2.4.1.

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 2.7) 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 2.7 | Mona Lisa
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Author: User “Dcoetzee”
Source: Wikimedia Commons
License: Public Domain
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 2.8)
Figure 2.8 | Detail of the eyes of Mona Lisa
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Author: User “Cantus”
Source: Wikimedia Commons
License: Public Domain
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 2.9) Today, however, many artists use
watercolor as their primary medium.
Figure 2.9 | The Sponge Diver
Artist: Winslow Homer
Author: User “Botaurus”
Source: Wikimedia Commons
License: Public Domain
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 2.10)
Figure 2.10 | Portrait of the Boy Eutyches
Source: Met Museum
License: OASC
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 2.11) The only way to correct a buon
fresco painting 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 2.12)
Figure 2.11 | The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden
Artist: Masaccio
Source: Wikimedia Commons
License: Public Domain

Figure 2.12 | Nebamun Tomb Fresco Dancers and Musicians

Author: User “Fordmadoxfraud”
Source: Wikimedia Commons
License: Public Domain
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 2.13)
Figure 2.13 | The Birth of Venus
Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Author: User “Dcoetzee”
Source: Wikimedia Commons
License: Public Domain