Oil Painting Techniques, El Greco

Name: Oil Painting Techniques, El Greco
Rating: 4.8 (40 reviews)

Scumbling and Velatura

Created byLuis Borrero

Last updated 11/2022

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

How to model form with warm and cool color relationships.
How to draw with paint.
Layering oil painting techniques.
Historical materials and canvas preparation.

Course content

4 sections • 14 lectures • 6h 11m total length

Introduction and materials overview22:33
Learn El Greco's mannerist color layering, warm ground and palette strategies, grisaille underpainting, and glaze techniques through a two-day oil painting demonstration.

Canvas preparation using traditional Gesso4:21
Prepare the canvas with traditional gesso and rabbit-skin glue, apply watery gesso in layers, pumice the surface, and create imprimatur with burnt sienna and raw sienna mixed with linseed oil.
Undersketch Drawing18:23
Learn El Greco's under sketch method using red ochre, black, and lead white on an absorbent surface, diluted with linseed oil to build a bold, loose drawing and flesh tones.

Working Up With Limited Color33:30
Learn to work with a limited color palette by building a value scale, using black, white, yellow ochre, venetian red, and lake, and applying a gray underpainting.
Working Up with Limited Color pt 241:06
Learn the oil painting 'working up' stage: clean brushes, build light masses and gray tones, refine values, and emphasize drawing to rotate the form.
Working Up with Limited Color pt 330:18
Develops the eyes, nose, mouth, and beard by layering paint with the same palette and thick strokes, ensuring the ground does not show through light masses.
Working Up with Limited Color pt 424:45
Apply tiny light touches to shape form with a limited color palette, building depth through bold, direct brushwork in El Greco's venetian macchia style.
Working up the Red and Blue Clothing47:33
Demonstrates building red and blue clothing with underlayers and glaze, using red lake with white for the first pass, and a gray underlayer to save paint and deepen blue.

Finishing and Retouching the Background17:59
Mix semi-transparent earth tones, like raw sienna and black, to establish a dark green background, letting the ground color show through, then glaze to model light on the head.
Retouching the Flesh Tones With Velaturas27:24
retouch the flesh tones with velaturas as the final stage, using white, yellow ochre, and black to create cool, silvery flesh, while dialing in lights and darks for depth.
Retouching the Flesh Tones With Velaturas pt 224:56
Explore retouching flesh tones with velaturas and impasto, then glaze the garments with red lake and matter lake using cochineal lake to build depth and cohesion in Greco.
Glazing the Red Garment16:44
Explore how El Greco achieves saturated red by glazing over a black red lake and white underpainting, using thick oil and vermilion to layer color.
Glazing the Blue Garment18:56
Apply lapis lazuli in glazing over a gray underpainting, mixing yellow tones to build a rich blue, while noting the old masters’ pigment economy and ultramarine as an alternative.
Finishing Touches42:42
Retouch the painting in unison to emphasize drawing and calligraphy, refine edges, and deepen movement and depth for a cohesive finish.

Requirements

Basic drawing

Description

How did El Greco create such marvelous effects in his paintings? During the late Renaissance, El Greco influenced a new generation of artists by using innovative ways to apply oil paint to a traditional gesso ground over canvas support. His style was later revered and admired by many artists from the 19th century which led to the rise of Impressionism. In this course, I guide the student through a reconstruction of el Greco's painting technique using the same materials and pigments that the artist had available during his lifetime. Students will start by learning how to prepare a suitable painting ground using traditional "Gesso Sottile", and the proper application over a Linen canvas. We will discuss El Greco's complex build-up of layers known today as indirect painting. This system of layers usually began with a monochromatic stage and the subsequent application of various applications of semi-opaque, transparent, and or dragged layers of colors to create a rich sense of atmosphere and depth in the finished painting.

Students can expect to learn the following skills in this course.

How to prepare a traditional Gesso ground for canvas support using a historical recipe.

How to draw directly on the canvas support using the brush.

Monochromatic modeling using two or three colors.
The use of warm and cool color transitions to create the illusion of form.

How to glaze using underpainting and transparent colors.

How to use the Scumbling technique to depict form.

Subtle modeling of form and flesh tints.

Generations of students throughout the history of art have been trained by copying masterworks as a way to unravel the secret methods of great artists. This course is useful for students interested in learning the basics, and for more advanced students interested in improving and mastering the techniques of oil painting.

Who this course is for:

Beginner or advanced Art students and or Art enthusiasts

Oil Painting Techniques, El Greco

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 23min

Developing the Under Sketch2 lectures • 23min

Working up with limited color5 lectures • 2hr 57min

Second Painting Session6 lectures • 2hr 29min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: