17th CENTURY OIL TECHNIQUE
  BAROQUE PAINTING: MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES Baroque painters typically worked with a limited palette of pigments bound in oil on a colored or tinted ground. 
They refer to three specific stages in the development of their paintings; the “inventing” or under-drawing, 
the “dead color” a monochrome or pale under-painting and the “working-up” or development of the painting itself. REFERANCES: “Still Lifes: Techniques and Style “       Arie Wallert (ed.)Publication of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam “Art in the Making: Rembrandt”The National Gallery, LondonOut of print but available used. “Rembrandt; The Painter at Work”Ernst van de WeteringAmsterdam University Press 
MATERIALS FOR OIL PAINT  
  SUPPORTS  
1. Wood panels
   2. Linen
   3. Copper

OILS / BINDERS
   1. Linseed 
   2. Poppy seed
   3. Walnut

VARNISH
     Mastic

MEDIUMS
Mastic Glaze Medium:        
1 part stand linseed oil
         1 part Mastic varnish
         1 – 3 parts turp        
Add ingredient together in container and combine well, keep in
closed container.  

All oil paints are exceptable for use in this technique.


REMBRANDT’S PALETTE
Lead White- pure flake white and adulterated with chalkChalk- to modify and extend, to add transparency and body with out changing color
Lead-tin Yellows
Vermilion
Earth Pigments- Ochres, Umbers, Siennas.Lakes- Glazing pigments prepared from natural dyestuff of plant or animal origin.    
Red lakes from the root of Madder plants and from scale insects Kermes, Cochineal      and Lac.    
Yellow lakes- as from unripe Buckthorn Berries; known at the time as Pink or DutchPink
Bone Black, Ivory BlackCharcoal
Azurite
Smalt- A potash glass colored by cobalt oxide.


 17TH CENTURY PIGMENTS basic palette 
White-     Lead, lead with chalk (lead carbonate)Yellows-
Massicot (oxide of lead)                \
Lead-tin Yellow                
Orpiment (sulphide of arsenic)                
Dutch pink (organic lake from buckthorn)Red-        
Vermillion (mercuric sulphide)                
Madder Lakes (plant source)                
Cochineal Lake (insect)                
Brazilwood Lake
Minium (lead)                
Realgar (similar to Orpiment, replaced by cadmiums)
Azurite                
Ultramarine                
Smalt (glass)                
Prussian Blue (good glaze color, replaced by phthalocyanine today)                Indigo  
Malachite                
Verdigris (copper acetate) 
Blacks: Ivory, bone, charcoal   
Earth Pigments of all variety 
LINEN  
  PREPARATION OF FABRIC SUPPORT
1. Stretch fabric
2. Size with rabbit-skin glue. Size is a thin coat of rabbitskin glue applied to the linen                                                                                                                     to protect the fabric from the oil which would cause it to rot.
3. Dry over night
4. 17th century: Double Ground    
1.  Layer one…  Mixed earth pigments ground in oil, often looks brick red in color,       Usually contains some umber.    
2.  Layer two…  Mixed pigments in oil, leftover paints from palette, brush jars     and lead white forming a grey color. Often visually active in final paint layer.     


PANEL PREPARATION
Materials: 
Rigid Panel, Oak, Birch, Masonite, (do not use pine)
Rabbit-skin glue
Gesso 
Good quality large flat brush
Sand paper or metal straight edge scraper or finishing sanderRECIPES

RABBIT-SKIN OR HIDE GLUE:   
For glue of average strength 
Soak 1 part dry glue grains over night in 12 – 14 parts cold water.
The glue will absorb the water and expand a great deal.
Warm soaked and softened glue in original container, do not add or remove water.
It is best to heat the glue container over warm water as in a double boiler rather than applying direct heat.
Never boil glue.

