Paint Processes

Paint can be applied to all kinds of surfaces: cloth, paper, wood, glass, ivory, animal skin, stone, for example.

Some supports, including stone, wood and canvas, have to be covered with a special layer before being painted. This stops the paint peeling off immediately or sinking in too quickly, for example, a chalky layer or layer of thin plaster.

The texture and colour of a layer of underpainting (a colour painted beneath the final layer of paint) can change the look of the painting itself. For example, a layer of red beneath skin tones can make the skin look warmer and applying a greenish colour in the shadows help to give the face a three dimensional look. Some paintings are varnished, to protect the painting, to create a gloss or matt effect over the whole picture or to make the surface look smooth.

 

 

The way that paint is applied greatly affects the finished look of a painting. Look at the different types of brushstrokes. Can you see them clearly in Mrs Douglas by Gainsborough? Sometimes the brushstrokes cannot be seen at all; in some parts of Christ’s Charge to St Peter by Rubens where the paint has been applied very smoothly, the brushstrokes are no longer visible. Tiny brushes, with just an animal-hair or two, were needed to paint on a tiny scale – for example, Mrs Martha Udney by Charlotte Jones.