| REMBRANDT - VELAZQUEZ - VERMEER |
The history of European Old Master Paintings covers several centuries. Roughly from the late 1300's with the Van Eyck brothers, to about the mid 1700's. Modernization and the eventual Industrial Revolution changed the Old Master studios and teaching methods. Much studio knowledge was lost forever. Modern science has learned much in the 20th and 21st centuries, about the methods and materials used by the Old Masters, and scientists continue to study the subject. Artists too, like myself, have worked to reverse engineer the methods and materials used by the Old Masters. The modern era since about the 1800's onward, has seen several artist-authors , Eastlake, Maroger, Taubes, Mayer, publish books with their beliefs, but they contain many errors because they lacked modern science. 1- 4- 2015 |
Please read my book and see my DVDS to properly understand the foundation of these tests. |
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| REMBRANDT This is a study of how I believe he painted his Self-Portraits. |
| VERMEER PAINTED WITH MANY METHODS OF OPTICS AND MIRRORS ONE IS THE CAMARA OBSCURA ANOTHER WAS THE CAMARA LUCIDA ANIOTHER WAS AN OFFSET TRANSFER METHOD AND ANOTHER WAS WITHOUT USE OF OPTICS OR MIRRORS |
| REMBRANDT'S SELF-PORTRAITS are mirror-reversed images, meaning when you look at them, what you believe is his right ear is really his left ear. In his 63 year life, Rembrandt paint, Drew or Etched pictures of his face more than any other Old Master. It is estimated there are 90, covering him from youth to old age. WHY SO MANY? I believe it was so he could study the effects of Nature's changing lights and shade, and so he could learn the secrets of painting realistically. A mirror allows an artist to do that, and one does not have to pay model fees. Velazquez also painted mirror-reversed images from reflections observed in a flat mirror. There are different kinds of mirrors. A flat mirror simply reflects a reverse-image of reality. A concave mirror is a PROJECTION DEVICE. It can project images to another surface, like an artists canvas, or to a wall...or to another mirror. ON THE VERMEER EXPERIMENTS [ on the other side of the page] I will be posting my thoughts about the other PROJECTION DEVICE used by some--not all- Old Masters. it is an OPTICAL LENS and is used with a dark room called. the CAMARA OBSCURA. It appears REmbrandt and Velazquez had some use of the Dark room, but not as did Vermeer. We simply do not know with any certainty. HERE ON THIS LEFT SIDE OF THE PAGE IS MY EXPERIMENT on how I think REmbrandt set up his flat mirror to record his face on the canvas. 1. I BEGIN WITH THE "'CSO' SET UP OF MATERIALS 2. I CREATED A VALUE FINDER AS TAUGHT BY MANY OLD BOOKS, THE OLDEST BEING FROM THE 110-1200'S, a book titled ON DIVERS ARTS, written by Theophilus . 3. I did not use the value finder in painting this picture. I found that my efforts to use the value finder were complicated by a very blustery cloudy day where the lights in my room kept changing minute by minute.I found the value finder basiclly unusable. It could be used at a later time as a CHECKER-RECHECKER of values. 4. You will see how CSO can be used to create 4 different values of white. I used Titanium Dioxide white-a modern white not available to the Old Masters--BUT , I use it because I will not expose myself nor my family to the poisonous LEAD WHITE that was used by the Old Masters. 5. I use the simple GRID I learned from Frank Covino [ born 1931-]. See my other web pages for more informationj on the teachings of FRANK COVINO. At the bottom are a few other line drawings to explain facts related to mirrors or to how to enlarge or accurately reduce a drawing in scale-size by means of ancient knowledge.. 6. I have long thought that Vermeer-and many other masters would underpaint with a quick drying Tempera paint. They had three to choose from: MILK [ casein] , EGG, or HIDE GLUE. These would be painted thinly like watercolor- and when completed an oil is applied to protect the surface, making it permanent and impermeable. There are many solid reasons for use of TEmpera as an underpainting medium, and it was used as science shows, by various artists. 7. The main reason I believe Vermeer began with tempera paint is because he PRIMERED his canvases with gesso--a perfect primer layer for Tempera paints. His meticulous ultra-detailed applications also point out to use of Tempera paints. 