 GESSO:Materials: 

1 part warm, prepared rabbit-skin glue of average strength 1 to 1 1/2 parts filler
 Directions:
1. Slowly sprinkle filler of choice (artist grade chalk or gypsum) into warmed glue. 
2. Allow the filler to sink in on its own. Do not throw it in all at once.
3. Add enough filler to saturate the glue.
4. VERY, VERY slowly and carefully blend them together. Slip a round brush into the mixture 
and gently/ slowly move in one dirction around the container.You do not want to get air into 
the mix or you will have bubbles and therefore holes in your finished surface.
5. Strain into clean container. 
6. Re-heat by placing over warm water in double boiler. 

   DO NOT KEEP REHEATING IT, YOU WILL GET BUBBLES.

Gesso can be kept a few days in the refrigerator.  

TECHNIQUE FOR GESSOING A PANEL:
1.Clean panel
2 Size the  panel              
First coat: Apply size coat (thinned rabbit skin glue) to panel with brush, allow to dry.              
Second coat: apply thin layer standard glue, dry over night or longer.
3.Apply Gesso         
First coat: Apply thin layer of prepared gesso to dry sized panel in small patches using finger tips to rub in quickly in circular motion. This will look messy, don’t worry about it. If the gesso starts to get tacky leave it and move on to another patch.
4.First real coat.
Apply like house paint with brush running all strokes in one direction.
5.Second coat, when previous coat looses it bright shine repeat step 4 in opposite direction.
6.Continue alternating directions, apply 4 to 6 layers.        
7.Dry over night
8.Sand smooth  

COPPER
PREPARATION OF METAL SUPPORT 
1. Give slight tooth to the metal, do make scratches, they will show through later.
2. Clean really well and dry
3. Rub with garlic
4. Apply oil based white primer in very thin coat, trationally rubbing smooth with fingers or palm of hand.

TRADITIONAL OIL TECHNIQUE
 PAINTING TECHNIQUE  
1. Prepare surface
2. Under-drawing: Draw in medium of choice, (pencil, Charcoal…), set image in ink.
3. Imprimatura: With brush or rag spread thin, transparent layer of color such as yellow ochre 
or umber over under-drawing. You must keep it very thin, the drawing should show through well.               (alternative technique: Imprimatura can be a mixed grey on the prepared                  surface with the drawing in liquid paint over it.)
4. Dead-color: Apply thin, pale layer of matte local color to individual forms in painting, allow to dry. 
This shoud be very simple, thin paint.
5. Highlights: using a heavy, impasto, reflective white pigment such as lead white develop the highlights 
over the drawing and imprimatura.
6. Working-up: development of form over dead color and highlights using glazing, scumbling and fine 
careful brushwork in layers. The highlights will be raised and opaque while the darks will be thin and more transparent. 
7. Details: apply fine highlights and details over finished paint layer8. Dry, coat with protective varnish Notes: Mastic glaze medium will work well and dry quickly.  

TERMS
Support- The surface on which a painting is made such as linen, canvas, wood panel copper and so on.
Ground- A preparatory coating covering the entire support; providing a uniform surface and proper absorbency for the paint layers.
Gesso- a rigid ground of hide glue and chalk or gypsum used on wood panels.   
Size- dilute hide-glue solution used to isolate and prepare the support.Primer- A ground layer applied over the size layer, usually white providing a reflective, uniform surface. In traditional oil painting lead white in linseed oil was typical. 
Imprimatura- A thin transparent glaze of color applied over a ground; usually over an under-drawing on the ground.
Dead color- A flexible term referring to an underpaint layer in monochrome or dull, light color.
Working-up- Development of the color and forms within the painting over the under-painting layers.Body color- The opaque colors.
Heightening- To render form through definition of highlights in white or pale color over a darker ground or imprimatura.
Glaze- A thin, transparent veil of color applied over a dried under-painting.
Impasto- Application of paint in a thick or heavy layer; thick, rough paint.
Chiaroscuro- rendering of form through contrast of light against dark