| Author | Message | ||
  anon11 |
http://www.kooschadler.com/technique.htm#Silverpoint paste the above for a link to silverpoint. | ||
GaryDoc |
Also, silverpoint will tarnish, so the image will darken over time...still a very light image, tho'! Done as an independant medium with delicate cross hatching, it makes a wonderful picture. (IMHO) | ||
anon11 |
The green underpainting is left to show through and becomes the shadows in effect. The edge of the nose, the lines around the eyes, the cool areas where there is less blood flow, the chin, neck etc.. silverpoint is literally silver used as a pencil and leaves a light transfer onto your surface. I do not use it but it can be very beautiful. | ||
rekhasharma |
What is silverpoint drawing? I am not enamoured by the Renaissance paintings but I was curious about the use of green pigment for underpainting in what later becomes flesh coloured. This has now been adequately explained. Why not phthalo green? | ||
marie |
You should be able to use cool, muted, greens effectively in shadows. (Stay away from the thalo green.) What I would not recommend is underpainting green in watercolor. If I were going for a renaissance-type look, I might try starting with a silverpoint drawing at reasonably small scale (7x10 or smaller). Then add light washes of a yellow earth (raw sienna or yellow ochre), earth red (venetian red), and terre verte. Leave open the possibility for some small, dark washes of burnt umber or sepia at the very end. I could see this being quite lovely -- in fact, I might do it sometime when I'm in the mood for it. By the way, earth colors are terrific for figurative work. I *really* like them. | ||
rekhasharma |
Thank you Marie. I have found additional information using verdaccio as a key search word, which Butch Kreiger has provided me. He suggests it can be used in watercolour as well; I have not included the excerpt of his email as I am still waiting for his permission. "According to American born Naturalist / Realist Painter, Adrian Gottlieb, in order accomplish this southern Renaissance style of underpainting, you'll need two ranges of color; one green, and one a bit pinker. "The colors on your palette will be chrome green oxide, sinopia (a redish-brown earth color used in painting and fresco), lead white and ivory black. All values are around two or three steps higher than in nature. This insures that the underpainting will drive up the luminiosity of the colors that are laid on top. Shadows are made of green, red, and black if necessary. Midtones are of the green range, and lights are of the pink range." | ||
marie |
Oops! I forgot to say that the green underpainting only works for opaque media. | ||
Robert |
Not in watercolor--where would the light tones come from? Luminosity doesn't technically exist (see handprint). The white of the paper is what creates the transparent glowing. Kill the white of the paper and the 'luminosity' goes. | ||
marie |
Terre Verte, a green earth pigment, was commonly used for underpainting in medieval times and the early renaissance. Cennino Cennini in "The Book of the Art", written in the early 15th century, describes it as a "full-bodied pigment ... proper to use for faces, draperies, buildings." He also says that this it is appropriate for overlaying with gold. I don't think he says anything about why a green hue is useful for underpainting; he's more focused on the handling characteristics. Having said that, I imagine that the cool green of the terre verte provides a nice contrast to the warmer earth colors. When terre verte was in common use as an underpainting, there weren't many other choices for a lightfast and inexpensive cool pigment. It's not uncommon in opaque mediums to apply an underlying layer in a contrasting color. I think it tones down the the top layer, and allows you to have small pieces of the lower layer showing through for contrast. I'm not much of an oil painter. Oil, tempera, and pastel painters might have a better answer for you. | ||
rekhasharma |
I was reading Earth Colors and the Human Palette Advantages of Using Earth Colors in Portrait Painting and Step-by-Step Presentation By Butch Krieger which appeared in http://www.naturalpigments.com/default.asp Can anyone explain why he may be using a green colour for underpainting. My first guess is that it is a complementary colour to ~red and would increase luminosity but I am not sure. |
