Old Masters Painting Technique

There are many approaches to building a good portrait oil painting. Since I often use an Old Masters painting technique myself, I wanted to tell you about it.

I use photography for my references rather than having people, especially children, come for daily sittings while I paint. This is a modern method, of course. However, how I use the photos is straight from the 1600’s.

Looking at them, I draw out my composition onto the canvas. After that usually (but not always) comes a wash of thin brown and white oil paint. This establishes the tones (lights and darks) of the composition. Then a layer of thicker paint, but still in the monochrome palette. When I did the painting that I am showing here, I went farther than usual in brown and white. I worked out all the minute features as well. Other times in other paintings, I skip to color way before the getting to the details. As a picture is worth all those thousands of words, let me demonstrate. Here are the reference photo plus 3 stages of "brown and white".

You can see the final color painting in my last blog entry, titled "Children's Portrait: Two Little Angels".

My Cousin Norman Rockwell also used the idea behind this Old Masters painting technique to make his Saturday Evening Post Covers. He made it his own in a different way. He too used photography to capture his references. Then he made many preliminary small sketches. After a while, he drew out his ideas to-size on charcoal on paper in great detail. He did this to establish the arrangement and the tonal values (lights and darks). After doing that, he made a rough color sketch of it in oil on a small canvas. When he could envision his colors working, he transferred his large charcoal composition onto a new and final canvas. Then he painted it "alla prima.” That translates from Italian to "at once", i.e., without the building up of thin layers.

Related Posts:

Comparative Painting Procedures of Norman Rockwell and Jessica RockwellNorman Rockwell Traveling Exhibit Shows in TampaNorman Rockwell’s LegacyMy Cousin Norman Rockwell