Below is the © copyrighted syllabus for the latest edition
SYLLABUS:
Classical Oil Painting in the Style of the Venetian Masters X 428.2 W3683
UCLA Extension
Spring Quarter 2011. April 2 – June 18 (11 meetings)
Saturdays 10:00am – 1:00pm
Room 318/321, 1010 Westwood Blvd. Los Angeles.
Instructor: Thomas Garner (www.tomgarner.com) thgarner@belairmail.net
Downloadable material:
www.tomgarner.com/transfer/theMasters.pdf
www.tomgarner.com/transfer/selfportrait.pdf
www.tomgarner.com/transfer/amore.pdf
www.tomgarner.com/transfer/flora.pdf
www.tomgarner.com/transfer/venus.pdf
www.tomgarner.com/transfer/getty.pdf
www.tomgarner.com/transfer/syllabusSpr11.doc
www.tomgarner.com/transfer/calendarSpr11.doc
www.www.tomgarner.com/transfer/palette.pdf
Course Description
This studio course explores the oil painting techniques of the late Renaissance, with particular focus on the bottega of the Venetian Masters of Color. Students are guided through a series of exercises designed to help them create a highly finished “masterpiece.” Working from both reproductions and a live model, students first touch on canvas preparation, imprimatura and under painting; then learn brushwork, impastos, scumbling and glazing, sfumato and chiaroscuro, and the use of warm tones and cool tints to create refined form. Finally, students learn the effects of bitumen and varnishes to obtain the same rich, deep textures characteristic of the originals. Discussion covers materials, composition, and lighting; art history and anecdotal information about the artists.
Course Prerequisites
Beginning drawing
Beginning oil painting (and preferably intermediate oil painting)
Course Objectives and Expectations
Eleven weeks is not much time, considering the masters spent months if not more on a single canvas and that after years of apprenticeship. It is a long, slow process that can give splendid results but it is hardly adapt for an eleven-week course. Nevertheless we will keep a brisk pace and do our best to emulate their “system” of painting.
There will be a series of specific overlapping class and homework assignments designed to teach the technical skills and develop an individual feel for the medium. All the exercises will be challenging and require a certain degree of commitment but the results will hopefully be rewarding.
The course calendar roughly outlines these exercises but the actual workload will depend upon the general background level of the class and the effort each individual wishes to invest. Effort is the key word I am looking for in the students’ performance. These projects are difficult and so I am more interested in work that is carried forward with a clear understanding of the principles than in a finished product.
Attendance
Attendance is essential. If you don’t come, what’s the point? Students are expected to be on time (ready to paint at the beginning of the session), present and participating in each lesson. Only one unexcused absence is admissible (missed class work must be completed at home). Two will lower your grade, and three will put you at risk of failing the class.
Grades
Grades will be assessed according to the following criteria:
20% Attendance
20% Complete assignments, showing application of knowledge gained in class
20% Showing effort, consideration, and commitment to projects
20% Participation in class discussions and critiques
20% Progress of technical skill made throughout the quarter
A – Excellent. Work shows clear attention to objectives, creativity, demonstrates a superior effort and willingness to take thoughtful risks and personal challenges.
B – Above average. Work shows clear attention to objectives, demonstrates effort, and interest.
C – Average. Work demonstrates enough effort to complete project.
D – Below average. Work obviously results from little effort of attention to the project guidelines.
F – Failure.
Materials list for Classical Oil Painting in the Style of the Venetian Masters
Color list (necessary)
Ivory Black
Lead white (alt. Zinc White and Titanium white) (large tube)
Burnt umber
Burnt Sienna
Yellow Ochre (large tube for creating grounds)
Vermilion (alt. Cadmium Red Light)
Ultramarine Blue Light
Cerulean Blue
Alizarin Crimson
Optional (colors for a more complete palette but not essential for this course)
Cadmium Yellow Light
Venetian red
Raw umber
Bitumen (asphaltum) (Rembrandt brand)
Naples Yellow
Terre Verde (green earth)
Permanent Green (Phthalo Green Blue)
Cobalt Blue
FYI, the following is a partial list of original colors used by the Venetian masters with their approximate equivalents today. Most of their colors were toxic, fugitive, or fabulously expensive and are no longer available today.
Earths (umbers siennas ochres etc.)
Vermilion (cinnabar) (cadmium red light)
Red lead (minium) (scarlet)
Ceruse (flake white, silver white)
Lead tin yellow (massicot or giallorino) (py41naples yellow)
Ultramarine (lapis lazuli) (imitation ultramarine blue)
Azurite (pb35-36 cerulean)
Red lake (madder lake) (alizarin crimson pr83)
Yellow lake (undefined transparent medium yellow)
Copper green (verde rame) (malachite) (undefined greenish ultramarine)
Smalt, (cobalt blue pb29)
Carbon blacks (ivory black)
Orpiment (arsenic yellow) (cadmium yellow)
Realgar (arsenic reddish orange) (cadmium red light)
There are some on-line sources that are bringing back some of these rare historical colors. Natural Pigments (http://naturalpigments.com) has a good selection and interesting commentary on these colors. Please be advised that many of these colors are made from heavy metals and may be toxic. Other sources are Robert Doark and Studio Products
(Mediums) necessary
Odorless Turpenoid: (not turpenoid natural)
Refined Linseed Oil: (better Cold-pressed Linseed oil)
Gamblin Neo Megilp and Galkyd: (good non-toxic imitations of the original medium and is widely available.
