Tag Archives: flemish technique

Lessitovka: Final Touches

Lessitovka: Final Touches

Bosc Pears_1Bosc Pears Shadowed_1

Hello, my oh so patient friends . . . if you haven’t given up on me by now, then you are now looking at the finished bosc pears.
The final layer, or Lessitovka, consists of adding texture details, highlights applied thicker, brighter reflections, details, and of course signing the paintings.

In the last two layers I did add to my palette Cadmium Yellow Deep, Acra Burnt Orange, and Prussian Blue.

Due to my grisaille being slightly too dark, in the earlier stages, it did cause me problems in my final layers, which meant a fair amount of finagling around to get the values right.

I am relatively pleased with the outcome in spite of that, being the first attempt at the Flemish seven layer technique, adapted to acrylics.

The only thing left to do, is to varnish, and I will be using an oil varnish, which should pull everything together.

I will use this technique again with acrylics, and who knows, perhaps I will try it in oil eventually. Not only did I learn a great deal from this exercise, it seemed to me, to be a very sensual way to paint.

I would also like to credit Alexei L. Antonov, whose excellent tutorial on this technique, was used as a guideline for this exercise.
New things to come soon, stay tuned.

Podmalyovok & Lessirovka

Podmalyovok & Lessirovka

It looks as though the painting could have been already finished, looking at my previous post. Yet, I am trying to recreate the Flemish technique used by the old masters.

Burnt Umber in Two Layers

Each layer may resemble a finished painting. I am enjoying the changes that each stage presents. The process of creating the intermediate layers which is made up of two Burnt Umber layers, and consists of the shadow

PODMALYOVOK second layer where details are made, excluding texture.

LESSIROVKA, the second of the Umber layers the main tone masses are made with a large brush.

This layer was extremely difficult to photograph, but you get the idea.

 

Imprimatura

Imprimatura

All right, in continuing this work in progress, I have finished the first paint layer, also known as Imprimatura.

Bosc Pears Imprimatura

Traditionally in oil colors, one would use Red Ochre, Yellow Ochre Light, and Ivory black. Not all oil colors are available in acrylics, so I have tried to come as close as possible.

I have used Naples Yellow, Ivory Black, a pinch of Red Oxide and Titanium White. This finished layer should have an olive hue, which I think I have achieved here.

Old Classics New Mediums

Old Classics New Mediums

I wanted to share with you what I am working on, at the moment. I have read about the Flemish Seven Layer technique, which was developed by Oil painters during the Renaissance, and is still used today. Some say this technique was perfected by the oldest of the Van Eyck brothers.

Bosc Pears Grisaille

The era of Flemish painters spanned the 14th to the 17th century. I do not have formal training in art, yet I have done some study on my own. My experiment is to modify and adapt this seven layer Flemish technique to acrylic paints.

In this first installment, I present the Grisaille underpainting, done with raw umber, titanium white, and ivory black. In this layer I am establishing the value underpainting.