Contents
HOW TO PAINT YOUR OWN VERMEER: A PAINTING IN PROGRESS IV
This page is under construction.
Link to Part I
Link to Part II
Link to Part III
Link to Pictures on Picasa
This page provide a document of the painting process of a Vermeer-like composition painted by Jonathan Janson. The text below explains both the origin of the composition used for this demonstration as well as the techniques and materials employed in the simplest manner possible without resorting to any undue sophistication.
Glazing & Final Touches
The technique known as glazing was extensively exploited by artists since the invention of oil painting. With the advent of Impressionism this invaluable technical tool was largely abandoned. In the simplest terms, glazing consists in brushing a transparent layer of paint over another thoroughly dried layer of opaque paint. The effect is analogous to placing a sheet of brightly colored acetate over a monochrome photograph. Glazing creates a unique “shine through” stained glass effect that is not obtainable by direct application of opaque paints no matter how brilliant they might be. The underpainting, on which the glaze is applied, is normally monochromatic but it may also contain some color. Thus, the two separate layers of paint are not physically, but optically mixed. The lower layer determines the form and light while the glaze layer gives it its color.
Since glazing has fallen out of use, most modern painters fail to comprehend the theory and correct practice behind this technique. Unfortunately, there exist no written historic source which describes in any degree of detail either the materials or basic procedures of glazing used by early painters. The difficulty of grasping the rationale behind glazing has been compounded by a misunderstanding that was diffused in the first half of the twentieth century by Max Doerner and has resisted until today. Doerner’s “glazing myth,” as it is now referred to, asserted that Rembrandt constructed his images in two stages. According to Doerner, Rembrandt painted a monochrome underpainting which was intended to establish the fundamental form and lighting scheme of his image. In order to give full color, he then applied a series of transparent colored glazes upon this pictorial skeleton using a highly transparent resinous medium. There exists no scientific evidence which supports Doerner’s hypothesis. While it is true that Rembrandt, like the great part of his contemporaries, worked up his painting over a monochrome underpainting, the great part of the colored areas were painted in a straightforward conventional manner using mixtures of opaque or semi-opaque paint to approximate the final color. In sum, Rembrandt did not build up the image with a series of transparent glazes. He used them with the parsimony as did other painters of the time. Perhaps Doerner’s “glazing myth” has influenced more than one Vermeer expert and not a few modern painters who earnestly wish to emulate Vermeer’s or the Great Masters’ technique. Glazing must be used sparingly and for specific passages, it is not a painting method in itself. The best works of the Dutch masters, including Vermeer, worked up their compositions with opaque and semi-opaque paint and inserted glazes were they were needed.
Every accomplished painter knows that a few perfectly placed touches may have an enormous impact on days, weeks or even months of hard work. Final touches not only serve to define more precisely form, texture and enhance the sensation of light, but bring into focus or register more correctly the original image of the artist’s mind. Final touches may range from a slight glaze to tone down a color or a dash of impasto white to indicate a highlight on the edge of a ceramic bowl to render its glass-like surface. Of all the facets of painting, perhaps the final touching stage is the most difficult reduce to methodical procedure. Some final touches are programmed but a great many are required to compensate for the effects that the painter had not been able to achieve in the working-up phase. Some painters barely put more than a few highlights after the working-up stage while other painters, who have a more perfectionist approach, spend days on end making minor alterations that even the most distinguished connoisseurs of the time would have failed to recognize.
At this point the painting has been worked up in almost the entire surface. This third phase is followed by a refining of modeling and adjusting of tonal values which are not all clearly perceptible in these digital images. Some areas which have been painted with much raw umber (the legs of the foreground chair) have “sunken in.” They seem lighter in tone and create a fastidious chalky finish that, however, will be restored to its original depth and color with a light passage of retouch varnish once the whole surface of the painting has been brought to the very final stages of the working process. Glazes too are generally executed in the later stages of the work since they are very hard to calibrate and must take into account the overall equilibrium of the composition as well as the reigning color harmony.
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17. Detail of the foreground chair. | 18. High quality image of the complete painting, before being varnished. | 19. Detail of the map. | 20. Detail of the open window. |
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21. ditto | 22. Detail of the still life. | 23. Detail of the map. | 24. Detail of the model’s resting hand. |
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25. Detail of the background wall. | 26. Detail of the open window. | 27. Detail of the model’s face. | 28. Detail of the foreground chair. |
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29. Detail of the background chair. | 30. Detail of the cushion. | 31. Detail of the resting hand. | That’s all! |