Old Masters Academy

How long have you been telling yourself that one day you will learn to draw or paint? If the answer is years rather than months, perhaps the problem is no longer finding the right moment. Perhaps it is simply deciding to begin.

Many people want to become better at art.

They save paintings they admire.

They watch artists working.

They buy beautiful sketchbooks, pencils, brushes, or paints.

They think about taking lessons.

And then they wait. …

How a dark preparation became an active part of the image and made light feel startlingly real

What if some of Caravaggio’s shadows are not dark paint at all?

Technical examination shows that he sometimes allowed the prepared surface beneath the painting to remain visible. Instead of covering the entire canvas and then painting shadows over it, he added the illuminated parts of a figure while letting the dark preparation supply many of the middle and darkest values.

A ground is the prepared layer placed on canvas before the image is painted. It helps seal the fabric and creates a stable surface for the paint. …

The hidden dot map beneath The Dream of a Knight shows how exact transfer and free invention worked together.

A painting less than seven inches square began with a pin, paper, and powdered charcoal. Raphael’s The Dream of a Knight, made about 1504, is painted on a single poplar panel. Infrared imaging shows that its design came from a pricked full-size drawing now in the British Museum. That cartoon has numerous closely spaced holes along its outlines, although the National Gallery catalogue publishes no exact count. …

The hidden orange foundation and crimson glazes inside The Ambassadors

In Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors of 1533, Jean de Dinteville’s pink satin doublet flashes between pale rose and deep crimson. Yet its brilliance did not begin with pink. Technical examination found a strong orange-red underpainting beneath the visible modeling. Holbein assigned different jobs to successive paint layers instead of mixing the final color in one pass. …

Imagine looking around your home and realizing that the paintings on the walls are not simply decoration. They are yours. You created them. They carry your ideas, your memories, your taste, and a part of your life.

There is a very special kind of satisfaction in being able to express yourself through visual art.

You may see something beautiful, remember a place, imagine a face, become fascinated by a certain color, light, or atmosphere – and instead of simply admiring it, you can turn that feeling into a painting. …