technique-about old master stuff and their secrets bs
hehe this is fun posting, partly in reaction to bs on the net, and to lack of help from
this pointless lecture by Odd nerdrum at the pennsy. academ. of art. as Nerdrum made
fun of this student in front of the whole audience calling here a "vampire" cuz she wanted
help with technique.

ok,
1- the colleges do not know how to paint like this or they would be doing it.
2- so that means u can either ask ppl or teach yourself
3- teach yourself
4- the net and world is full of bs regarding this subject
5- u could paint whith some brushes, turp, and cheaparse paint and still make it
have the same look of your favorites, hehe, assuming u will eventually
come up with who u are and not just copy hehe.
6- if u are looking for this great medium, to make it dry faster, be stickier,shiny,glossy,
whatever, don't. u don't need that garbage.
7- want to know what that drippy stuff is on a Nerdrum painting? roflmao. Its linseed oil.
8- the artists that are good don't want to help cuz they are insecure, same with gallery ppl.
9- so that means u have to be that much tougher, we'll show those pompous dudes.
10- The "old masters" name needs to be extinguished, it propogates the idea we are doing
something that is old,and it has nothing to do with time, or a particular "master". They are
jsut a series of different ways to apply paint to create an illusion nad interest, thats it.
11- Bob Ross rules, hehe, at least he had fun anyway. (and wasn't too bad as an artist anyway,no joke)
12- get these supplies ( ya on my site there really isnt any finished work, but if u do what i say
u will paint in a similar way as Burne jones, rembrandt and titian late)
13- do not look at peoples subject matter too much, as it will brainwash u of your own ideas,]
im taking a long break cuz of this,
14- get these things, i dont care if its the cheapest ass stuff out there that u get.

ivory black
titanium white (unless u want to sand with flake white- uh oh)
a light bright red like cad red light (forget about freakin usein the same paints and pigments
as this or that master- its a waste of time and other than being fun it doesnt matter)
cad yellow light or the lead based one if u want (a light yellow- NOT lemon)
Burnt umber
French ultramarine blue, or prussian-even prussian hue, if u want
Alizarin crimson or rose madder- use this color only if u are planning on repeating
it in the painting, or making it a major theme, otherwise it just becomes a nuisance as its beauty is seductive,
and sticks out too much.

so u have 3 primaries, black and a white. and alizarin if u want. Forget about naples, and if u want to save
money on the red, then get burnt sienna. I get cheap stuff so far and it is easier to
master a limited pallete, the smaller it is the greater power u have.

Now get round brushes of all sizes, and some large flats and a house painting brush or 2.

get latex house paint primer - matte
get a few the size of your index finger , some small and like 1 or 2 very large, and a fan brush.

the brushes are pretty irrelevent contrary to popular belief, as long as they are not rock solid with paint
on them. they should be hog hair. or even synthetic, it doesnt matter, but hog hair is better.

ok, now if u are doing a large painting, get heavy canvas and stretch it on your wall.
wet it, and paint in the area that is not wrinkled toward the center, or if u have patience
stretch it on 2x4 frame.

u dont have to do what old masters did like stretch loosely with freakin string hehe, or use
tacks, etc, these are time wasters. i used staples. by the time stuff deteriorates some restorer
nerd can fix it, and you'll be dead.

palette, hehe. doesnt matter, u could use the wall for one. hehe. get some cheaparse
pallette that is light and carve a larger thumb hole out of it if wood. of course the morons
at the art factories have never painted so it is going to be very unbalanced, so if u want u can
weight it on one side to balance it.

oh, get some odorless turp too.
and some cold pressed linseed oil.

ok, now listen to some music , read a book, or watch a movie. DONT look at someone's
painting. do something fun. and think of what u want to say. then say it in the painting.

an image should flash in yer mind, paint this image.

U have to accept that the image will never match what is in yer head, if u want that then
make something in photoshop with some photos, hehe. the painting will evolve itself to something
new that u cannot force into something in yer head. so dont be like me trying to force it into
my mold hehe. and try to think of painting as math problems not masterpieces, so they are
abandoned, and left alone as works toward a greater thing. a process.

ok, now get some models and get a place u can work in daylight!!! hhehe the hardest part.

light the model with a single window to the outside. and the light should be above them,
and to one side ( everyone knows that tidbit hehe), so that is tough as well. if u cant do that
u will have to make up a lot and more work for u.

know anatomy (planes of the body more than the actual anatomy!) and in different positions.
do this by looking at yourself in mirror if u have to.

this knowledge comes more from practice, and copying the master drawings, being careful
not to suck in the content to the point that u cant imagine stuff on yer own.

ok, now do a sketch or two of what u want to paint. then start to paint it rapidly on the gessoed
canvas (u can use house paint for primer-latex) and like i said let some restorer reback yer
painting if there are problems, cuz youll be dead by the time anything happens. unless u
severely break fat over lean rule, which wont happen. dont buy gesso from store- OR U WILL
be blowing money!!

if u are rich then get good paint like OLD HOLLAND, but if not then get cheap stuff hehe.

ok block in the whole painting from your head onto the canvas quickly in black and white
wash on the white primed canvas. make sure that u smoothed the canvas well by sanding
and coating with primer, so u dont waste $$$ by doing it with oils.

let dry.

now start another painting hahahah. and another and another while this one is drying.
so when u come back to it it will be dry and u have not waited around.

when i mention steps, assume it means over dry layers.

now mix up some turp with burnt umber and glaze over the whole canvas, let dry,
and dont make glaze too thin and drippy, but still transparent. then sand it,

grats! u have made your first warm-cool trick. now get the whole painting to a decent
block in degree. and start making the first heads. work on the primary head first.( main character)
make sure u measure the head and block in the whole figure thet size u want it to be, then,
make it about the right size, not too large! or youll run out of room.