Drier: (one of these: Japan drier, siccatif de cortrai blanc, cobalt drier)
(Optional Mediums) not necessary for the course but interesting to explore
Liquin gel and Liquin: (alternative to the Gamblin products)
Maroger’s Medium: (this is closest to the original but is toxic and hard to use, available only on-line: studioproducts.com) Studio Product also has rare historical colors.
Velazquez Medium: (this is an excellent calcite medium with a “long” enamel-like consistency for highlight touches. Available only on-line from naturalpigments.com.)
Venetian Medium: (this is a leaded crystal glass medium that is great for glazing transparent shadows because of the glass. Available on-line from naturalpigments.com.)
Venice Turpentine: (Alt. Canada balsam) (this medium gives high viscosity or a “long” consistancy to other mediums.)
Standoil: (this medium is to give density when creating your own medium.)
Varnish (you won’t need this right away)
Dammar varnish: (dammar is for giving the final varnish to your painting when it is very dry, weeks or months from now. Some artists use is to create their own mediums.)
Brushes etc
Assorted (good quality) bristle or synthetic bristle filberts and flats from #2 thru #12 (observe that the hairs tend to curve inward at the tip). I recommend Escoda o Signet for natural bristle brushes. Or Da Vinci, Blick, or Princeton for synthetic bristle brushes. Synthetics have become pretty good lately and have the advantage of lasting a lot longer.
1” short handled bristle brush for varnishing
Wood medium size Palette
Small palette knife
Double palette cup
Canvases (try to get fine weave canvases)
3 or 4 practice canvases or canvas boards 16” x 20”
1 – 16” x 20” canvas (for black mirror portrait).
1 – 22” x 28” canvas (for Amore or Flora) or 18” x 30” (for Venus).
1 – 22” x 28” canvas for final project (or any reasonable size you like).
Gesso: (acrylic is fine.) (Most store-bought canvases need an extra coat or two of gesso to make them smooth enough for our type of painting. Lightly sandpaper between coats.) (Rabbit glue and gypsum is also available for those interested in the original process. Ask me about it, if you are interested.)
Clean up (recommended)
Silicoil brush cleaning tank and fluid
Artist’s soap
Lint-free rags and/paper towels
Couple of extra jars for pouring out turpenoid.
Other
Black mirror (get a normal 8” x 10” picture frame, behind the glass place black paper.)
Easel and spot lamp (for home use)
Charcoal sticks, Pencil, eraser, ruler, masking tape, etc.
Suggested reading
1) Joseph Sheppard, How to Paint like the Old Masters. 1979 Watson Guptill
2) Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, Methods and Materials of Painting. 2Vol. 1847 Dover Pub.
3) Ralph Mayer, Artist’s Handbook of Materials and techniques. 1940 Viking
4) Max Doerner, The Materials of the Artists, 1934 Harcourt
5) Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists and On Techniques c. 1550 Many Publishers
6) Cennino d’Andrea Cennini, “Il Libro dell’Arte” (The Craftsman’s Handbook), c. 1398, Dover Pub.
7) Benvenuto Cellini. The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini c. 1566 (Penguin Classics)
Susan Vreeland, The Passion of Artemisia 2002, Penguin
9) Virgil Elliot, Traditional Oil Painting 2007 Watson-Guptill
10) Juliette Aristides, Classical Drawing Atelier 2006 Watson-Guptill
11) Juliette Aristides, Classical Painting Atelier 2008 Watson-Guptill
This course will be largely based upon Eastlake’s Methods and Materials of Painting. It is not required reading but the student should be aware of it’s importance as an historical document. It is very long and at times tedious reading but very rich in details. Above all it was published shortly prior to the explosion of Impressionism and is thus unfettered by modernist ideas and is an excellent representation of the Western academic tradition up to that point. Be aware, as with any dated material, that in the face of new research and science, not all the information provided therein is one hundred per cent reliable.
Joseph Sheppard’s book is a reasonably good handbook guide to our area of interest. He studied for many years under Jacque Maroger who was a distinguished scholar of the old Masters and whose name is virtually synonymous with the medium supposedly used by the Masters.
Glossary
These are very brief, one-liner, definitions of words used in this course. They are in no way complete definitions and you are encouraged to ask for any further clarifications of these and other terms not included here.
Alla prima Italian for painting done wet on wet or painted in one sitting. Direct painting.
