6.2: Painting

Painting is a specialized form of drawing that refers to using brushes to apply colored liquids to a support, usually canvas or paper, but sometimes wooden panels, metal plates, and walls. For example, Leonardo da Vinci painted Mona Lisa on a wood panel. (Figure 6.2.1) Paint is composed of three main ingredients: pigments, binders, and solvents. The colored pigments are suspended in a sticky binder in order to apply them and make them adhere to the support. Solvents dissolve the binder in order to remove it but can also be used in smaller quantities to make paint more fluid. As with drawing, different kinds of painting have mostly to do with the material that is being used. Oil, acrylic, watercolor, encaustic, fresco, and tempera are some of the different kinds of painting. For the most part, the pigments or coloring agents in paints remain the same. The thing that distinguishes one kind of painting from another is the binder.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Mona Lisa. (Public Domain; Leonardo da Vinci, by Dcoetzee via Wikimedia Commons)

Oil painting was discovered in the fifteenth century and uses vegetable oils, primarily linseed oil and walnut oil, as the binding agent. Linseed oil was chosen for its clear color and its ability to dry slowly and evenly. Turpentine is generally used as the solvent in oil painting. The medium has strict rules of application to avoid cracking or delamination (dividing into layers). Additionally, oil paint can oxidize and darken or yellow over time if not properly crafted. Some pigments have been found to be fugitive, meaning they lose their color over time, especially when exposed to direct sunlight. This can be seen in a detail of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa where the figure’s eyebrows and eye lashes are now “missing.” (Figure 6.2.2)

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Detail of the eyes of Mona Lisa. (Public Domain; Leonardo da Vinci, by Cantus via Wikimedia Commons)

Acrylic painting is relatively modern and uses water-soluble acrylic polymer as the binding agent. Water is the solvent. Acrylic dries very quickly and can be used to build up thick layers of paint in a short time. One problem with acrylic is that the colors can subtly change as it dries, making this medium less suitable for portraiture or other projects where accurate color is vital. Nevertheless, acrylic paint is preferred over oil paint by many artists today, in part due to its greater ease of use and clean up, and because its rapid drying time allows the artist to work at a faster pace.

Watercolor painting suspends colored pigments in water-soluble gum arabic distilled from the Acacia tree as the binder. Watercolor paints are mixed with water and brushed onto an absorbent surface, usually paper. Before the industrial era, watercolor was used as an outdoor sketching medium because it was more portable than oil paint, which had to be prepared for use and could not be preserved for long periods or easily transported. (Figure 6.2.3) Today, however, many artists use watercolor as their primary medium.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): The Sponge Diver. (Public Domain; Winslow Homer, by Botaurus via Wikimedia Commons)

Encaustic uses melted beeswax as the binder and must be applied to rigid supports like wood with heated brushes. The advantage of encaustic is that it remains fresh and vibrant over centuries. Encaustic paintings from ancient Egypt dating to the period of Roman occupation (late first century BCE-third century CE) are as brilliantly colored as when they were first painted. (Figure 6.2.4)

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Portrait of the Boy Eutyches. (OASC via Met Museum)

Fresco is the process of painting onto plaster; it is a long-lasting technique. There are two kinds of fresco: buon fresco, or “good” fresco, is painting on wet plaster, and fresco secco, or dry fresco, is done after the plaster has dried. Paintings made using the buon fresco technique become part of the wall because the wet plaster absorbs the pigment as it is applied. (Figure 6.2.5)

Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden. (Public Domain; by Masaccio via Wikimedia Commons)

The only way to correct a buon fresco paint- ing is to chip it off the wall and start over. Buon fresco must be done in sections. Each section is called a giornate, which is Italian for “a day’s work.” Because it is done on dry plaster, fresco secco is more forgiving, but also less permanent as changes in moisture levels or damage to the wall can harm the painting. Due to the dry air and stable weather, there are fresco secco murals created as early as 3,000 BCE in ancient Egyptian tombs that remain largely intact. (Figure 6.2.6)

Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): Nebamun Tomb Fresco Dancers and Musicians. (Public Domain; by Fordmadoxfraud via Wikimedia Commons)

Tempera painting has been around for centuries. The most popular version of painting during the Middle Ages was egg tempera, in which dry colored pigments were mixed with egg yolk and applied quickly to a stable surface in layers of short brushstrokes. Egg tempera is a difficult medium to master because the egg yolk mixture dries very quickly, and mistakes cannot be corrected without damaging the surface of the painting. The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510, Italy) is an egg tempera painting. (Figure 6.2.7)

Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\): The Birth of Venus. (Public Domain; Sandro Botticelli, by Dcoetzee via Wikimedia Commons