I learned oil painting as a kid by joining several art workshops since grade school and then eventually reading technical art books and eventually watching tutorials by American oil portraitist Daniel Greene. In college, I enrolled in a 4-year Bachelor of Fine Arts course major in painting and I regularly watch TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube videos on painting techniques from various masters from all over the world. Learning art is a never ending process, even more so now that I teach in college and planning to prepare my own workshops – I need to be updated in the most recent techniques. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned why we need to paint in layers:
A quick start
Doing an underpainting, albeit a rough one, will lessen the “blank canvas anxiety/syndrome” when being confronted with a clean piece of canvas. Putting in preliminary stains and paints can cover up the canvas quickly and give some semblance of completion necessary to have the momentum to complete a work.
Creating a desired texture
It is sometimes difficult to acquire the desired texture in a canvas, particularly in those bought from art stores. One of the ways for oil paint to adhere well is to have an oil-based support and what better way to cover up a gesso-primed (water-based paint) canvas and to map out the tones at the same time is to create a monochromatic/ grisaille under-layer using oil paint.
Show depth through several layers of transparent paint
Many kinds of oil paint are somewhat transparent or translucent depending on the grade. Student-quality ones are not as strong in terms of pigment compared to Artist-quality ones and the price is one of the biggest concerns. Artist-quality paints are sometimes 10 times more expensive. Some paints need several layers in order for its real and purer colors to be more evident.
Confronting the complexity of coloring
It makes sense that doing a grisaille underpainting is the easiest approach since a painter will only think about one color and its various tones either adding black for the darker tones and adding white for the lighter tones. Once dry, the painting can now confront the painting better since the tones are already mapped out and the painter can either apply several transparent colored glazes or more opaque and thicker layers.
The illusion of depth
I observed that paintings done with several layers have more depth and are realistic as compared to those done in a single layer.
So far these are my observations. I’d love to hear other artists’ experiences in using layers to paint using oil.
Artist Log is the column of our founder, Kristoffer Brasileño, where he shares insights about his art practice.
