Peter Paul Rubens
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Exploring a lean medium (3 parts Gamsol, 1 part Rublev Pale Drying Oil). Working on controlling thick and thin paint better.
Worked on a study of Head Study of an Old Woman by Peter Paul Rubens.
Painted a study of The Persecution of the Harpies using the new lean medium, focusing on making use of the yellow ochre ground.
Samson and Delilah is special to me because it helped me understand how thick and thin paint work together.
It took me a long time to notice what the leg detail shows: the shadows are painted thinly, allowing the yellow ground to show through. Only the areas in light are opaque.
It took me even longer to recognize paint thickness as another variable I could control. The back detail shows the same interplay between thick and thin paint.
This oil sketch shows the imprimatura and how rough sketches can be. The use of the ground and the painting approach are like drawing on toned paper.
Rubens: Painter of Sketches
Lammertse, Friso, and Alejandro Vergara. Rubens: Painter of Sketches. Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen; Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2018. ISBN 978-84-8480-471-0.
Pages 158–159
Oil sketch (page 158) and painting (page 159) of The Discovery of Achilles Among the Daughters of Lycomedes.
Page 211
Oil sketch and painting of Prometheus.
St. Teresa of Avila is also a good example of how Rubens used the ground in a painting to focus our attention on opaque, lighted passages and make us feel the lighting.
