"Three Major Traditional Techniques of Oil Painting"

Written by Victor Wang

      After years of working with the oil medium, I realize the best way to teach students the technique of oil painting is to start from the traditional approach. By doing this, it provides a student with a complete picture of the origin, development, and evolution of the technique of oil painting, but also makes them appreciate the special care and deliberate attentiveness taken by the old masters toward their work to achieve that mysterious beauty in their masterpieces. The deep appreciation and the thorough knowledge of the classical tradition will allow students to handle any of his or her creative ideas with a unique sense of freedom. I have carried this concept in my teaching at Fontbonne University in St. Louis since 1993, and have observed evident growth of my students, either in their understandings of oil painting as an artistic medium, or in the application of their own paintings. These experiences reinforce my confidence in the approach.

      The major sources of the teaching materials come from many books I have on these topics, and my experiences. My students have frequently suggested that I compile the class notes into a book so the information would be available to more people. These suggestions motivated me to start organizing the materials and recording my teaching experiences.

      Most books I have read about the traditional techniques are either too theoretically oriented or too personalized to offer any objective and useful analysis. Therefore, my goal in writing this book is to successfully blend together the theoretical basis and the practical applications.

      The three traditional painting techniques to be discussed in this book are "Painting in Layers", "Glazing" and "Alla Prima".

      I arranged the three chronologically. The first technique, "painting in layers", was first employed by Jan van Eyck. The second one, "Glazing", was perfected by Titian. These two techniques are referred to as "indirect methods", because the effect was achieved not by one direct application, but by many applications of layering and glazing. The third technique, "Alla Prima" was first experimented by Rubens and is, different from the other two, a direct method. Without layers or multiple glazing, the effect was accomplished by only one application of the technique.

      Styles resulted from these three techniques, each with its own distinct characteristic, are vastly different. Since the later techniques have inevitably inherited something from the previous ones, the evolutionary traces are nonetheless quite apparent. This interconnectedness among the three thus warrants a systematic study of them as a group.

      These three techniques have dominated the Western art history for a long time. Not till the rise of Impressionism in 19th century when artists started to search for something fundamentally different.

      In this book, I used my own works and examples in my teaching to illustrate the whole execution process of these three techniques: from the preparation of the painting panels, all the way to the result. I hope this presentation will provide the readers with a full understanding and appreciation of all these three traditional painting techniques.

      Each chapter, devoted to one specific technique, is composed of four major parts:
part one is the analysis and step-by-step demonstration of the technique; part two presents artists who have been directly or indirectly influenced by the master; part three lays out the steps I go through to teach the technique; part four is the selective presentations of my students' works painted with that specific technique in discussion.

      Now, I have considered publishing this book in English according my students' request.