Page 14 - Artist Materials Advisor

Color is an experience enjoyed by almost all the human race from a very early age. As we grow, we learn to recognize and often name specific colors, such as sky blue and grass green, and yet we can never be sure that all persons derive precisely the same sensation from a given stimulus. Our paintings reflect our love of color and contain an infinite variety of hues and shades. While we enjoy the variety, it also condemns us to be forever vigilant to its appearance in different ambient conditions...

We just returned from the 14th Annual Art of the Portrait Conference in Philadelphia last week excited by the interest shown by hundreds of artists in Rublev Colours Artists Oils. These artists displayed intense enthusiasm for learning about traditional colors and how they can be used in contemporary portrait painting...

Artists are sometimes surprised to see one application of paint barely hide the drawing or underpainting below and another color completely mask all that was underneath. Some wonder why sometime after they complete a painting, they begin to see pencil lines of the sketch that before were completely unnoticed. (This effect is called pentimento.) Other artists wishing to apply a beautiful glaze are frustrated when the glaze kills the color below. These are common problems experienced by all painters at one time or another, but they little understand the reasons...

Rublev Colours Violet Hematite is a deep reddish purple hue that tints toward subtle violets when mixed with white. It is useful in flesh tints and shadows, and its purple bias makes good grays. Rublev Colours Violet Hematite is formulated using pure natural ground hematite (Colour Index Name Pigment Red 102 or PR 102) that is absolutely lightfast and very opaque. This beautiful earthy red violet is cooler than other red iron oxide earths, such as Venetian red or Sartorius red...

Casein paint or milk paint is unlike any other natural water-based paint as it dries waterproof. Herein is a complete description of preparing casein or milk paint for art and home decorative applications...

This is the second part of the introduction to the underpainting of faces and flesh—sankir in Russian and proplasmos—in Greek medieval icon painting. During the Tour of Russian Icons, the editors of Iconofile and other tour group members visited the Grabar All-Russia Art Scientific Restoration Center workshop, where we met Adolph N. Ovchinnikov, director of ancient Russian painting. There he introduced us to his book, Symbolism of Christian Art, containing an extensive review of the symbolism found in Christian art based on his 50 years of experience restoring and researching sacred art. Presently available only in Russian, Iconofile obtained permission to translate portions of his book into English. The entire chapter, "On Sankir," is published in the second issue of the Iconofile Journal....

During the Tour of Russian Icons, the editors of Iconofile and tour group members met Adolph N. Ovchinnikov, director of ancient Russian painting. He introduced us to his book, Symbolism of Christian Art, containing an extensive review of the symbolism found in Christian art. This is an excerpt from the chapter, "On Sankir," published in the second issue of the Iconofile Journal....

Gilbert Charles Stuart (born Stewart) (December 3, 1755–July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island. According to evidence from various sources, his palette mainly consisted of the colors described in this article. All of the pigments on Stuart’s palette have been identified in literature and studies of his paintings. Unfortunately, “Antwerp blue” is an imprecise term, and we cannot determine precisely what it meant in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries...

We are often asked about the use of clove oil to retard the drying of oil paint. Like many others, you may have heard that it darkens upon exposure to light. Clove oil works well as a retarder, but there is a note of caution: over time (a long time), it does darken as it dries. It starts off light but can eventually turn black. This is over the years and depends on the amount of direct light. We recommend using slower drying oils to retard drying—walnut or modified oil—instead of adding clove directly to paint...

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. The range of colors Rembrandt employed falls firmly within the mainstream of painting practice in Holland in the seventeenth century. His palette is entirely made up of widely available pigments and, by that time, well understood in their qualities and drawbacks. Seventeenth-century Holland was a center for manufacturing pigments on an industrial scale. The technologies required had evolved enough to remove the uncertainties in preparing standard products...