Home › Forums › Explore Media › Acrylics › The Information Kiosk › APRIL 2007 CLASSROOM: Flemish Technique in Acrylics
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April 11, 2007 at 10:09 pm #986385
Hi everyone! Many of you may have seen me share some “works in progress” paintings where I attempted to follow the Flemish Technique with pretty good results. Those threads can be found here: Salt Shaker, Egg Cup, and Pepper Shaker.
I’m by no means an expert in this technique, nor do I have any strong feelings about it except that it can be very useful for building color depth, ensuring you have a full value range, and helping with accuracy in realism. It’s really all about planning ahead for a successful painting. When I was just starting out as a painter, I was often told that I didn’t use enough colors. Now I glaze many colors in my paintings, and color glazing is part of the Flemish Technique. Another common mistake I made when I began to paint was to not use a full range of values (shadow and light). Interesting paintings are all about light, and light and shadow work together. The Flemish Technique makes sure you take care of this properly early on.
One of the major differences between the way I normally paint and the Flemish Technique is the monochrome underpainting step, referred to as the “dead layer”. This step is very useful because it helps avoid having to correct mistakes while applying color. In fact the whole process stops you from carrying mistakes forward because you have the opportunity to deal with them once and for all during the earlier steps. It’s difficult to completely hide something with glazes.
From my readings, I’ve learned that the Flemish Technique originated from a process used by egg tempura painters to overcome limitations with that medium. It was one of–if not the the first–technique used with the new medium of oil paint, and was adopted by many master painters.
There are supposed to be 7 steps involved in the Flemish Technique, but it depends on how you break it down. The number of steps aren’t important really, so we won’t get hung up on that. The steps I’ve been able to piece together are:
Drawing
Sometimes called a cartoon. Of course this is the drawing of the subject you want to paint.
Transfer Drawing to the Support
Traditionally, a rigid wooden panel was used as a support. It was prepared with some kind of white paint. As far as I know, rabbit glue sizing and lead white primer on canvas was used in the Venetian Technique as a later development. Acrylic Gesso is the contemporary medium and it can be used on panels as well as canvas.
To transfer the drawing, you can poke pin holes in it around the major lines you wish to transfer, place the drawing on the canvas and knock some charcoal dust into the holes. Another method is to apply charcoal to the underside of the drawing and trace the image using a hard pencil.
Freehand Drawing Refinements
Once your major lines are transfered, you will refine your drawing. I’ve found that a sharp pencil is best for this because the detail is not easily washed away in the next step.
Imprimatura
This is a mid-tone wash that seals the drawing and helps you better judge values in the next step. Values tend to appear darker on a plain white surface and you will compensate, only to find out later it’s wrong. Pastel artists like to use tinted papers for the same reason.
Umber Layer Shadows
This is where you paint the shadows using the same basic color as the Imprimatura, which is typically Umber. I use Burnt Umber. The shadows are to be glazed. You can do a considerable amount of shading using glazes of one color.
Opaque Highlights
I missed this step during my first couple of attempts, but on the third try I naturally completed it because it seemed logical. I later read that this was indeed part of the process at this stage.
White paint is typically opaque, but it can be glazed if desired. Here we are using white as the third tone in the painting.
Dead Layer
I’m sure this is the step that is questioned the most because it seems like a lot of work for a questionable amount of benefit. But this is typically your complete painting down to the last detail, excluding color. All of your decisions about tone have been made, and you have your complete range of values. It’s much easier to keep tonal decisions separate from color decisions.
Color Layers
Here is where you apply as many color glazes as necessary to complete the painting. Multiple layers will give you more depth. The light will bounce off each layer slightly differently giving it a unique glow which helps with realism, and makes the painting more visually appealing.
Highlights and Details
The last step is to complete the final highlights and details. This is an important step because it often gives the painting that extra “something” that gives it life.
*****
Here is the best example that I’ve produced so far:
Egg Cup
6×6 acrylic on canvasNext I will select a photo from the RIL to work on.
Everyone is welcome to follow along…
April 11, 2007 at 10:22 pm #1083924April 11, 2007 at 11:10 pm #1083841Correct is a subjective term in art! I think you’re doing fine.
Here is the reference image I’ve chosen. It’s an image from the RIL by mprince.
You can get the full resolution image here.
Tai Eggplants with Jug
April 12, 2007 at 11:02 am #1083917This looks interesting. Am anxious to get started. Jan
April 12, 2007 at 11:57 am #1083936Thanks, Maverick. Look forward to seeing the rest of this tutorial.
--Merritt
April 12, 2007 at 11:59 am #1083962I’m glad to see you doing this, thanks! I’m very curious about the dead layer, can’t wait to see it in “action”.
Comments and critiques are always welcome.
April 12, 2007 at 1:14 pm #1083889Does this method work for landscapes? If anyone has any examples, I’d love to see them.
April 12, 2007 at 2:36 pm #1083842Jan…glad you could join in.
Merritt…join in if you have time.
Polygon…I’ll try my best to use the dead layer to maximum advantage.
Hoofmama…it’s a technique for any kind of painting, but I’m generally a still life painter so that’s why I chose that particular image. I wouldn’t want my inexperience in another genre to get in the way.
April 12, 2007 at 4:07 pm #1083974April 12, 2007 at 4:40 pm #1083885Beautifully explained and presented Mark – thank you so much for teaching yet again
Cheers, Maureen
Forum projects: Plant Parade projects in the Florals/Botanicals forum , WDE in the All Media Art Events , Different Strokes in Acrylics forum .April 13, 2007 at 2:48 am #1083915Hi Mark, now I could make my Thai eggplants look nicer (a few weeks ago, I’ve painted this from the WDE)
I don’t mind to start a new one again if possible.
Thank you for the explanation and looking forward for this lesson.April 13, 2007 at 6:52 am #1083884Yayyy…it’s begun
boo-hoo…I don’t have time to paint until next Tuesday.
but I’ll be watching!
Maggie in SC
April 14, 2007 at 7:42 am #1083972Here is zip with some larger crops on those eggplants- these give a little more detail of the forms.
[ATTACH]357178[/ATTACH]
Michael
April 14, 2007 at 7:55 am #1083918Thank you. Jan
April 14, 2007 at 8:22 am #1083840Nice to see you Mark! Some gorgeous work and wonderful info.
Jocelyn -
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