3 ms·

Impasto. The wiki article has a Van Gogh as the main picture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impasto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impasto I never really liked

Impasto. The wiki article has a Van Gogh as the main picture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impasto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impasto I never really liked it, but I might just have been subjected to a lot of amateurish pretentious use of the technique. It kind of screams "I am a painter", but you need to back that up with something or it's just annoying and closer to "I am making a mess". Possibly good training for cake decoration after you give up art and take up baking.

mbivert 2y ago
If it can help appreciate impastos better: First, most paintings are created to be looked at from a distance, and not from up-close. In particular to this effect, painters regularly step back when working. Second, regarding impastos, the wikipedia article is quite expeditious: > it makes the light reflect in a particular way, giving the artist additional control over the play of light in the painting Here's a practical example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Duparc-vieille-Dame.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Duparc-v... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Longchamp075_Duparc_vieille.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Longcham... Because the painting is lit from above (it's almost always the case), the portion of the impasto facing toward the light, receives more light than anything else in the painting: it's one way to "paint" "whiter than white", very convenient to create highlights. It's in particular noticeable on the nose of the previous painting. Noses are a bit greasy, and will thus reflect more light. On the other side of the impasto, a little shadow can be casted. It can be used to echo the form being depicted. This is being used, for example on her right lower eyelid, where there's a little cast shadow (and a highlight). It's some sort of a tiny bas-relief. But all those impastos from up-close look weird, unnatural. "Gross" even, in this particular case…
- card_zero 2y ago
  Oh OK, that's quite cunning, and relevant to the article, where Monet is painting a sunset but the scene in front of him is copied from the painting, and so the sun emits no light and has no glare and hangs in the sky like a levitating egg yolk. Perhaps impasto on the sun could help there (perhaps it does, on the real painting).

mbivert 2y ago

If it can help appreciate impastos better: First, most paintings are created to be looked at from a distance, and not from up-close. In particular to this effect, painters regularly step back when working. Second, regarding impastos, the wikipedia article is quite expeditious: > it makes the light reflect in a particular way, giving the artist additional control over the play of light in the painting Here's a practical example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Duparc-vieille-Dame.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Duparc-v... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Longchamp075_Duparc_vieille.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Longcham... Because the painting is lit from above (it's almost always the case), the portion of the impasto facing toward the light, receives more light than anything else in the painting: it's one way to "paint" "whiter than white", very convenient to create highlights. It's in particular noticeable on the nose of the previous painting. Noses are a bit greasy, and will thus reflect more light. On the other side of the impasto, a little shadow can be casted. It can be used to echo the form being depicted. This is being used, for example on her right lower eyelid, where there's a little cast shadow (and a highlight). It's some sort of a tiny bas-relief. But all those impastos from up-close look weird, unnatural. "Gross" even, in this particular case…

card_zero 2y ago
Oh OK, that's quite cunning, and relevant to the article, where Monet is painting a sunset but the scene in front of him is copied from the painting, and so the sun emits no light and has no glare and hangs in the sky like a levitating egg yolk. Perhaps impasto on the sun could help there (perhaps it does, on the real painting).