TESTING

There are different types of painting and each type is designated by the means and methods utilized in their creation. These include: water colour, oil, fresco, tempera, encaustic, and so on. We are going to examine a few of these in the following texts.

3.3.1 Watercolor

Watercolor, in art, is a type of painting that employs colored pigments dissolved in water. The distinguishing characteristic of watercolor painting is its transparency.

The surface of the paper is visible through the thin watercolor pigments, creating an effect distinct from the thick texture of oil painting and other more dense media.

Watercolor Techniques

Watercolor paints are produced by binding dry powdered pigments with gum Arabic, a vegetable adhesive. The resulting paint can then be dissolved in water and applied to paper with a brush. Although this is a relatively modern technique, various related types of water-based paints have been used throughout recorded history. The painted papyrus scrolls of ancient Egypt may be considered the first watercolors, and the ink techniques of early Asian art are early forms of monochrome, or single-color, watercolor. Water-soluble pigments combined with a thickener derived from eggs were used in European illuminated manuscripts during the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century), and medieval frescoes employed a type of water-bound pigment stiffened with opaque white paint. Later types of opaque water-soluble paints such as gouache, which continue to be used today, are closely related to watercolors.

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3.3.2 Oil Painting

Oil Painting is the art of applying oil-based colors to a surface to create a picture or other design. Oil painting is said to have developed in Europe in the late Middle Ages from where it spread world-wide. Its quick acceptance was due to the fact that oil is easier to work with and permits a greater variety of effects when compared to wax- based and water-based media, used in encaustic painting, fresco, tempera painting, and watercolour. Oil paint as a medium for painting has a number of advantages. For instance, it dries relatively slowly and very little colour change occurs after it dries up. For this reason, it is easier to match blend, or grade tones and corrections are easy to make. Moreover working with oil paint does not limit the painter to linear brush strokes because the medium can be applied in glazes, washes, blobs, trickles or spray. Oil paint can also be applied as thickly in a technique known as impasto (thick application of pigment). Additionally, the painter can liberally modify and improvise while painting without being confined to a set design. Another advantage of oil paint is that it allows the painter to achieve rich effects with color and shading, also called chiaroscuro (Fig. 22).

Fig. 22: Oil Painting.

Source: Larousse Encyclopedia of Modern Art

Materials and Techniques Oil paint

Oil paint consists of pigments that are ground in varnish or oil (linseed, poppy or walnut oil) that dries on exposure to air. The stiff, creamy paste that results is packaged in flexible tubes. The pigments or colored powders used in the production of the paints are insoluble, resistant to light and they are chemically stable.

A painter requires a surface on which to apply his paint. This is known as the painting surface and it consists of a support either a wood or composition panel. A common support is linen, cotton, or jute canvas stretched on a frame or glued to a board. The support is first covered with a ground (a thin coating of gesso or gypsum and glue, or size). The ground makes the support less absorbent. And it also provides an even painting surface that is neither too rough nor too smooth.

The ground may be white but it is often given a toning coat of grey, tan, or pink.

Oil painting proceeds in stages. Firstly, the design may be sketched on the ground in pencil, charcoal, or paint diluted with turpentine. Then broad areas of color are filled in with thin paint. They are successively refined and corrected in thicker paint mixed with oil and varnish. The paint is usually applied with brushes made from stiff hog bristle, although softer brushes of badger or sable hair may be used (Fig.23). Paint may also be applied with a flexible, wide-bladed painting or palette knife, or the fingers. There is no definite duration for the production of a painting.

The process may require only a few sessions or it may extend over months or even years.

Once the painting has dried, at least a year after completion it is varnished to protect it from dirt and to enrich the color. Because all varnishes eventually darken, the varnish used should be removable and eventually replaced.

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Fig.23: The Painter’s Tools.

Source: Creative Crafts for Today.

3.3.3 Mural painting

Mural Painting is a form of painting created as decoration on walls or ceilings.

The term mural is derived from the Latin word, murus, meaning wall. It may be done directly of the wall as fresco or on a panel and mounted in a permanent position. Murals are considered as a type of architectural decoration which can either take advantage of the flat character of a wall or create the effect of a new area of space. They are created essentially for aesthetic or edifying purposes.

Mural paintings are usually of large size and are used to decorate public buildings.

The themes portrayed could be religious, historic, or patriotic subject matters that are significant to the public. There are several techniques used for creating murals and they include: encaustic painting, fresco, oil painting, and tempera painting.

Apart from oil paint, there are several other materials that are suitable for mural art. Some of these are: Ceramics, liquid silicates, acrylics, and fired porcelain enamel. Some modern murals have are composed of photographs. Mosaics, which are a design, composed of coloured squares of glass, marble, clay or wood embedded in the wall is also created to adorn walls, floors and ceilings. However, they are considered a separate genre.

3.3.4 Fresco

Fresco is a method or art of painting with watercolors on wet or fresh lime-plaster so that the design becomes integrated with the wall. Hence the term fresco, a term derived from the Italian word for fresh. This process is said to have been perfected in the Renaissance Italy. The term true fresco or buon fresco is used when layers of lime –plaster are applied and fresco secco, is used to describe the process of painting on dry plaster. Fresco secco, often produces a limited range of colour tones and it has a tendency to flake, but it produces light colours and delicate tones. This made the technique highly favoured in the rococo period in the 18^th century. The term fresco is also sometimes used, inappropriately, for tempera painting, or distemper, in which watercolor is mixed with egg or other glutinous substances and applied directly to a gesso (a type of plaster used as a ground for modeling or painting) ground on masonry. The term fresco is often used interchangeably with the terms mural or mural painting.

Fresco Techniques

Pigment is applied to the top layer of several layers of plaster for a buon fresco.

The painter usually applies to the next-to-last plaster surface a sketch or cartoon of the painting. The outlines of the various figures and forms of the cartoon are then reinforced with dark watercolor. Plaster is laid over the drawing in small sections, and color is applied to the wet plaster, often aided by another sketch of the color scheme.

As the plaster dries, the lime in the plaster reacts chemically with the carbon dioxide in the air to form calcium carbonate; this compound forms a film over the colors, which binds them to the plaster. This makes them part of its actual surface and also gives the colors an unusual clarity. The colors of a fresco are usually thin, transparent, and light, often with a chalky look. In the Renaissance period (14^th Century), methods were found to give the colors somewhat more opacity.

In buon fresco, the painting must be done quickly and confined to essentials. The precise amount of water colour must be applied as too much paint can cause the surface to “putrefy.” When this defect occurs, it can, however be rectified by cutting away the defective portion, laying on fresh plaster and re-painting.

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In fresco secco, the dry plaster is rubbed with pumice stone to remove the crust, and then washed with a thin mixture of water and lime. The colors are applied on this surface. The effect of fresco secco is inferior to true fresco; the colors are not as clear, and the painting is less durable.

Self Assessment Exercise 2

Briefly discuss the similarities and differences of any two types of painting.