Painting

History

Painting is a fine art that involves a rich history of artistic movements and schools of thought. Paintings in museums throughout the world not only depict an amazing amount of artistic acumen and insight, but also tell the story of humanity.

While many contemporary artists strive to duplicate the styles and techniques accomplished in the past, others search for new ways of self-expression. Regardless of the medium, style, or focus, painting represents the very basic need of humans to document our surroundings or express our unique perspectives.

Painters today can choose from oil paint, acrylics, watercolors, or pastels. Tempera, originally pigment mixed with egg yolk, is another option available to contemporary artists as well. With hundreds of tubes, cans, tins, and jars of synthetic, pre-mixed paints available in stores, it can be humbling to consider the few colors on which the earliest painters relied. In ancient Egypt, an artist had to grind up seashells to get a white pigment; artists ground charcoal for black pigment. Green was obtained from malachite, blue from azurite, and yellow and red from clay.

In the broadest sense, most of the paint used prior to the invention of oil paints in the early fifteenth century can be considered watercolors. This would include tempera, as well as frescoes, in which pigment was applied to fresh, wet plaster.

Watercolors as we know them today, however, evolved in Asia. Chinese and Japanese artists mastered landscapes, flowers, and other designs on silk many centuries before the Chinese invention of paper spread throughout the world, and long before watercolor painting became an established medium in Europe.

The development of oil paints is attributed primarily to chemists who experimented with many substances and mixtures before settling on linseed oil and varnish mixed with a pigment. The fifteenth century Dutch painter Jan van Eyck was the first well-known artist to use oils regularly and helped refine the medium. Oils became the paint of choice for many of the world's artists and for the masters of the medium, including Doménicos Theotokópoulos (El Greco), Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, although Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni used tempera for painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The nineteenth-century impressionist painters, including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, and Camille Pissarro, embraced oils as the best medium to convey their perception of light and color. Historians believe the invention of the metal paint tube in 1840 played a key role in the impressionist movement. The portable nature of the metal tubes allowed artists to easily work outdoors.

Pastels were often used for sketches, but became accepted in the nineteenth century as a painting medium as well. Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) is one of the most regarded American pastel artists.

Acrylic paints were introduced in the mid-twentieth century and became very popular because of the ease in cleaning them up and their adaptability to many types of surfaces.

Supplies required for all types of painting:

• Easel (optional for watercolor)
• Palette (not needed for pastels)
• Surgical gloves or protective hand cream
• Kneaded eraser
• Cotton balls and swabs
• Masking tape
• Craft knife
• Supplies for cleaning up
• Sketchbook for ideas
• Floor and table protection
• Picture frames and related supplies

Additional materials needed for oil or acrylic painting:

• Brushes: For oil paint, use hoghair, sable, or synthetic sable; for acrylics, synthetic brushes are preferred.
• Oil or acrylic paints. Water-based oil paints are available as well.
• Mediums: For oil paints, usually linseed oil and turpentine, mineral spirits, or Sansador, plus either Liquin or Damar varnish. Acrylic mediums include gels, textures, and retarders, which are all optional.
• Surfaces: stretched canvas or canvas panels, wood, Masonite, heavy paper (if using acrylic paint), unstretched canvas, stretcher frame, carpenter's square, staple gun and staples, canvas pliers, large scissors, gesso and brush.
• Turpentine or mineral spirits for cleaning oil-based brushes
• Bar soap or dishwashing liquid.
• Glass jars and metal cans.
• Palette and painting knives.
• Soft drawing pencils and charcoal sticks.

Additional materials for watercolors:

• Watercolor paint: Available in pan or tubes
• Watercolor paper, vellum, parchment
• Brushes: sable or synthetics
• Sea sponge
• Spray bottle
• Mask, lifting preparation, and mediums (all optional)

Additional materials for pastels:

• Selection of soft and hard pastels
• Charcoal and pastel pencils
• Fixative spray (hairspray will work)
• Paper that has "tooth": pastel board, watercolor paper, vellum

Techniques

Each medium offers unique challenges and techniques that one will learn in time. These are some general hints, techniques, and guidelines that apply to all types of painting.