8. In this painting, I began with three values of Tempera milk paint. I closed my left eye which was placed right at the center of the grid. It became my registration point, because I had to keep getting up to take photos. My head moved too much so I leaned it on my hand/arm. 9. As I said, the lighting in my room kept vacilatiing. These changes of light and shadow also altered the colors. COLOR has three properties that are inter-related and connected to each other HUE: the actual color CHROMA: The brightness or dullness of that hue VALUE: the lights or darks 10. I blended the back ground with my finger--one of the most valuable tools an artist has. Finbgerprints have been found in the paintings of DaVinci, Raphael, and many others. NOTE how the lights became dark in my room. 11. The portrait is finished. The total time was 4 hours. THis is an ALLA PRIMA painting..but on top of a dry TEmpera MONOTONE. The monotone is a help and this procedure was used by all the great Old Masters, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Rubens, Titian etc....Some called it the ' dead color' or the ' monotone', or the 'Verdaccio', or the 'Grisaille'. The principle and worth is the same. 12. The last photo is the gray scale I used. As I said, I did not use it. |
| THE MOVIE, "TIM'S VERMEER" which is a darkened area fixed with a glass lens. This lens will then project images from outside, into the dark area. The problems are that the image , tho beautiful and in full color, is upside down [ inverted] and it is mirror-reversed. Meaning that if any words are projected, they are written backwards. Please see my Youtube video, " TIM'S VERMEER, WHY THE MOVIE FAILED". It explains in detail why I cannot agree with Mr. Tim Jenison, that his 'device' was known to or used by Vermeer. PART ONE: In my view, the movie is a long magic trick that deceives the viewer. The Producer and Director are the famous Las Velas Magicians, Penn and Teller. They are long time friends of TIM. The movie was officially released in November 2013. It was publically aired in theaters in January 2014. I saw the movie then. A lot of questions were raised as I saw the movie. But, it moves so fast, I was unable to STUDY it in detail. THen, In June, 2014, the movie was released on DVD and Download. I purchased the download version , and I was able to study the film , frame by frame. I continued to believe the film is deceptive IF it was trying to show how Vermeer used tools . PART TWO: THERE IS NO DOUBT that Vermeer used lenses and mirrors and TRACED images in the Camara Obscura. Only through projection can one easily trace images.. PLEASE NOTE: TRACING IMAGES IS NOT CHEATING. Tracing is just one more tool or method artrists use to make fine paintings. BUT< NOT ALL FINE ARTISTS TRACE. My best artist friend TRACES and creates beauitiful work. That is because he is SELECTIVE and does not trace everything he sees in the projected image. ALSO, he is a master designer and DESIGN is one of the very important components to a fine painting. I TRIED TRACING only one time in my life. THat was in the 1980's. I HATED THE METHOD. I never made another tracing!!! I felt it curtailed my creativity. PART THREE: It was good luck that TIM JENISON participated on a BLOG, and answered questions about the TECHNICAL procedures of how he copied a Vermeer painting. I thank Tim for this and I learned the important procedures that were not included in the film. Tim and I carried on a conversation on the BLOG. See it at www.essentialvermeer.com Scroll down to about September 1st. That is when Tim begins. CONCLUSION I will add more information here as time goes on Thank you Louis 11/3/2014 |
| A MIRROR CAN BOUNCE LIGHT I am using a small mirror to bounce sunlight into a darkened area of my room . This is the method I believe most likely that Vermeer used to make fuzzy indistinct areas become highly illumiunated. Once illuminated, he was able to trace the fine details while inside the Camara Obscura. The ancient Egyptians, like Vermeer, had no electricity and no spotlights. BUT, they could arrange several mirrors on stands, and bounce light deep into the tunnels of their pyramids, or anywhere they wished, by a relay of flat mirrors or shiny metal plates. |
