Easy Renaissance Paintings to Draw
What Is Chiaroscuro?
Chiaroscuro refers to the use of light and dark to create the illusion of three-dimensional volume on a flat surface. The term translates to "light-dark"; chiaro meaning brilliant or clear and scuro meaning dark or obscure.
The term is also used in a more than narrow sense to draw artworks which display an extreme dissimilarity between light and night, similar the painting below.
Michelangelo Merisi De Caravaggio, Saint Jerome Writing, 1607
Ancient Roots
Chiaroscuro can be traced dorsum to the work of Apollodorus Skiagraphos, a Greek painter who used hatched shadows to propose volume. None of Skiagraphos' works survived, but examples of his skiagraphia or "shadow-painting" technique tin be seen in other Hellenistic artworks such equally the "Stag Hunt," a 4th century BCE carpet mosaic from a wealthy Macedonian dwelling house.
Gnosis, Stag Hunt Mosaic, c.300 BCE
Chiaroscuro During the Renaissance
By the 15th and 16th centuries, the interest in all things classical saw Renaissance artists prefer and improve on earlier shading techniques. The first Renaissance master to develop existing shading techniques to achieve a truthful chiaroscuro result was Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci brought life and volume to his drawings, starting with the darks on colored paper, then moving toward the lighter tones, and finally adding the highlights, normally with white gouache or chalk. Below is a great case of this. Observe the careful rendering in value from dark to light.
Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin and Child with St Anne and John the Baptist, c.1500 CE
Da Vinci used charcoal or blackness chalk to sketch the subjects on brown tinted newspaper. He created the illusion of shadows (in the folds of their clothing, on their faces and necks, etc.) past gradually building upwardly lighter and lighter layers of chalk. He used white chalk to highlight areas of importance, such every bit the child and the other subjects' faces. If you wait at the bottom of the artwork, you can run into parts of the unfinished cartoon, without whatsoever rendering.
Development of Oil Paint
Renaissance artists were interested in reproducing the world they saw effectually them. Architect Filippo Brunelleschi'due south discovery of linear perspective gave artists a formula to create the illusion of depth and realistic proportion on a flat surface. But an equally important discovery during this period was the benefit of oil pigment. Before the Renaissance, the near popular medium was tempera pigment, a quick-drying medium created from egg yolk. The medium is difficult to blend due to its quick-drying fourth dimension and information technology is not suited to layering because of its opacity.
Oil paint, which uses pigments ground in an oil medium such as linseed oil, dry more slowly. This boring drying time, combined with its translucence, make information technology possible to build up thin layers of paint (known every bit glazing). This made it much easier for Renaissance artists to blend and build upwardly gradual tones of color - helping chiaroscuro become a feasible technique to model realistic forms.
Caravaggio
The 17th-century Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio took chiaroscuro to the extreme, oft blacking out large portions of the background and brightly illuminating big foreground subjects. This combination of using high contrast with a single focused light source had an incredibly dramatic upshot.
In the painting below, the subjects are illuminated from a single light source coming from the correct of the painting. The drama in the scene is intensified by the stark contrast betwixt the deep shadows and the warm highlights and midtones. The light focuses your attention on the subjects seated at the table.
Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1599-1600
Tenebrism
The use of big patches of black background combined with brightly illuminated subjects is then closely associated with Caravaggio's work that it is termed caravaggism. Another term for this style of chiaroscuro is tenebrism, which comes from the Italian term tenebroso, pregnant dark, gloomy or mysterious.
Caravaggio, David with the Head of Goliath, 1610
In the painting to a higher place, David takes on a luminous appearance equally low-cal falls on him from the left of the painting. He was painted with soft tones and edges. Besides, detect how the parts of David which are in shadow gently alloy in with the blackness background.
By contrast, Goliath'south severed head, with ribbons of claret still streaming from his neck, is thrust, slightly over-scale, into the lower right foreground. The light falls more direct on Goliath, harshly illuminating the shadows of his hair, his creased brow and his sunken eyes.
With the painting placed just to a higher place heart level, a viewer standing in front of it will be looking almost directly into the face of Goliath's green-tinged, oversized confront.
Caravaggisti
Caravaggio's tenebrism was then successful that many enthusiastic artists began to mimic his manner. These artists became known as the "Caravaggisti." The Caravaggisti used a stark combination of nighttime and low-cal for several purposes - to model three-dimensional volumes, to describe attention to certain areas of the painting and to create a sense of drama.
Below is an example of Carvaggisti work. The subject area, Judith, holds her hand out to block the low-cal that streams in from the left. The result is a stark curve of shadow cast confronting her own face.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and her Maidservant, 1625
Dutch Chiaroscuro
Other artists took a more delicate arroyo to chiaroscuro - using it to create a calm and cogitating mood. The Dutch principal Rembrandt van Rijn is renowned for his subtle treatment of the chiaroscuro technique.
In the self-portrait beneath, Rembrandt used painterly brushwork to explore the relationship between light and shadow. Unlike many other portraits, most of Rembrandt's face is in shadow, with only 1 side of his face slightly exposed to light. Likewise, the background is painted with midtones, rather than deep black similar many of the other paintings in this mail service.
Rembrandt, Self Portrait as a Beau, 1628
Gerard van Honthorst is another Dutch master who explored the use of chiaroscuro. In the painting below, the subjects are brought forrard from the darkness and your attending is focused on the kid, who appears to exist glowing with light. The other subjects are basked in a more subtle lite, with the man in the groundwork only just emerging from the darkness.
Gerard van Honthorst, The Adoration of the Child, 1620
Chiaroscuro by Candlelight
French artist Georges de La Tour ofttimes used candles as the main lite source for his paintings. In the painting beneath, he used candlelight bouncing off a mirror to illuminate a seated Mary Magdalene.
Georges de La Tour, The Penitent Magdalene, 1625-1650
In this painting, you tin can feel the warmth of the candlelight. The paper in the subject's hand glows like burnished gilt.
Georges de La Tour, Saint Jerome Reading
Modernistic Chiaroscuro
At that place are many other artists who made creative and accomplished use of chiaroscuro.
Joseph Wright of Derby used chiaroscuro when painting scenes of scientific interest during the industrial revolution. In his painting below, an orrery (a mechanical model of the solar system) is illuminated by an oil lamp that is placed at the center of the model to represent the dominicus.
Wright of Derby, The Orrery, 1766
English language creative person Sir Joshua Reynolds used chiaroscuro to lend a imperial quality to his eighteenth-century portraits.
Joshua Reynolds, Lord Heathfield, 1787
Francesco Goya adopted Caravaggio'southward more dramatic tenebrism to depict the tension and heightened emotion associated with mod warfare.
Goya, The Third of May 1808, 1814
Chiaroscuro is besides used in a variety of other mediums, such every bit photography and cinematography.
Key Takeaways
- Some of the shading techniques used for effective chiaroscuro include hatching, shading with parallel lines and layering tones of the aforementioned color.
- For building upward tonal gradations, information technology is usually most effective to piece of work night to light.
- For more than drama, you may want to consider using just one potent light source.
- Our eyes are naturally fatigued to the lightest areas, and so these tend to be the focal points in the painting.
- The level of dissimilarity betwixt light and dark helps make up one's mind the mood of the painting.
- Tenebrism, which refers to particularly high contrasts between the dark and light areas of the image, tin be used to create a potent sense of drama.
- Compositional choices, such equally positioning the subjects prominently in the foreground, can heighten the effects of chiaroscuro.
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Thanks for Reading!
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Happy painting!
Dan Scott
Draw Paint Academy
Source: https://drawpaintacademy.com/chiaroscuro/
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