thickly brush in the head with flesh tone made up of red, white and yellow. it should be a peach.

block in what u know about the head, looking at model. then much later put in what u see.

let this dry, and make sure it is thick paint, use knife even if u have to;. forget about the
fat over lean rule as when the turp evaporates it will be hardly different than a layer of dirt
on the canvas which is what a lot of old master glaze is hehe, due to time.
but if yer paranoid then add some oil to the glazes.

now go back in and start painting again with gray, and make a greenish tint with some yellow,
black and white, and paint the head again. let dry. make sure you leave some of the warm
tones underneath, and mix up a cool mixture and drag it over the warm, catching any ridges
of brushstrokes. but try to keep smooth for now.

glaze brown. dry

sand.

dont worry about the coolnesss of the gray, it is altered by the glazes.

the painting should be matte. if u have problems with judging the tones it is because
u have too little light (use daylight only, artificial if yer desparate for monotone block
in only). it could also be because the darks have sunk in, so if u want, do the thing
Odd Nerdrum and Rembrandt do,( hehe" F.U." Odd), lay in some linseed oil into the darks only,
and wipe it thin or if yer lazy like nerdrum, just let it drip.

If u find your applications being too choppy, then start thinning the paint with more oil
as u go, and the layers will become softer. use logic. now repeat the colors u use in the
sky and other places. Remember, try to have a major color theme, and as u work with
the basic pallette u will learn the many sublties of color and learn to make major
themes of those sublties. The flesh color should have many variations of color in it, but
blend from a distance.

if u like a certain artist u have to think abstractly what it is u like, so turn his stuff upside down
and look at it.

use a mirror to judge errors. (leonardo hehe)

dont scrub too much or yer hands will suffer, be direct. leave strokes, changing them after they
dry.

depict textures that are to come forward by using something like sand or other stuff to imitate
what it is, and try using materials to "print" textures with paint. this goes back to medieval
stuff and can be more interesting than just tonal illusion. Nerdrum will do stuff like add
sand into the paint, paint with it in a textured spot, let it dry, drag over a warm color on the
ridges, then a cool after that is dry, or he will put in some flesh color over a dark sand layer,
and then glaze over that with alizarin. But NEVER does rembrandt or any of those dudes
use just a warm tone, it is always overlaid with its opposite. Even game makers know this trick hhee.

Paint the forms u see trying to exaggerate what u see. and what u know. Never paint just
what u see or it will look flat. Highlights go a long way, try to use them for effect.
When in doubt, brown it out! hehe, thats what u need to do hehe. Take Nerdrum for instance,
he can't paint eyes well so he always browns them out or they are cockeyed. Few of them are
straightforward views with both eyes visible. same goes with most of the old masters.
ALso rounding the edges of things helps harmonize the composition, as REmbrandt does,
and Nerdrum. Both rembrandt and nerdrum love those big fat forms, and i think Nerdrum
must be a breast man not a leg man hahahah. So u might want to consider thinking in terms
of what kind of forms do u like, angular? round? thin? fat? gold ? silver? red?

SIMPLIFY!!!! less is more for sure. if say the leg of a chair in a pianting is not important,
then why is it SO VISIBLE!!? u can either use dark tones to harmonize the painting, or
just dont even depict the chair much. the easiest trick Rembrandt did since by traditional
standards he wasnt the best draughtsman, was to darken all but the most important areas.
and then he spotlit the important parts of the painting.

think in terms of high and low key, as two different moods. It would be hard to depict
happy stuff in Rembrandtian light, yet high key stuff has some great qualities, so dont
let contrasty realism hook u, high key and color pleases the heart.

try to see things in terms of how they make u feel, just like a composer, and learn what
tools draw what emotion. looking out the window in the morning often has an explosion of
warm and cool color, what emotion does that make, in a light key (all lighter tones).

DO not paint exactly the proportions u learn as on the larget canvases there is
distortion from your relative point of view (e=mc2) haha. so for the larger ones mostly
u have to rely on (does the head look to big or small- left brain type of judgements),
NOT with measuring. In fact the only measureing should be real basic stuff and quick
like eyes in middle of head, etc. not laborious crap.! Left brain analytical judgements, like,
what looks wrong here? go a LONNNG way.

Most of the effect will be achieved by the juxtoposition of the brown glaze sunken into
brush crevaces ( u can use colored glazes as well- using variety in your application is the key-
repetition and simplicity in composition however- so it is like a controlled explosion of nature)
This in combination with the warm colors over c ool and vice versa, everywhere, and as
u get in the shadows , do the same, using a greenish or even gray to drag over the brown,
then sand it. Sanding and even scraping is the most important trick. Do not meddle with
the strokes after u put them down too much, they can b e altered with glazed and sanding, etc.

Ever go to tthe supermarket and not choose the peanut butter with the blue top? and instead
u choose the one with the red one? cuz the red makes us think, mmmmm warm good food.
That is like Rembrandt. and burne jones, etc. make sure if u want that feeling the
overall tonality is warm not cool. if u are going for a less cozy feel, go for the cool, which
is kind of light and airy in a high key, we cannot escape relating color and tone to things
we know in nature. Despite the jerkoff teacher at rutgers saying that idea is old fashioned.
bwahaha. Down with the art establishment.

i cannot write everything here, any more questions u can email.
for gods sake dont listen to anymore bs on the net about old master secrets, as
Most if not all of them are just variations of this idea, and u will have wasted tons of time
like i used to on the Golden arch, which is really just a beggars cup, hehe.
Follow Ups:

Re: technique-about old master stuff and their secrets bs Judy Weller   Posted at: 07/29/00 (13)


 
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