| THE MOVIE , " TIM'S VERMEER" , PART TWO Those who saw the movie, " Tim's Vermeer", left the theater with varied opinions. I am a professional artist and art educator, and when I saw the movie in January, 2014, I was left with many unanswered questions. Basically, I felt deceived at what the movie tried to say about Vermeer and how he created some of the world's greatest masterpieces. "Tim's Vermeer" is a Hollywood movie and these movies are a commodity with the goal of selling for profits. There is a big difference with these types and scholarly academic documentaries that are a search for truth. Tim and the others involved in making this movie were on a whirlwind promotional tour for months. All the interviews were directed at " advertising". Everyone was shaking hands, patting each other on the back, and making congratulatory comments. Missing facts about the movie were ignored. No one was asking hard or critical questions. TIM BREAKS HIS SILENCE It was finally in September 2014, that Tim chose to speak openly about his scientific experiment leading to copying a Vermeer masterpiece. Tim deserves a lot of recognition for his scientific experiment, but the movie was not a scholarly documentary. Tim opened up and answered all questions posed by several very intelligent persons, and one can read it all on the website owned by Jonathan Janson, who himself is a professional artist. Google the name 'essentialvermeer', then, click on BLOG, then scroll to the topic: "Tim's Vermeer, from a painters point of view". Scroll down to September, when Tim begins. You will enjoy the dialogue. It provides the artistic technical parts, missing from the movie. Tim is a gentleman. CONCLUSION OF THE BLOG COMMENTS Tim answered all questions and gave honest explanations. I am grateful to Tim that he did clear up missing information. Even after many comments, I am of the opinion that there is still much more missing or hidden. The dialogue on the Blog continued for two months. It now appears to be coming to a close. In November, 2014, one of the interested by name of " W Wick" , posted words and images that in my view are the most important bits of evidence. In my professional opinion, they answer the core question : Whether Vermeer did or did not , use anything similar to Tim's mirror device as a tool in painting his paintings. It was through W WICK's efforts, that allowed us to compare, side by side, the masterpiece by Vermeer with the copy painting by Tim. This allows us to see the big differences on why Vermeer's painting is a creative masterpiece and why Tim's is not. COMPARING A MASTERPIECE WITH A COPY The evidence W WICK posted, is four images for comparison. 2 in color and 2 in grayscale. The gray scale and color scale "comparison images" of the Music Lesson, demonstrated what I have tried (and failed) to explain by using words alone. The power of silent images to speak clearly, is here for all to see. In my view, this is the strongest evidence that Vermeer did NOT use Tim's comparator device. Not even for one moment! The comparison images, show how Vermeer used " CREATIVE coloring" in expressing his aesthetic views of reality. And, they show how Tim used " COPY coloring" to render reality as a " snap shot" photographer would. Tim's painting is a "still-photographic-like" copy painting, like seen in any photograph. Unfortunately, many persons are mislead when they see finely painted photographically accurate , copy of details as a hallmark of fine art. It certainly is not. THE INIMITABLE BEAUTY OF AN ORIGINAL VERMEER Vermeer's masterpiece is an unbelievably beautiful symphony of delicate colors and values of light and shade harmonies and spatial relationships. All of Vermeer's paintings, each and everyone, is like a great composition by Beethoven, Mozart, Shakespeare, or any other great master artist. It is only by comparing Tim's copy to the original Vermeer, that we can " see" the differences between the two. The light value of Vermeer's pale blue color of the chair is crucial...as is the important spatial positioning. This gives Vermeer's painting aesthetically controlled depth and space , while Tim's darker blue chair melts with the figures and creates an unaesthetic flatness of the space. See also Vermeer's delicate values of color in the shaded area of the rug, with its spatially important, lively reflected light. The same area in Tim's rug is flat and dead colored. Tim's painting when seen in comparison to Vermeer's is lacking in the beautiful spatial divisions, and harmony of colors and tones seen in the Vermeer. WWICK's written description better expresses Vermeer's aesthetic color harmonies of objects, and their aesthetic relationships to each other . I believe W WICKS studies, observations and comments will be of service to those who really want to know the truth about the core question in the movie. I take this opportunity to thank W WICK. I have tried to post my gratitude on the essentialvermeer Blog, but in recent days, my letters gave been rejected. Thank you, Louis , November 10, 2014 |
