Van Gogh Art Techniques

Carton, Canvas and Ground

Carton

Van Gogh seems to have considered carton usefull to practise. Compared to canvas, carton had two main advantages. Its lower price, and easier to carry.

He used a particularly poor grade of board. 2 mm thick, in two layers of hand-pressed and unrefined wood pulp, and with a light priming of pale grey or white colour.

Van Gogh self-portrait with straw hat, summer of 1887. The painting is highly discoloured, because of the use of carton.

> Explore the carton in high resolution of this Self-portrait

Linen Stretched Canvas

Vincent van Gogh favored the standard, machine-made, finely woven linen (portrait linen) with a regular and tigtly woven structure. With a ground which absorb oil to archive a métier matte.

Normally was used Belgian linen canvas rolls and stretched across a wooden frame.

Vincent van Gogh bought his materials in Paris in the art supply store of Julien Tanguy.

> Read more ... Painting materials from Art Supply Store of Julien (Père) Tanguy

Surfaces of the Canvas

Canvas fillers were lead white, chalk and barium sulphate.

The commercial canvases were available in several colors. Most were in cooler or warmer tones of off-white. The grey ones.

The colored ones with a small amount of yellow, brown earth pigments and so called fond brun violet, with carmine and traces of yellow and gives a typical pink tint.

Quite extensive areas of the ground layer were left bare, so that its tint is incorporated in the color composition, where its tonality makes an important contribution to the final effect.

> Read more ... Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh with ground layer were left bare

Composition and Underdrawing

Composition

First Van Gogh had chosen for a center (C), just always around the middle of the painting. And he marked it. Here in the cross of the window in the background of the terrace.

Then he looked strong vertical lines from top to bottom near that center. He drew that lines in warm colors.

And after he looked other vertical lines outside of that center and drew them in cold colors. See the houses to the right and the front-door to the left. So he got depth in his drawing/painting.

To get harmony he looked horizontal lines. And that he did in horizontal groups with small vertical lines, see the windows of the houses to the right and the doors to the left. (one of his secrets about composition !).

To get more intention to the center he drew in the foreground lines in the direction of that center. See the stones in the street (Rembrandt used this method also).

> Read more ... Café Terrace at Night by Vincent van Gogh

Composition Sketch

Vincent van Gogh executed his initial composition sketch in charcoal.

It was only in September 1888 that he first plucked up the courage to abandon this traditional preparing of the picture.

Vincent van Gogh found out in Arles : That's is no use, you must attack drawing with the color itself in order to draw well.

> Read more ... the final painting The Ramparts of Paris by Vincent van Gogh

Perspective Frame

Vincent worked precise and probably the drawing was done with the aid of a perspective frame. On the left you see the frame he used.

Inside that open-frame were metal-lines. He looked through that open-window in the direction of his subject. So he was able to copy his view precise.

Vincent van Gogh : Long and continuous practice with it enables one to draw quick as lightning and , once the drawing is done firmly, to paint quick as lightning too.

> Read more ... Van Gogh's perspective frame

Brushwork and Paint

What type of paint did Vincent van Gogh use

While busily at work Vincent van Gogh sent Theo a long list of paint to be ordered from Tasset or L'Hote in Paris :

Yellows
Zinc yellow (chrome lemon)
Chrome yellow light
Chrome yellow medium
Vandyck brown
Orange
Chrome orange
Reds
Geranium (employed from the Arles period)
Vermillion
Madder lake (Alizarin)
Cochineal lake (Carmine)
Blues
Prussian blue
Cobalt blue
French ultramarine
Greens
Emerald green
Viridian
White
Lead white
Zinc white

> Read more ... I?m sending you an order for colors ...

I sent for paint from Schoenfeld in Düsseldorf, a few colors that I can?t easily get here. The Artist Colors are still available at Lukas Germany. Formerly the firm Schoenfeld.

> Read more ... Van Gogh's use of Colors. Pigments and Palette.

Van Gogh's Brushwork

Van gogh discovers in Paris the stippling technique of Neoimpressionism, also called Pointillism, and freely experiments with the style. "What is required in art nowadays," he writes, "is something very much alive, very strong in color, very much intensified."

Van Gogh used for a painting only some tubes. Never all. For his masterpiece, The Seine with the Pont de la Grande Jatte, Van Gogh used :

Prussian blue, emerald green, chrome yellow light and vermillion. He mixed the colors not only with white but more with a painters grey. Made from white, Vandyck brown, may-be some Carmine, the red and blue from the painting.

He made the painting in one rush in a rapid application of paint crossing the center.

Vincent was attempting to create harmony both by intensifying of the colors themselves and by arranging them in their complementary and simultaneous contrasts.

His paintings are in great harmony, and are very powerful.

