Breaking the rules of painting?
 

This is a partial quote lifted from a post by Jim Riley. As I listen to artists (myself included), we all seem to say that we pride ourselves that we rise above those old rigid and silly rules regarding some techniques and theory.

I am curious...what are some of these rules of painting that some of us follow and some of us scoff at?

The very first "rule of painting" that pops into my mind is "always paint fat over lean." However this rule can be tossed out the window if you simply use Liquin as your medium throughout the painting.

One of my favorite stories is the one about how Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. It's said that he had everything pretty well worked out except for the filament. It seemed that nothing he tried would work. After many, many experiments with all sorts of metals he stumbled upon the thin strand of tungsten.

The gist of the story for me are his comments regarding his search. He said that if he had known anything at all about the science of metallurgy he would have known that what he was trying to do was impossible.

Or use no medium, just paint....:)

Peggy

I've had problems with a couple of paintings in which I used Liquin. The upper layers can be seen de-laminating from the lower layers in places. It's quite obvious and thank goodness they were not commissions!

Michele,

Regarding the de-lamination, had the paintings been varnished?

Liquin vs oil based medium
 

Michele, I have heard that it is possible to get a bad bottle of Liquin. It has never happened to me but I have heard enough stories from others that I believe it to be true. I used Liquin in almost all of my illustration work.

I have done many oil wash paintings on gessoed panels using Liquin as the medium, since without some added medium thin washes of paint when dry do not have anything to bind the pigment to the surface. So far all my paintings are still ok.

I did learn something when I first started using that technique. Sometimes if the surface had oils (even the oil from your hands was enough) on the gesso the paint would not stick well. I would wash the surface with 409 or some other detergent that cuts grease and then the Liquin and turp-thinned paint would stay very well. You would think since there is oil in the paint this would not matter but it did, at least with the thin layers of paint I was using.

Sometimes that was the only layer giving it the look of a watercolor. Other times I would paint opaque paint over this. More well known artists that use this method are Bart Forbes, Bernie Fuchs and Michael Dudash.

Liquin dries faster than oil paint with no Liquin so you cannot put a layer with a lot of liquin over a layer with none until it is completely dry. Unlike oil-based mediums which slow drying and would be fat compared to oil paint alone, paint with Liquin added is like paint with less oil. So it is not fat but lean paint since it dries faster. You cannot use Liquin like other oil based mediums. This also could have caused your painting to delaminate.

Don't feel bad. Many illustrators do plenty of things you would not do in fine art paintings. Norman Rockwell used shellac as a fixative to isolate his drawing from the paint layers. This is not a great idea since shellac has a naturally waxy coating and the oil paint can delaminate from it.

This had a benefit for his purpose. Turps does not dissolve Shellac (alcohol does) so he could completely wipe his layers of oils off even if they were dry. He could start over and not lose his drawing if he wanted.

Conservators working on preserving his paintings today have to be very careful when they remove the top varnish to clean the painting that they don't disturb the layers of paint as well. Even now the paint can still be removed from the shellac layer if they are not careful.

Mike M, the painting had not been varnished.

I wish Winsor Newton would publish some information on exactly how to use Liquin. It has such great potential but it behaves so differently from traditional mediums!

Administrator's note: At present, there are 56 separate threads dealing with Liquin/varnish! Start here: http://forum.portraitartist.com/sear...der=descending

Aside from the very real and practical guidelines/rules which, as we see on this thread, are subject to changes in technology or limitations of a medium, I don't know how so many people can make such absolute statements about lighting, color, shading, composition, etc. that are really no more than personal preferences.

What works for one person should not be stated as a "rule" for the developing artist. It seems to me that there is nothing in the modern world to suggest that the artist should adhere to methods used by the masters who did not have the benefit of modern lighting and the effects they cast as part of our day to day experience.

Most of us for instance do not really know each other or our families under the presence of north light and the insistence upon it's exclusive use, it could be argued, might appear more artificial than man made lights. (Staged)

For my part it doesn't so much matter in the eventual quest of traditional portraiture to capture personality and lighting doesn't make the critical difference. I have often thought that the "Old Masters", if they could return to the human condition, might jump for joy at the opportunity artificial lights provide. (I never made a study but often wondered if the left handed masters used an upper right light source to prevent working in the shadow of their hand and arm.)

Another "rule" that I fail to follow and understand is the warm/cool colors advance/recede postulate. I don't even think about it. As a great jazz musician once said, "If it sounds good, it is good" and the same applies to painting if it looks good.

If the subject has a light blue shirt I'll give him a light/cool reflected light on the chin or neck. Who said it can't be cool and light?

"Rules" often are the result of overstatement made in effort to be helpful to the developing artist and then become a larger concern than new projects warrant. I avoid "always" and "never" unless it relates to illicit behavior.

Paint out of the tube is just pigment in linseed oil, walnut oil or other kinds of oils.

So, does that mean that if you add turps to your paint that the paint straight out of the tube is actually fatter? So it would seem that adding "some kinds of medium" to your paint would actually make it leaner.

If you mix your own medium using oils, varnish, and turps, then if you add that to your paint, will it be leaner or fatter?

And what about glazing? I think that the standard glazing recipe is 1 part oil, 1 part varnish, and one part turps, so is your glaze actually leaner than the tube paint, because the tube paint has only oil in it? So, then are you glazing lean over fat?

Now everyone, keep your sense of humor here.