PAINTING

PAINTING

Painting is the application of pigments Painting mediums are extremely

to a support surface that establishes versatile because they can be
an image, design or decoration. In art, applied to many different
the term ‘painting’ describes both the surfaces (called supports)
act and the result. including paper, wood, canvas,
plaster, clay, lacquer, concrete
and more.

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There are six major painting mediums, each with specific individual
characteristics:

Encaustic
Fresco
Tempera All of them use three basic ingredients:
Oil
Watercolor and Gouache Pigment
Acrylic Binder
Solvent

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Pigments are granular solids incorporated into the paint to contribute color.
The binder, commonly referred to as the vehicle, is the actual film-forming
component of paint.
The binder holds the pigment in solution until it’s ready to be dispersed onto the
surface.
The solvent controls the flow and application of the paint.
It’s mixed into the paint, usually with a brush, to dilute it to the proper viscosity, or
thickness, before it’s applied to the surface.
Once the solvent has evaporated from the surface the remaining paint is fixed
there.
Solvents range from water to oil-based products like linseed oil and mineral spirits.
Let’s look at each of the six main painting mediums:

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 ENCAUSTIC

Encaustic paint mixes dry pigment with a heated beeswax binder.

The mixture is then brushed or spread across a support surface.
Reheating allows for longer manipulation of the paint.
Encaustic dates back to at least the first century C.E. and was used extensively in
funerary mummy portraits from Fayum in Egypt.
The characteristics of encaustic painting include strong, resonant colors and
extremely durable paintings.
Because of the beeswax binder, when encaustic cools it forms a tough skin on the
surface of the painting.
Typically, the support used for encaustic must be rigid, like the wooden panels of
the
Fayum portraits, to keep the wax from cracking.
Some modern artists have used more flexible supports, however, with mixed
results.

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 TEMPERA
Tempera paint combines pigment with an egg yolk binder, then thinned and
released with water.
Like encaustic, tempera has been used for thousands of years. It dries
quickly to a durable matte finish.
Tempera paintings are traditionally applied in successive thin layers, called
glazes, painstakingly built up using networks of cross hatched lines.
Because of this technique tempera paintings are known for their detail.

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 FRESCO

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Fresco painting is used ●
Buon fresco technique consists of
exclusively on plaster walls and painting in pigment mixed with water on
a thin layer of wet, fresh lime mortar or
ceilings. The medium of fresco
plaster. The pigment is applied to and
has been used for thousands of absorbed by the wet plaster; after a
years, but is most associated with number of hours, the plaster dries and
its use in Christian images during reacts with the air: it is this chemical
the Renaissance period in reaction that fixes the pigment particles
Europe. in the plaster. Because of the chemical
makeup of the plaster, a binder is not
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There are two forms of fresco: required. Buon fresco is more stable
buon or “wet”, and secco, because the pigment becomes fused
meaning “dry”. with the wall itself.
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FRESCO

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 FRESCO

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Fresco secco refers to painting an image
on the surface of a dry plaster wall. This
medium requires a binder since the
pigment is not mixed into the wet plaster.
Egg tempera is the most common binder
used for this purpose. It was common to
use fresco secco over buon fresco murals
in order to repair damage or make
changes to the original.
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●
Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of ‘The Last
Supper‘ (below) was done using fresco
secco.

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 OIL

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Oil paint is the most versatile of all ●
Some of the qualities of oil paint include a wide
range of pigment choices, its ability to be
the painting mediums. It uses thinned down and applied in almost transparent
pigment mixed with a binder of glazes as well as used straight from the tube
linseed oil. Linseed oil can also be (without the use of a vehicle), built up in thick
layers called impasto (you can see this in many
used as the vehicle, along with works by Vincent van Gogh). One drawback to
mineral spirits or turpentine. Oil the use of impasto is that over time the body of
painting was thought to have the paint can split, leaving networks of cracks
along the thickest parts of the painting. Because
developed in Europe during the oil paint dries slower than other mediums, it can
15th century, but recent research on be blended on the support surface with
murals found in Afghani caves show meticulous detail. This extended working time
also allows for adjustments and changes to be
oil based paints were used there as made without having to scrape off sections of
early as the 7th century. dried paint.

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EXAMPLE OF OIL PAINTING

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 ACRYLIC

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Acrylic paint became commercially ●
One major difference is the
available in the 1950’s as an relatively fast drying time of
alternative to oils. Pigment is acrylics. They are water soluble,
suspended in an acrylic polymer
but once dry become impervious
emulsion binder and uses water as
the vehicle. The acrylic polymer has
to water or other solvents.
characteristics like rubber or plastic. Moreover, acrylic paints adhere
Acrylic paints offer the body, color to many different surfaces and
resonance and durability of oils are extremely durable. Acrylic
without the expense, mess and impastos will not crack or yellow
toxicity issues of using heavy over time as oils sometimes do.
solvents to mix them.
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 ACRYLIC

BEATRIZ MILHAZES, Mariposa, 2004, Acrylic on canvas [, 98 X 98 in. Photo

courtesy of James Cohen Gallery, New York.