> Read more ... painted reproduction of the Seine with the Pont de la Grande Jatte

Developing Van Gogh's Style and Palette

Vincent van Gogh starts painting in 1880

He starts to draw and paint at Brussels. More of his own. Never the less, it was his start. Later Vincent found in 1882 some encouragement from Anton Mauve (1838-88), his cousin by marriage. Mauve had established himself as a successful artist, and from his home in The Hague, supplied Vincent with his first set of watercolors-thus giving Vincent his initial introduction to working in colors. Vincent was a great admirer of Mauve's works and was deeply grateful for any instruction that Mauve was able to provide.

Vincent's relationship with Anton Mauve was a valuable one, though extremely turbulent as well. Vincent was incapable of accepting any form of criticism about his works and, to make matters worse, Mauve strongly disapproved of Vincent's relationship with the prostitute, Sien. Eventually Mauve would break off communications with Vincent altogether.

On the left you see a painting of Mauve. After hard working Vincent made his masterpiece, The Potato Eaters. His Rembrandt. Mauve disliked that painting very much. Too dark, too sad. Even Mauve went to the father of Vincent and said to him it would be better Vincent stops painting. This situation was terribly for Vincent. May-be he never came over it.

> Read More ... overview Van Gogh Paintings Antwerp and Paris Period 1886

Van Gogh's Dutch Palette of Dark Colors

First you see painting made by Jan van Goyen in 1628. The second the landscape with church and farm, Nuenen, made in 1885.

Van Gogh made his paintings in the period before Paris like the Dutch Masters of the 17th century did. Similar technique and colors and the same impression as well.

What you see in both paintings :

light parts concentrated (thick),
shadows thin and shining,
a play of light and dark tonal,
the use of a limited number of colors.

Impression : bit dark and monochrome

> Read more ... an insight into the life of Vincent van Gogh in Nuenen

Van Gogh in Paris : Palette of Light Colors

The stransformation took place from the sombre tones of Van Gogh's Dutch paintings to the bright color schemes of his Paris works.

On the left you see Van Gogh's Boulevard de Clichy in light tones. The second painting Bridge of Courbevoie, is made by Georges Seurat in 1887. In Paris, Van Gogh discovered color as well as the diversionist ideas which helped to create the distinctive dashed brushstrokes of his later work. His friend Georges Seurat did influence him.

The Boulevard de Clichy was painted using small dabs of paint: one employing short strokes, the other tiny dots. Here we see the influence of the Neo-impressionism movement. Fleeting, spontaneous glimpses of street scenes were a favorite subject of these painters. He makes use of complementary colors the shadow of the houses. And he has employed a short, quick stroke.

What you see in The Boulevard de Clichy painting :

light parts concentrated (not as thick as before),
shadows in complementary colors,
a play of colors,
still the use of a limited number of colors.

Impression: light and again a bit monochrome

> Read more ... 19th Century Pointillism Van Gogh liked and disliked

> Read more ... Van Gogh's use of Colors. Pigments and Palette

Gauguin and Van Gogh in Arles 1888

First you see The Bedroom of van Gogh, made in October 1888. The second painting Les Alyscamps, is made by Gauguin in 1888.

The most striking aspects of this work are the bright patches of contrasting color, the thickly applied paint and the odd perspective. The rear wall appears strangely angled. This is not a mistake: this corner of the Yellow House was, in fact, slightly skewed. The simple interior and bright colors were meant to convey notions of rest and sleep, both literally and figuratively.

What you see in The Bedroom:

bright patches of contrasting color (as thick as in his Nuenen period),
no shadows in complementary colors,
and the use of a lot of colors.

Impression: light and bright and colorful

Gauguin made his shadow still by using painters grey and not by using complementary colors!
What do you like most? I like both.

> Read more ... Van Gogh's Friends in Art

Van Gogh's last painting

Wheatfield with Crows is one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings and probably the one most subject to speculation. It was executed in July 1890, in the last weeks of his life. Many have claimed it was his last work, seeing the dramatic, cloudy sky filled with crows and the cut-off path as obvious portents of his coming end. However, since no letters are known from the period immediately preceding his death, we can only guess what his final work might really have been. Some scholars believe it was the Tree-roots, but we have no proof that this was the case.

Vincent was quite depressed during the last weeks of his life. He worried about his brother's financial situation and his own future. He was continually afraid of suffering another bout of his illness and, despite some recognition, felt he had failed as an artist.

On 27 July Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. He died two days later, with Theo at his side. A number of his artist-friends attended the funeral; others wrote letters of condolence to Theo. Theo himself died a half a year later, on January 25, 1891. His grave is now located next to his brother's, in Auvers-sur-Oise.

> Read more ... all the museums with artwork by Vincent van Gogh

> Top Van Gogh Paintings Project