Preamble
This is the fourtieth post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed all the posts in this new series below:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g. click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!
Introduction
This is the 800th published post on my blogspot. The first post that I published was "ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions. An International Exhibition." To view this post, click on the following link - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions.
In 2010, I would not have envisaged that some sixteen years later I would still be publishing a weekly post. It has been a long journey, and I hope, a fruitful one for you as it has been for me. Many of these posts were sourced from numerous books, magazines as well based on my own artistic journey. I have always referenced my sources and so I want thank all those authors as well as the many invited editors and artists who have contributed to this journey of mine. Without them, my blog posts would not have been so varied, nor so interesting. Thanks to all the contributors!
Note: Milestones are meant to be surpassed. This is a powerful reminder that achievements are stepping stones rather than finishing lines. In both personal and professional growth, acknowledging a goal is crucial for motivation, but setting your sights on the next level of development prevents stagnation and drives continuous improvement. Thank you for being a witness to my journey of discovery in the subjects that are of interest to me, and which I have featured on this blogspot.
Color and Light - Part II [1]
Pigments vary in transparency in the direct ratio to their refractive indices, but all of them are transparent to some extent. If the proper medium is selected, laboratory tests can be made which will show that the most opaque colors, even flake white, appear transparent under certain conditions. The liquids used in such laboratory experiments are not suitable for paint medium purposes, but the effects produced clearly demonstrate that the hiding power or opacity in paint film can be lost through a change in conditions, which surround the pigment that has been used.
In an actual oil painting, this does not occur at once; but in galleries one may frequently find a picture in which, by reason of changes wrought by time, oxidation, etc., the refractive index of the oil film has changed, and a thin coat of paint originally sufficed to form an opaque film has become sufficiently transparent to allow an underpainting or drawing to show through. The effect is called pentimento.
Rembrandt | Flora, 1634.
Note: In this painting, pentimento appears since there is a notable presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and were painted over.
Though all opaque pigments have this property, the whites possess it to a greater degree than do the others; pentimento in old pictures usually appears where white or colors reduced with much white have been used. The fact that all dried films of oil paint tend to become more transparent with age is well established.
It will be seen from the foregoing that when light impinges upon an object it is either transmitted, reflected, or absorbed, depending on the nature of the object; in the case of most paints it performs all three of these actions, in varying degrees.
The practical lesson that oil and tempura painters of the present day have learned from this is that the ground and underpainting always have some effect on the final painting, even when not apparent, and that pictures must be built up carefully with this point in mind.
Correct procedure calls for keeping the ground and underpinning as white or pale as possible, superimposing darks over lights (so far as the nature of work allows), and, whenever possible, scraping down or removing any substantial thick or dark areas when these are to be overpainted or obliterated for the purposes of making corrections. If two pictures were identical except for the fact that one was painted upon a brilliant white background and one of a black background, the difference between them would be immediately apparent; any departure from a pure white ground or from strickly necessary underpainting will produce an effect which tends towards that of a black ground. It is especially important to use the whitest sort of ground and the pale underpinnings when glazes and veils are employed.
There are few activities other than the use of artists' paints where opaque and transparent color effects are manipulated and where their differences are significant.
There are many aspects of color and light, each of which is a study or field in itself, such as color harmony, color classification or notation, and color considered from aesthetic, psychological, or scientific viewpoints. These are important studies in their own right. The present account is simply an outline of phsical and optical considerations which are relevant to the technology of painting materials and methods.
The schematic below summarizes many the effects on how light interacts with materials that artists often employ.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
This is the fourtieth post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed all the posts in this new series below:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g. click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!
Introduction
This is the 800th published post on my blogspot. The first post that I published was "ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions. An International Exhibition." To view this post, click on the following link - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions.
In 2010, I would not have envisaged that some sixteen years later I would still be publishing a weekly post. It has been a long journey, and I hope, a fruitful one for you as it has been for me. Many of these posts were sourced from numerous books, magazines as well based on my own artistic journey. I have always referenced my sources and so I want thank all those authors as well as the many invited editors and artists who have contributed to this journey of mine. Without them, my blog posts would not have been so varied, nor so interesting. Thanks to all the contributors!
Note: Milestones are meant to be surpassed. This is a powerful reminder that achievements are stepping stones rather than finishing lines. In both personal and professional growth, acknowledging a goal is crucial for motivation, but setting your sights on the next level of development prevents stagnation and drives continuous improvement. Thank you for being a witness to my journey of discovery in the subjects that are of interest to me, and which I have featured on this blogspot.
Color and Light - Part II [1]
Pigments vary in transparency in the direct ratio to their refractive indices, but all of them are transparent to some extent. If the proper medium is selected, laboratory tests can be made which will show that the most opaque colors, even flake white, appear transparent under certain conditions. The liquids used in such laboratory experiments are not suitable for paint medium purposes, but the effects produced clearly demonstrate that the hiding power or opacity in paint film can be lost through a change in conditions, which surround the pigment that has been used.
In an actual oil painting, this does not occur at once; but in galleries one may frequently find a picture in which, by reason of changes wrought by time, oxidation, etc., the refractive index of the oil film has changed, and a thin coat of paint originally sufficed to form an opaque film has become sufficiently transparent to allow an underpainting or drawing to show through. The effect is called pentimento.
Note: In this painting, pentimento appears since there is a notable presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and were painted over.
Though all opaque pigments have this property, the whites possess it to a greater degree than do the others; pentimento in old pictures usually appears where white or colors reduced with much white have been used. The fact that all dried films of oil paint tend to become more transparent with age is well established.
It will be seen from the foregoing that when light impinges upon an object it is either transmitted, reflected, or absorbed, depending on the nature of the object; in the case of most paints it performs all three of these actions, in varying degrees.
The practical lesson that oil and tempura painters of the present day have learned from this is that the ground and underpainting always have some effect on the final painting, even when not apparent, and that pictures must be built up carefully with this point in mind.
Correct procedure calls for keeping the ground and underpinning as white or pale as possible, superimposing darks over lights (so far as the nature of work allows), and, whenever possible, scraping down or removing any substantial thick or dark areas when these are to be overpainted or obliterated for the purposes of making corrections. If two pictures were identical except for the fact that one was painted upon a brilliant white background and one of a black background, the difference between them would be immediately apparent; any departure from a pure white ground or from strickly necessary underpainting will produce an effect which tends towards that of a black ground. It is especially important to use the whitest sort of ground and the pale underpinnings when glazes and veils are employed.
There are few activities other than the use of artists' paints where opaque and transparent color effects are manipulated and where their differences are significant.
There are many aspects of color and light, each of which is a study or field in itself, such as color harmony, color classification or notation, and color considered from aesthetic, psychological, or scientific viewpoints. These are important studies in their own right. The present account is simply an outline of phsical and optical considerations which are relevant to the technology of painting materials and methods.
The schematic below summarizes many the effects on how light interacts with materials that artists often employ.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
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