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 WATER COLOR

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Watercolor is the most ●
Transparent watercolor operates in a
reverse relationship to the other painting
sensitive of the painting mediums. It is traditionally applied to a paper
mediums. It reacts to the support, and relies on the whiteness of the
paper to reflect light back through the applied
lightest touch of the artist and color (see below), whereas opaque paints
can become an over-worked (including gouache) reflect light off the skin
mess in a moment. of the paint itself. Watercolor consists of
pigment and a binder of gum arabic, a water-
●
There are two kinds of soluble compound made from the sap of the
acacia tree. It dissolves easily in water.
watercolor media: transparent, There is no white watercolor, but white
and opaque or gouache. gouache can be used to add highlights if
necessary. Using the white ground of the
paper is preferable.
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 WATER COLOR
Watercolor paintings hold a sense of
immediacy.
The medium is extremely portable and excellent
for small
format paintings.
The paper used for watercolor is generally of
two types:
hot pressed, which gives a smoother texture,
and cold pressed,
which results in a rougher texture.
Transparent watercolor techniques include the
use of wash;
an area of color applied with a brush and diluted
with
water to let it flow across the paper.
Chris Gildow, ‘Light passes through the color and is reflected by
the paper underneath’
Wet-in-wet painting allows colors to flow and
drift into each other,
creating soft transitions between them.
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 WATER COLOR

Chris Gildow, ‘Wash, Drybrush’; https://learn.saylor.org/mod/page/view.php?id=437 John Marin, Brooklyn Bridge, 1912, Watercolor and graphite on paper, 15 1/2 in. x 18 1/2
in. Gift of John Marin, Jr. and Norma B. Marin , Accession Number: 1973.042
http://www.colby.edu/museum/?s=John%20Marin%20Brooklyn&obj=Obj2339?
sid=37&x=7627

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 WATER COLOR

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Opaque watercolor, also called gouache,
differs from transparent watercolor in that the
particles are larger, the ratio of pigment to
water is much higher, and an additional, inert,
white pigment such as chalk is also present.
Because of this, gouache paint gives stronger
color than transparent watercolor, although it
tends to dry to a slightly lighter tone than
when it is applied. Gouache paint doesn’t
hold up well as impasto, tending to crack and
fall away from the surface. It holds up well in
thinner applications and often is used to
cover large areas with color. Like transparent
watercolor, dried gouache paint will become
soluble again in water.

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 OTHER PAINTING MEDIUM

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Enamel paints form hard skins typically with a high-gloss finish. They use
heavy solvents and are extremely durable.
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Powder coat paints differ from conventional paints in that they do not
require a solvent to keep the pigment and binder parts in suspension. They
are applied to a surface as a powder then cured with heat to form a tough
skin that is stronger than most other paints. Powder coats are applied mostly
to metal surfaces and are often seen in automotive or furniture contexts.
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Epoxy paints are polymers, created mixing pigment with two different
chemicals: a resin and a hardener. The chemical reaction between the two
creates heat that bonds them together. Epoxy paints, like powder coats and
enamel, are extremely durable in both indoor and outdoor conditions.

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 PAINTING BEYOND PAINTING

Mosaic
The Greeks and Romans used mosaics to decorate
the floors of their homes and basilicas. Intricate
designs made of small, individual bits of stone or
glass called tesserae were embedded in plaster,
mortar or cement. Later Byzantine churches were
richly ornamented with tesserae fashioned from
small bits of marble, stone, or glass with gold leaf
sandwiched between the layers. During the
Renaissance artists like Ghirlandaio and Raphael
also designed mosaics, but the work was most
likely carried out by their workshop artists. Fresco
proved to be a faster and less costly form of wall
decoration from that period forward, although
mosaics continue to be made today.

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TAPESTRY
●

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These fabric wall-hangings in Europe
rivaled paintings in detail and preciousness.
They were, in addition, practical in that they
kept some drafts out of old castle walls.
Many important artists have created the
cartoons – or preliminary drawings/designs
– for tapestries including Raphael, Goya,
and Charles le Brun. Tapestries were often
exchanged between kings as tokens of
good will. There were royal tapestry
factories like the Gobelins in France where
the work was woven by hand with wool,
silk, and precious metal-wrapped thread.

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 REFERENCES
https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/arthistory/chapter/painting/

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