| Please see my YOUTUBE video titled: TIMS VERMEER, WHY THE MOVIE FAILED There you will see the explanation for the CAMARA OBSCURA you see to the right TO SEE MY OTHER youtube videos, type in CSO VELASQUEZ |
| TIM'CARICATURE In November 2014 I painted a caricature of Tim Jenison, the man who is featured in the movie, “Tim’s Vermeer”. I recommend you see the movie- but take notes!! When I saw the movie I saw its claims as being very misleading. The claim was that Tim ‘discovered” a method of copying nature that he believes may have been used by Vermeer. In my opinion as a professional artist and art teacher, I took Tim to task. The movie was officially released within Hollywood in November 2013. It then was released to the general public in January 2014. Finally in June 2014, it was made available on DVD. I saw the movie at the theaters in Jan and I bought the video in June. I studied it frame by frame on my ipad. NOW..I had the evidence I needed to confront Tim. But I had no way to reach him personally. Finally, Tim joined a Blog and answered all questions posed to him. You can read his answers on that website” www.essentialvermerr. com Once on the site—click on BLOG. Then once there click on TIMS VERMEER..A PAINTERS POINT OF VIEW. Scroll down until you see Tim’s entry in the discussion. You will enjoy the comments. Finally, on November 14, 2014- the blog ended. I got to meet Tim there on the BLOG. He is a fine family man .I respect his efforts to express his ideas. I conclude that Vermeer did NOT use the idea Tim had. At the very conclusion of the BLOG, you can read the posting by W WICK. It is eloquent and is the final proof that Tim’s method was not used. During the several months I participated on the BLOG, I began a caricature of Tim. Tim replied that he loved it. Then, I finished it and sent it tyo him. Here is the report describing the content in the caricature painting. CONTENTS OF THE CARICATURE I MADE OF TIM This letter explains that Tim's caricature was made to show Vermeer's method of painting. THE first goal was to demonstrate what Vermeer did while inside the Camara Obscura ( CO). Which was simply: To paint a brown monotone. It is impossible to paint with colors in the CO. Surely Vermeer knew this and never wasted his time even trying to paint with colors nor even a grisaille in the CO. THE brown monotone was merely a sketchy foundational step. A rudimentary step that would evolve over time as the coloring and development was being expanded. Please compare my initial monotone to my finished painting to see its evolution. Vermeer, like all creative artists, would stop to think, evaluate and make decisions and changes to his previous decisions, as he evolved the painting during its creative construction. The many changes, some minute, others larger, would be made endlessly until the painting was finished to his satisfaction. "Finishing" is dependent on the aim of the artist, and can be done rapidly in one day...or can take many weeks, months, or years. The painting procedures of the Old Masters, has five basic steps. (1)Prepare (2) Draw( or paint) the monotone (3) Underpaint (4) Overpaint (5) Finish. " Finishing" is the most difficult. It requires endless editing. The finishing stage is where the artist creates the final vision of the painting from its original birth idea. THE CARICATURE PAINTING 1. It represents Tim the Magician pulling Tim the Scientist out of a bowl. In my opinion the movie "Tim's Vermeer", is one very long magic act. Famed Magician Teller did the editing and left out important painting steps as part of his " magic" act in order to create mystery. He did a good job of hiding facts, and left people wondering, like all good magicians do with their magic acts. In my painting, Tim is the magician because I believe Tim was aware of Teller's magic editing tricks. Tim obviously saw the runs and final clip before release. As Tim said, the decision was made to create an 'entertaining' movie. Entertaining movies and caricatures bring joy to the world. We can laugh at ourselves and not take ourselves too seriously . Vermeer himself, painted his own self- portrait caricature in The Procuress, goofily smiling, while inside a brothel. 