Painting Terms and Techniques

Painting Terms and Techniques                                                           Nora Sturges

Support: The thing you’re painting on, i.e. canvas, MDF, paper, wood.

Ground: The surface that separates the paint and support (and prevents the oil paint from rotting it). In our case the ground is usually gesso.

Direct or Alla Prima Painting is a technique in which the first layer of paint on the support is also the last, or in which all the paint visible in the finished painting was applied at once. Alla Prima is Italian for “at first.”

Indirect Painting refers to a painting process in which the painting is built up of layers, many of which can still be seen in the finished painting. 

Underpainting is any layer of paint intended to be largely painted over.

Imprimatura is a thin, uniform, transparent stain of color laid over the white ground before beginning the painting.

Toned Ground is a term describing an opaque imprimatura for which the color is mixed with white to give a uniform and opaque color of middle value.

Grisaille is a monochromatic painting done in shades of gray. It is sometimes used as an underpainting.

Fat Over Lean is a rule that applies when a painting is made up of a number of layers of paint. It requires that each layer have a drop more oil (fat) than the previous layer, insuring that each layer will be more flexible than the one before. Ignoring this rule can result in a painting’s surface cracking over time.

Medium: anything with which the paint is diluted or mixed before applying to the painting. Traditionally mediums have included some mixture of oil, varnish and turpentine. 

A Turpentine-free Medium: 7 parts Turpenoid or Gamsol+4 parts Liquin or other alkyd medium+3 parts stand oil

Glazing (Scumbling) is a technique where a painting is constructed of multiple layers of translucent color. The term can also be used to refer to thin, transparent glazes of color used to alter an area of any painting. 

Broken Color refers to the use of layers of opaque paint when gaps are left between brushstrokes or areas so that previous layers of paint will remain visible. The colors that peek through will enrich color relationships, as well as blend optically with upper layers.

Dry brush is a technique in which paint of a dry or stiff consistency is dragged across the painting. Its “dryness” causing breaks in the paint (on canvas the paint collects on the tops of the canvas’s tooth, but not in the valleys).

Sgraffito: (Italian for “scratched”) scratching into wet paint with something pointy like the end of a brush handle.

Impasto refers to painting done with thick paint.