How to Paint European Style

Painting can be achieved through several mediums such as water color, acrylics, oils, and pastels. Surfaces one can apply paint to include: paper, wood, canvas, glass, and concrete. Different paints and surfaces can be combined to produce distinct painting styles like abstract, impressionism, postmodernism, realism, and surrealism just to name a few. During the Renaissance, the European artists focused on realism, trying to copy exactly what they saw in people and putting it on canvases or wood with oils. Every shadow and light mattered and sometimes the people in the paintings looked more realistic than the actual humans they tried to mimic. But there's actually more to it than just a quick drawing and applying paint.

Almost all paintings start out with a sketch. The European style of painting starts off with a sketch with charcoal on canvas. Charcoal is used because one can easily wipe away their mistakes with a wet cloth. After all of the solid lines are made, the artist goes over the charcoal with a brush and turpentine. Turpentine is a solvent used for thinning oil-based paints; it is the equivalent of acrylic paint to water as oil paint to turpentine. One must wait a couple of minutes for the turpentine to set and dry. This is done to keep the charcoal lines in place when one goes to apply the oils.

Now that the lines are defined, one must focus closely on the subject that is painted which can be an actual person, a picture of something you want to paint, or a still-life such as a vase or plant. On the palette the colors burnt sienna, raw sienna, and a bit of black are mixed all together to create a dark brown color. This color is then applied to the figure on the canvas, covering the entire subject. Immediately after with a dry cloth, the areas that have more light are swept away. The harder you rub with the cloth, the more paint that will be removed and the lighter the area. The shadows in the subject are left alone, dark brown. The medium areas of the subject are lightened with the dry cloth to differentiate from the dark shadows.

The product of this technique is an oil painting in all browns with lights and darks. The next step involves using the other colors on the palette. Now that the lights and darks have be predefined by the browns, it is easier to paint with color. For example: Say you are painting a red vase that has lights and shadows. A lighter red would be applied to the already light brown area and a darker red would be applied to the shadows. Essentially, you are putting on two coats, the first one being strictly browns and the second one being all colors. After all the areas have been filled with color, the brush is used briskly over the borders where the different colors touch to eliminate the strong lines and blend.

The purpose of painting with browns before actual color is to create dimension before you even commence painting with color. This makes the subject realistic and helps you perfect the image before the final touch of color is added. It is also easier to add details in the brown stages because it is just one color you are working with versus if you just sketched the subject and added color it would be more difficult to make corrections.

The key to making a painting look realistic is creating volume and physical space with the brown undercoat. European painters that achieved this were da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Raphael just to name a few. Upon completing the final layer of color, these artists would then go back to the canvas with white and emphasize the lightest areas with shines. This process would continue with other details until they were satisfied with their realistic painting.