2. One sees the curvature of vertical and horizontal lines in my painting. They are a comment about how Vermeer's crude lenses - as Steadman tells us in his book- do distort straight lines and are seen to either frown, smile or barrel . These repeat the obvious fact that Vermeer had to correct those issues as he developed his paintings towards completion. This explains his use of a pin and snap chalk lines that were needed to straighten out the distorted perspective lines. 3. The black to white value scale in five values seen in the background speaks for itself. It is the time honored way - from before Theophilus' well documented treatise of the 1100's - to teach young artists that visual reality as humans see it, is made up of value changes, and, that they could use a dry and a wet value scale as a painting tool guide. Also, every art medium, be it oils, temperas, watercolors, chalks, inks etc...have two exterior value borders. One is dark, the other is light. Tim, a video artist,calls this " dynamic range", but certainly, neither Vermeer, nor Rembrandt, nor Michelangelo, ever knew nor used that term , ‘Dynamic”. Even kids in kindergarten intuitively understand the OBVIOUS, that their crayons and tempera paints have colors, plus black and white, and that BLACK cannot get any darker and white cannot get any lighter. They do not need computer experts nor scientists to explain F stops. 4. The two diamond ( floor tile) shapes seen above in the background, show what all artists intuitively know. Values appear different depending on what they are surrounded with. In this case I used the mid value gray, to paint the diamond shapes in the area of the pure white, and in the pure black area. This can be called, " tricking the retina", or " an optical illusion". Good art teachers teach this to their students. One very misleading argument in the movie that was " inaccurately supported" by the un-contested opinion of the eye doctor, and also by Tim , both who tried (but failed) to convince critical thinkers , that the human retina cannot distinguish value changes on a white wall enough to intuitively reproduce them. 5. On the left front, one sees three rectangles that show how Vermeer used color and values to create a sense of depth. One is yellow, one is a very pale blue and one is pure white. These refer to the similar spatial arrangement by Vermeer in the Music Lesson where he strategically placed these three colors to create an aesthetic illusion of depth. These are in the virginal, the pale blue chair and the white jug. 6. The yellow rectangle represents the virginal. Vermeer had no electricity and to overcome the handicap of Holland's dim studio light, he had to bounce sunlight into his studio by any arrangement of one or more portable flat mirrors. Here one sees how the virginal's design, that is barely visible in the darkened studio lighting, has been brightly illuminated by a bounced beam of sun light. This bright illumination, allowed the projected image to be clearly seen--- and easily traced--- by Vermeer while inside the Camara Obscura. Desired color glazes are added later outside the CO if needed or desired. 7. The highlighted bright yellow circle on the yellow rectangle , besides showing illumination, is also a comment about how a simple FOCUS LENS, placed in front of the stationary lens of the CO can be used to sharpen the image just as a telescope or microscope do. Both instruments with focusing ability, were known to Vermeer. This high definition allowed Vermeer to see and to trace the very fine details as seen on the virginal while he was in the CO. 8. The pale thin blue or white line on the left edge of Tim's head and left torso is a comment about " optical aberration". Although aberrations may be seen in optics, optics are not needed for aberrations to be seen by the naked eye. I easily see them myself in my daily surroundings, at the juncture where the contour of a dark form meets a brightly lit area that is behind it. The existence of this pure white or pale blue line seen in SOME of Vermeer's paintings is not proof that he used optics. Note that it was his choice to use , as they are not seen in ALL of Vermeer's paintings. My two good eyes also easily see double and triple shadows that are cast by objects in sunlight. 