Painting takes practice and independent study. Novices should not rely only on books and instruction, but should also experiment with techniques. However, novices are encouraged to familiarize themselves with famous artworks and movements.

When painting, use only archival materials if the painting is intended to last for many years. Use brushes intended for the specific medium. Learn when to use the different types of brushes, including flats, rounds, filberts (flats with round tips), and fan-shaped blenders. Try to work in natural light.

Keep all paints, mediums, and other toxic materials away from children. Protect the skin, and avoid putting brushes in the mouth. Work in a well-ventilated area and avoid breathing pastel dust.

Prepare surfaces as directed for each medium. Watercolor paper should be wet and dried first, while canvases used for oils or acrylics need to be sized.

Set aside time right away to learn about color theory and experiment with mixing different pigments. Polish drawing skills. For the underdrawing, it might help to think about forms (cubes, cylinders, spheres, and cones).

When applying paint, work from light to dark. Learn how to control the paintbrush so as to apply the desired thickness. Learn when best to use different brushstroke techniques, including crosshatching and stippling.

To correct mistakes in oil and acrylic painting, scrape or lift off paint carefully with a knife. Watercolors can be absorbed with a dry paper towel, thinned with water, and erased with a kneaded eraser. Unwanted pastel marks can be absorbed with a piece of bread and erased. In each case, a new layer of paint can cover up the lingering stain.

Trends

Although they aren't new, water-based (water-miscible) oil paints are gaining in popularity because clean up is easier and less toxic than traditional paints, and they dry more quickly.

Outsider art, or artwork done by untrained artists that is typically quirky, folksy, childlike, or naïve has attracted much attention from galleries, collectors, and art lovers. Outsider art can be especially inspiring for painters who approach art later in life.

In the early twenty-first century, paint bars and "paint and sip" social events have become increasingly common. Restaurants host dedicated events in which amateur and hobbyist painters can gather with friends and others to learn how to complete a painting of varying complexity while enjoying food and beverages.

Painting as a hobby became increasingly popular during the global coronavirus pandemic that began in early 2020. People looking for activities to do during quarantine turned to painting as a pleasurable and creative way to pass the time as well as offering a way to reduce stress.

Painting for Fun vs. Profit

Original paintings will always find a market as long as humans face the prospect of living and working with bare walls. In addition to paintings intended for display, painters may do full-scale murals, book illustrations, reproductions, and other commercial work.

Fine artists generally get their start by entering group shows in local galleries and businesses, producing enough work for a solo exhibit, entering regional juried exhibits, and gradually building up a clientele and reaching a wider audience as time goes by. Artists who reach the top can make a very lucrative living while those toward the bottom can still enjoy the thrill of each sale and at a minimum, recoup the expense of art supplies. Most artists sell prints of originals, which attract art lovers on a budget and provide extra income. Craft-dedicated online vendors such as Etsy have also made selling artwork such as paintings more feasible. Many artists rely on social media,platforms such as Instagram to share their works with a larger audience. By selling paintings directly online, artists can avoid having to go through a gallery and paying commissions to gallery owners.

Learning More

Organizations

Pastel Society of America

The American Watercolor Society

Plein-Air Painters of America

Books

Appellof, Marian E., editor. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Oil Painting. Watson-Guptill, 1993.

Barnes-Mellish, Glynis. Watercolor Workshop. DK Publishing, 2006.

Gair, Angela. How to Paint: A Complete Step-by-Step for Beginners Covering Watercolours, Acrylics, and Oils. New Holland, 2005.

Harrington, Charles. Acrylics: The Watercolor Alternative. North Light, 2007.

Price, Maggie. Painting with Pastels: Easy Techniques to Master the Medium. North Light Books, 2007.

Reyner, Nancy. Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks & Techniques for Working With the World's Most Versatile Medium. North Light Books, 2007.

Staiger, Kathleen Lochen. The Oil Painting Course You've Always Wanted: Guided Lessons for Beginners and Experienced Artists. Watson-Guptill, 2006.