Colored Draperies in Titian’s Paintings

Art Lesson 37, Part 19

Learn about Colored Draperies in Titian’s Paintings

« Back to the Art Lessons List

Colored Draperies in Titian’s Paintings

One of the most popular questions is “How do I paint draperies as brilliantly as Titian did?”

In this video part, you are going to discover how Titian created such stunning colours and hues that we see in his profoundly colourful paintings.

We will take a set of hues that dominate his palette. Among them we will examine how he created white, black, grey, blue, yellow, and red draperies.

We will also consider browns as a separate category with mostly earth colours. We will then finally examine the greens he used in draperies and, of course, in landscape depiction. Our analysis is based on research done by the restoration departments of the leading museums of the world. No speculations were made here.

Titian was able to create rich, colourful effects using different combinations of tints; the ways in which he applied them varied, depending on the picturesque result he wanted to achieve.

It is important to understand that names of the pigments we mention should be ignored, as some of them have become obsolete – as they are unreliable, and replaced with others. What you definitely should pay attention to is the very idea of how the sequence of different tints, that are superimposed one over another, can lead to the creation of such colourful effects that Titian was famous for.