Balsam tree sap used in making viscous painting mediums
Baroque period in art history, roughly the 17th century, characterized by dark, dramatic theatrical movement and lighting
Binder The vehicle or medium that mixes with pigment to make paint.
Bole Reddish brown clay pigment paint used for ground color, pr102.
Bottega The Italian word for atelier or artist’s workshop.
Bright a short flat brush
Brightness The relative purity of a hue, its saturation.
Brio to paint with vigor and energy
Broken color lower layers of paint show through gaps in thick impasto higher layers.
Chiaroscuro Italian for the high contrast of lights and darks.
Dead coloring initial laying-in of basic color masses of a painting.
Direct Painting like alla prima but specifically working in full color from the beginning usually wet on wet. Most painting today is direct as opposed to the layered painting taught in this course (See glazing and scumbling.)
Dryer a substance that makes the paint dry faster.
Drying oil an oil that dries over time such as linseed oil, poppy oil, safflower oil, etc.
Fat over lean to avoid cracking, always apply oily paint over solvent thinned paint.
Filbert a flat rounded brush
Fresco murals painted on wet plaster so it is absorbed into the wall itself.
Fugitive color that fades over time.
Genre types of subjects in painting, more specifically, scenes of everyday life.
Gesso ground paint used for preparing canvas before painting.
Glazing application of transparent paint over a dry layer, usually dark and transparent paint over lighter areas. Glazing tends to warm up colors. (See Scumbling.)
Grisaille French for painting with grays, for under-painting in values.
Ground the surface you are painting on. Canvas, panel, etc
Halfpaste an opaque mix of color and medium scumbled in a semi-transparent way.
Halftone or midtone the midway point between lights and darks.
Illusionism believable pictorial space employing mathematical perspective.
Impasto the thick, pasty application of paint.
Imprimatura Italian for ground preparation with a transparent glaze usually in earth colors allowing light to reflect off the gesso ground and give an overall tone to the painting.
Key the overall tonal value of a painting. High key for bright and low key for dark.
Lay-in boxing in the general colors or values of a painting
Lightfastness the opposite of fugitive
Local color the actual color of an object apart from lights, shadows, and reflections.
Long paint an enamel or honey-like consistency given with viscous mediums where the paint smoothes out leaving little sign of brush strokes. (See short paint.) Calcite, standoil, and other viscous mediums make paint “long”.
Matt not glossy
Medium fluids used to change the consistency of paints including solvents, oils, resins, balsams, emulsions, etc.
Midtone (see halftone.)
Modeling to give a rounded appearance to an object by applying lights and darks.
Monochromatic having one hue or color plus white.
Naturalism idealized realism derived from observation of nature.
Oiling out spreading oily medium over a dry area before painting another layer.
Picture plane the imaginary window the picture looks out from.
Pouncing old method of transferring a drawing (cartoon) to the painting surface by dusting charcoal through pinholes in the paper.
Primary colors red, yellow, and blue, hues that can’t be created by mixing.
Primer any mixture of paint to create a ground.
Quattrocento Italian for 1400s used to talk about the Renaissance. Cinquecento is 1500s.
Realism like naturalism but without idealization, often describing social conditions.
Renaissance roughly the 15th through early 16th centuries, artistic revolution characterized by the revival of classical ideals, illusionism and serene naturalism.
Resin a derivative of conifer tree sap used in making varnishes. Dammar, Mastic, Amber, Copal, alkyd (artificial), etc.
Retouching Varnish a light temporary varnish.
Saturation a pure intense hue without gray.
Scumble Like glazing but with thinly applied opaque or semi-opaque color (halfpaste) over wet or dry, often giving broken coloring, creating a foggy atmospheric effect. Scumbling tends to cool colors. (See Glazing.)
Secondary colors green, orange and violet mixed from two primary colors.
Sfumato Italian for gradation or blending.
Shade the darkening of or adding black to a given color. (See tint.)
Short paint virtually all modern out-of-the-tube oil paints have a short consistency where the peaks and troughs of the brush strokes remain visible. (See Long paint.) Walnut oil, safflower oil, and other industrial additives increase the “shortness” of paints.
Sprezzatura Italian for nonchalance, making a painting look like it was easy and not overworked.
Standoil a heavily thickened and viscous linseed oil usually used for creating mediums.
Tempera paint made from egg emulsion and pigment, the main paint used before oils.
Tint the lightening of or adding white to a given color. (See shade.)
Tone the value of a color moving between light and dark.
Tooth the texture of a ground surface.
Toptone the solid and unmixed appearance of a color straight from the tube, (see undertone).
Trompe l’oeil French for trick the eye, an illusionistic extension of the viewer’s space.
Undertone translucent appearance of a color spread over a light or white surface.
Value the darkness and lightness of a tone. That which gives a sense of volume or roundness to a drawn or painted subject.
Varnish a resinous substance used in medium and final protection of a painting.
Velatura Italian for a thinly applied, transparent or translucent coat of paint.
Wash a quickly applied coat of paint that is thinned with turpentine to a watercolor-like consistency.
