Renaissance Techniques Using Acrylic Glazes

Copy of Giotto's Christ

What a treat for members of the Market Harborough Art Club, everyone was engaged with Glenn Badham's power point delivery on Renaissance art. In addition, he did a practical demonstration on how the three kinds of under painting can affect the colour when thin veils of paint and medium are applied to the surface.

Giotto did his under paintings in green and like magic Christ’s face was transformed to brown when a red glaze was applied to the painting using a soft brush.  Glenn then added transparent yellow and orange to warm those browns. He then showed us how the addition of white for the highlights removed any trace of the underpainting.

Two more demonstrations, the second and easiest to do was a bistre showing the folds in a garment.

The three pre-prepared paintings

The third a grisaille (grey tones) detail taken from the famous painting done by Vermeer of a “Girl reading a letter at an open window”. Adding thin washes of yellow over his pre-prepared  grey scale painting, then red and blue in darker areas, Glenn transformed the grisaille into colour. He said that by working in this way, an accurate drawing or sketch would not be lost when colour was added.

Glenn’s presentation and demonstration was highly informative and full of tips and techniques, a lot to take in, so if your art group books Glenn Badham, make sure you take your notebook!

The transformation of the grisaille to colour using renaissance glazing techniques.

See Vermeer's famous painting here.