9. Like Vermeer, I used a canvas with a visible weave, not a flat piece of wood as Tim did. It is easy to draw with a pencil on flat wood and not so easy to draw with pencil on canvas. Vermeer did not draw lines with a pencil, and neither did I. All of my guide lines were painted with paint. Like with Vermeer, X-rays will not find any pencil, chalk or any type of lines under my paint layers. 10. The only one ( and it is the only one )aspect of Tim's mirror device that impressed me was its ability to TRACE fine details that are seen on the virginal and the carpet. I proved here there are other ways to trace, as one can see on the yellow rectangle. Besides use of a CO, the use of a Camara Lucida also allows minute tracings to be made and at various sizes. Steadman's book also describes how the CO was used in the 18th and 19th centuries to not only enlarge images, but to also reduce images for tracings. 11. Steadman's book describes how the correct geometric scaled furniture fit ALL the other reconstructed rooms, but they did NOT fit in the Music Lesson, as they were too large. The same scaled furnishings , used in the other 5 reconstructions were too large for the reconstructed Music Lesson room. This is evidence of Vermeer moving his "lens" forward and backward to different positions and that he was in fact COLLAGING unrelated images. The objects in my painting are all unrelated and are in fact a collage of imagined and separate images of different sizes, placed together to form a balanced composition. CONCLUSION My purpose for posting the caricature was (1) to demonstrate how Vermeer used the CO. The initial monotone served ONLY a very limited purpose as the foundation for the subsequent creative decisions. Also, the artist can repeatedly return the painting back into the CO to trace additional fine lines, such as the seahorse design on the dried painting of the virginal. (2) to demonstrate that content ideas ... evolve over time as an artist is slowly thinking, pondering, choosing and making changes in " finishing". A painting is "finished" by painting in studio lighting, and without being in a rush or having to meet a deadline. I hope you enjoy the Vermeer related lessons the caricature represents as to how I believe Vermeer approached his painting procedures. I believe it is clear when comparing Vermeer's painting alongside Tim's copy ( as W WICK demonstrated) - that Vermeer did not use Tim's mirror device because he had NO NEED of it to create his paintings. Tim's SOLE GOAL was to copy what he saw in the mirror like a photo snapshot without any regard for creativity. Vermeer's SOLE GOAL was to create a personal vision of an extraordinary symphony of colors and values by the artist's license of selection, deletion and modification of reality seen. Sincerely, Louis R. Velasquez December 8, 2014 posted on my website |
| STEP ONE WAS THE UNDERPAINTING I used a cheap cotton canvas panel I sealed it with two coats of [fresh-not from a can] non fat liquid milk [ canned milk has non drying palm oil and sugars] i mixed non fat milk with dry pigments. the paint layers dry instantly- its basically a casein tempera. i applied a layer [ imprimatura] of ochre i mixed two values a black and a brown to paint the image..this gives me three values. ochre, black and brown [ in reality=the ochre is yellow, the black is blue and the brown is red] these are the three primary colors albeit in muted form. i then sealed the surface with sunn oil , superior oil of the old masters as described in my book. i let this dry- then began the painting. |
| PAINTING THE COLORS ON THE MONOTONE IS THE NEXT STEP. Sometimes a GRISAILLE can be painted on top of the Monotone..in this case...I went straight for the colors. This stage takes time. I worked on the painting off and on for about 4 weeks. The CONTENT of the painting progressed slowly over time. Ideas come when they want to come. EXAMPLE: At first the 5 Values in the background were all in vertrical straight areas. THen, I made them curve to mimic what the CAMARA OBSCURA lens does to straight lines. I sent the original to Mr. Tim Jenison..He and I had good exchanges of information these past few months of 2014.. He is a good man, a gentleman. I admire his efforts, but do not agree with him.. |
