Re: Luminist Painting Techinique

In Reply to: Luminist Painting Techinique posted by Ellie on 06/09/00 at 9:05 PM:

: Hi, What is a good source (video or Book) on instruction/technique on painting
: utilizing light (oil). For example Thomas Kincaid or Monet...Thank you

The best way to paint the effects of light is not with cheap unnatural tricks (and sparkly colors with
mica flakes in them like Kincaide) it is simply to observe the exact colors that you see in the scene
in front of you, match them on the palette, and place them in their exact place on the canvas. This
is precisely what the great painters of light such as Velaquez, Chardin, and Corot did. Sometimes it is
not easy to get the right color so you must repeat a passage several times until you come closer
to the right color. Glazes and scumbles can be used to correct a color passage and also gain a
sense of ambient light and atmosphere; hatching on these subtle glazes can mitigate harsh colors
and create softness and harmony. Cuyp, the Dutch 17th painter of morning lit landscapes,
seems to have done a bluish or purplish grisaille underpainting and then glazed the whole thing
with a mixture of yellow and white to abtain the effect of morning mist. Chardin sometimes glazed
the entire picture with a transparent brownish purple and rubbed it away with a cloth to obtain and overall
ambient toning. In trying to obtain the effect of ambient light it is important to soften the edges and avoid
harsh details and accents as the above mentioned painters did. This means avoiding harsh white, black
and saturated hues. Whisler was a master of creating the effect of ambient light by keeping his values
and colors withina narrow middletone range.


 
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