Karin Wells Studio: Imprimatura

For starters, think of a brown paper bag...

Imprimatura is a term used in painting. It is an initial stain of color painted on a ground (like my gessoed canvas shown below).

It provides a painter with a transparent toned ground. I prefer to use the approximate color and value of a brown paper bag.

The term is Italian and literally means ¨first paint layer" and it helps the classical painter begin with a middle tone and then establish value relations from dark to light.

I cannot think of anything more impossible to paint on than a stark white canvas!

An imprimatura is usually made with an earth color - for a portrait I like to use Raw Umber mixed with Winsor-Newton's Liquin Medium.

Some people use turpentine + color but I prefer to seal the canvas with Liquin.

Note the cheap "hardware store" white britstle brush above...I "use 'em and then I lose 'em.".

The first layers of a painting establish value and composition, color comes much much later.

Here are some examples from the works of Rubens:

In his oil sketches, you can see the imprimatura underneath it all.

It is easy to see - especially in these works.

I once saw a show of his oil sketches at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and that is when I first understood the importance of the imprimatura.

The imprimatura is the "mother color" that makes it all hang together. The painting above appears to have a darker imprimature - and thus is a darker painting.

This painting bleow - I have not see the original - but it is a mini-lesson in how to (sometimes) underpaint paint dark areas and shadows.

All of the darks and shadow areas appear to have been painted in red - a clever way to make those areas luminous, warm and lively when overpainted.

Note that in a landscape, I'll often use an "earthy red" (or sometimes cadmium orange) as my imprimatura and allow that color to peek through the final layers of the painting.

Even in the Old Master's drawing, a toned paper is used....and it is just the color of a brown paper bag!

Many of my paintings at KarinWells.com begin with an imprimatura.

Recently I visited Rembrandt's house in Amsterdam.

He purchased this house in 1639.

The purchase price was thirteen thousand guilders, a huge sum, which he could not come up with in its entirety. He was, however, allowed to pay it off in installments.

Although he was earning a lot of money, Rembrandt was unable—or unwilling—to pay off the mortgage and was eventually forced into bankruptcy.

This is Rembrandt's Etching Studio. The museum owns an almost complete collection of his etchings.

In particular I loved being in his painting studio.

It was recreated from an inventory of the contents of his house.

Drawings by the artist reveal the character of his rooms.

Displayed above is a "dark rust red" ground? gesso? imprimatura? on the canvas.

Nobody I found there could technically tell me what this was and it remains a mystery to me.

Rembrandt kept drawings in large portfolios.

He managed the light with a piece of draped cloth (as shown in one of his drawings).

There were lots of small containers - some of which were discovered in a dig on the site of an ancient cesspool.

Scales were used to measure pigments for paints.

Paints were ground (pictured on the left side above) - by his assistants.

These are some of the raw ground pigments waiting for oil to be added.

Before grinding, the pigments were in great big lumps.

This is another stone for grinding pigments prior to making paint.

At first glance these looked like regular stretchers - but they aren't.

Paintings were made, allowed to dry and were detached easily.

Rolling a painting and packing it in a box was the safest way to transport a painting in those days.

In 1656 Rembrandt’s property was inventoried for the benefit of his creditors, and his household effects and collection of art and curiosities were sold.