DIEGO VELAZQUEZ 1599-1661 |
| information posted 6-28-2009] I receive lots of mail from artists around the world ... who are passionate about Velazquez' paintings. I know why too. Ive seen the original Velazquez paintings in most major museums, but in Madrid Spain, at the Prado museum,you get to see the finest of the finest. My book is based on Rembrandt's and Velazquez' methods and materials. Poor Jacques Maroger, he guessed that the ' translucent material ' he saw in Velazquez' paintings was WAX. He said the same about Rembrandts paintings. Maroger was never so wrong as with these two grossly inaccurate guesses. What we learned from science , published since 1988, is that both of these great masters added calcium carbonate to their oil paint. This wonderful natural inert colorless material is 98% translucent in oil...causing Maroger to think it was wax. Velazquez and Rembrandt added this calcium carbonate for several reasons, not only to create lifelike translucent paint. My book goes into great detail on this topic, and also includes a ten page essay on Maroger's failure. RECENTLY....i began a specific study that led me down a unique path. This study opened up a new awareness of Velazquez' working method. Recent studies of Caravaggios work shows a similar use of this method. In brief, it involves the use of scoring into the wet monotone and the grisaille. We all know Rembrandt scored his paint, clearly leaving the scratches/ drawing/ incisions in the wet paint to add texture and to create a light colored line in the final effect. JUST LAST year I was in Madrid. I studied the great paintings...as I have done many times before.....there in the Prado Museum....yet I WILL ADMIT...I did not see what I will here post. ONE PHOTO shows the hoof of a horse, and after 300 years the oil paint is now more translucent, and modern photography allows filtering. The underdrawing scratches Velazquez made into the wet monotone and / or grisaille, are clearly visible. They served him well because Velazquez did not underdraw with charcoal, nor pencil nor ink. Velazquez was counseled by Rubens in 1628 to switch to light colored grounds. On this ground, Velazquez painted his monotone with a dark colored paint. Into this drawing/painting of the design composition, he accentuated the image by scoring into the wet paint. WHEN THIS WAS DRY he overpainted with his colors. The overpainting layers obliterated the scoring--that are now visible. Velazquez also, like Rembrandt left some of the light colored scoring lines visible as they added that 'halo' to dark forms. THE PHOTO OF THE HORSE'S HOOF shows these scoring incision drawing lines well NEXT IS A PHOTO of a test I made of this technique. On your left is the brown monotone on a mid tone base color. A light thin gray colored grisaille is also painted onto the wet monotone. The scratches help define the image. ON THE RIGHT is the dried grisaille , over painted with colors. On purpose, I left many of the incision marking visible..though they were easily covered if I had wanted. THE NEXT PHOTOS shows a very simplified approach to using this technique. THE reason I was making this study was to teach kids how to oil paint in a very simplified manner. During the study, is when I happened to use the scratching method independent of Velazquez, and then saw it in his work. THIS STUDY starts with a pencil drawing --something Velazquez did not do. BUT for young students, the pencil drawing gives them assurance as they paint. Its a blue print. THE first PHOTO is only at the grisaille stage. THE next PHOTO shows the details of the scratching. THE next PHOTO shows the finished LESSON PLAN for the students to follow. LAST PHOTO is a detail. The FINISHING STAGE can really last for as long as the artist wants to work on the painting. I still need to apply some glazes and fine details, and color corrections. |
| SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE CARICATURE PAINTING I MADE OF TIM JENISON , the man in the movie TIM'S VERMEER. I gifted Tim the original painting. The caricature was made with respect and in friendship. Tim wrote to me to tell me he liked the painting. I do not believe Vermeer painted with Tims "COMPARATOR MIRROR". Here below I give my reasons. |
| END OF PAGE ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS ARE COPYRIGHT PROTECTED BY LOUIS R. VELASQUEZ |