Leonardo da Vinci, a painter and scientist, is one of the most well known of the Old Masters.
The term Old Master often describes artists from around the Renaissance period of art, such as Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael, but it can also describe any artist from between the years 1500 and 1800. Many Old Master oil paintings are the gold standard of what art should be, and their techniques are valuable learning tools for any aspiring artist. Using three techniques -- underpainting, glazing and scumbling -- the Old Masters perfected both the Flemish and Venetian methods of oil painting.
Underpainting
A widely used Old Master painting technique is underpainting, a preliminary process in which the artist lays down the form and tonal composition of the painting. This rough draft acts as base for the layers of paint that make up the final work. Using tempera or oils, the underpainting is either monochromatic or in color, and dries completely before the application of subsequent layers. A monochromatic underpainting is generally a grayscale rendering that allows the artist to define light and shadow, while a color underpainting defines the painting's overall use of color.
Glazing
Another Old Master technique is glazing, which is the application of transparent or semi-transparent layers over a light color underpainting. Due to the limited number of colors available to the Old Masters, glazing was a way to expand the palette by layering transparent tones of color, one over the other. Made by mixing paint and a oil medium until transparent, a tinted glaze applied to a light opaque surface functions much like a stage light in a theater. The light shines through transparent colored sheets, and the combination of different color sheets produces any number of new colors.
Scumbling
A common technique used by the Old Masters is scumbling, in which lighter paint overlays darker colors. Scumbling, the opposite of glazing, uses opaque or semi-opaque paint layered over dried paint with a brush or with a paint knife and scraped to create texture. Leonardo da Vinci often employed scumbling, utilizing the technique for highlighting and softness. Scumbling is also beneficial when used for transitioning or grading of color.
Flemish Method
The Flemish method of painting, used by old masters such as Van Eyck and Hans Holbein the Younger, was the common technique in the north of Europe. Painted on a hard surface, like wood, was a flat transparent underpainting known as an imprimatura. Using the glazing technique, Flemish Old Masters applied the dark tones first, and then applied the middle tones, which were either opaque or transparent glaze. Finally, the artist applied the lighter tones and highlights that were always opaque.
Venetian Method
In the south of Europe, particularly Italy, the Old Masters utilized the Venetian method of oil painting. Like the Flemish method, the Venetian method used transparent dark tones and opaque highlights, but differed with the use of canvas rather than wood. Painters such as Titian and Giorgione, along with Leonardo da Vinci, perfected the Venetian method and pioneered the use of scumbling. Italian painters also used large hog-bristle paintbrushes to create texture.
