't mean you have t do anything about it. It's just information to be used or ignored as you see fit. It's just an artists's helper but you are the artist.

If you make any mistakes and muck something up just carry on. Always finish every painting. There is more to learn in the final stages and detailing and if you only get there once or twice for every half dozen starts then it will take you three times as long to hone your skills.

Mistakes are never as bad as you think. Acrylics and oils are both very forgiving. If it's still wet scrape it off if it's dry just paint over it.

Save the project

Save the project again. Habit.

Project Save as… ⇧⌘S