Angela’s GLOSSARY OF TERMS & MORE

Today I promised my students taking my Fume-Free Oil painting class this list of terms, links, and books. Seeing as many of you might find this helpful, I thought I'd post it online. Happy Painting, everyone!
-Angela


::::: GLOSSARY:::::

Support: What you’re painting on. Flexible supports include stretched canvas, Rigid supports include wood panels with no sense of humor.

Oil Paint: a slow-drying paint that consists of pigments suspended in a drying oil (usually linseed oil). The viscosity level of the paint can be adjusted using solvents such as turpentine or odorless mineral spirits or oil-based mediums. The drying times vary depending on the thickness of the oil paint. Oils do not evaporate the way that water does, it dries through oxidation (basically oxygen and oil work together to change their chemical makeup and become dry).

Water Soluble Oil Paint, or Water Miscible Oil Paint: This oil paint’s binder (a modified linseed oil) has been engineered to be thinned and cleaned up with water instead of turpentines or spirits. It is painted with the same techniques as traditional oil-based paint.

Plein Air: A hoity-toity way to say “painting outdoors.”

Alla Prima: Fancy schmancy way of saying that the piece was completed in one sitting, y’all! No underpainting needed.

Archival: This is just what is sounds like - you can archive it for future generations. I mean, hello? We’re not famous until we’re dead, right? Might as well hedge your bets.

Brushes: Natural hair is more suitable for blending because the hairs hold together when wet, natural hairs are better suited for oil painting. and watercolor painting Synthetic bristles are better for acrylic painting because the paint is not sucked up into the hairs the way natural hair tends to do. This is not at all a technical description... I just find this to be true.

• Ferrule: refers to the metal end of the brush that covers the base of the hairs that make up the brush bristles.
• Filbert: Thick, flat ferrule and oval-shaped medium to long hairs.  With its soft rounded edges, the filbert is suitable for blending and figurative work.
• Round: Round ferrule, round or pointed tip. Useful for detail, wash, fills, and thin to thick lines. A pointed round is used for fine detail. A detailer is a pointed round with very short hair.
• Oval Wash Brush: The oval wash has rounded hairs, flat ferrules, and produces a soft edge, with no point. A wash brush is useful for laying in large areas of water or color, for wetting the surface, and for absorbing excess media. I prefer this brush for blending my oils (rather than a fan brush).
• Flat: Flat ferrule, square-ended, with medium to long hairs. Provides lots of color capacity and easy maneuverability. Use for bold, sweeping strokes, or on edge for fine lines. Use heavier filling for heavier paint.
• Bright: Flat ferrule, short-length hairs, usually set in a long handle. Width and length of brush head is about equal. Useful for short, controlled strokes, and with thick or heavy color.
• Fan: Flat ferrule, spread hairs. Natural hair is more suitable for soft blending, and synthetic works well for textural effects. Useful for smoothing and blending, special effects and textures.

Binder: It’s what makes those bits of colored pigment (made from dirt, bug blood, plants, and what-not) stick together and be applied to your support! 

Fat: A term used to apply to paint with a high oil content.

Fugitive Color: It’s broken the law and has disappeared over the Mexican border. In all seriousness, it’s pigments or dye colors that fade when exposed to light (you know who you are, Alizarin Crimson.)

Glaze: A very thin, transparent colored paint applied over a previously painted surface to alter the appearance and color of the surface.

Ground: The coating material that you’re putting on your support to make it ready for painting (like gesso or glue with a brush or roller or spray)

• Gesso: This is a chalky ground that you apply to your support for painting on. It’s usually white, but you can get colored support as well. Typically when you purchase Gesso in the stores, it is acrylic gesso and is best for acrylic paintings though you can use it for oil paintings, but conservationists recommend you purchase oil based gesso made with a mixture of chalk, white pigment and glue.
• Primer: Coating material applied to a support to make it ready for painting, usually this term is used for gesso.
• Rabbit Skin Glue: In traditional oil painting as practiced by the Renaissance painter, skin glue was used to coat the canvas. This is necessary because the linseed oil that forms the base of most oil paint contains an acid that will over time destroy the canvas fibers. It was originally used as a ingredient in gesso. Warning: conservationists suggest that rabbit skin glue is the major cause of cracking in oil paintings and prefer PVA Size.
• PVA Size: A modern, chemically produced alternative to Rabbit Skin Glue, this product gives you a longer working time and is less likely to crack.

Impasto: A style of painting characterized by thick, juicy color application. Yum!!

Lean: A term used to apply to paint that’s been “watered” down with water or solvents.

Palette: The surface used to mix your colors on. Also refers to the range of colors used by an artist.

Pigment: Particles of color. Common pigment types include mineral salts such as white oxides: lead, now most often replaced by less toxic zinc and titanium, and the red to yellow cadmium pigments. Another class consists of earth types, e.g. sienna or umber. Synthetic pigments are also now available. Natural pigments have the advantage of being well understood through centuries of use but synthetics have greatly increased the spectrum available, and many are tested well for their lightfastness.

Underpainting, or Layering In: A monochrome painting layer used as a base for composition.

Value: The relative darkness or lightness of a hue (color). Black is a low value, white is a high value.

Varnish: a clear film that covers your painting (whether painted on with a brush or sprayed on) to protect it when it is dry.

:::::HELPFUL LINKS:::::

www.YouTube.com
You can search videos on how to create just about anything! Super fun to play around with. 

www.artistdaily.com
This is such a helpful website, with free downloads of e-books about everything you can imagine, portraiture to oil painting to drawing and all the rest (you just have to sign up for their emails every time you download something, but they won’t double up on what they send you, don’t worry :)

https://www.artfinder.com/stories/art-of-the-day/
Check this out daily for info about all kinds of artists, historical and contemporary. Every day another artist’s work is profiled.

www.artistsnetwork.tv
For preview videos of online and video workshops. You can purchase workshops or just watch the previews for helpful tips, too!

http://artists-connect.com/ If you live in the north end of the Seattle area, you gotta join this group! Awesome monthly meetings with demos and networking sessions, plus email strings make this large group of artists available to you as a resource!

www.angelabandurka.com

Ok, so this isn’t really a helpful link, but my URL wanted in and I’m weak against its shamelessness.

:::::BOOKS:::::

Alla Prima: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Direct Painting, by Al Gury

Painting Beautiful Skin Tones with Color & Light, by Chris Saper

Design & Composition Secrets of Professional Artists: 16 Successful Painters Show How They Create Prize-Winning Work, Editor: International Artist

:::::WHERE DO I GET OFF TELLING YOU THIS?:::::

I get my facts from a multitude of resources - the above-mentioned books, Wikipedia.com, Artist Daily, DanielSmith.com, the awesome support of my favorite local artists and my own experience :)