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From Van Gogh, Millet and Rembrandt to Hopper and Davies, the masters of realism have always loved the idea of carefully painting exactly what they saw and nothing else.
They trained and practiced to make sure their technique was flawless to the level of creating paintings that were so close to reality that they look like photographs to us. Their painting’s level of detail was extreme just like their intimate knowledge of their subjects.
Besides having lots of patience and attention to detail, these masters had learned special techniques and gained the very special skill of being able to see things the way only very few people saw them and paste this vision into their paintings.
Nowadays the techniques of the classical masters are not taught in most art schools anymore. And if they are included in the school’s curriculum, for example in some European art schools, they are only taught as part of a comprehensive sequence of courses on the classical arts that can last anywhere from 4 to 6 years.
Achieving photographic realism can be an extremely daunting activity for someone who has never been familiarized with the techniques of the classical masters. If you have ever taken a modern painting class, you will realize that most teachers do not even talk about prepping your canvas. Usually they just ask you to buy a pre-primed canvas that is definitely not useful for creating the level of detail that is required for these types of paintings.
Perhaps your instructor quickly mentioned the idea of using layers to create your painting, but never taking the time to making you understand the real importance to this concept which is at the core of being able to create a true realistic look. Umbra, penumbra, shadow, light, highlight and color layers: all come together in a very specific order that will allow you to successfully create a very beautiful, realistic painting.
Imprimatura
Umber Layer
Dead Or Gray Layer
Color Layers
Finishing Layer
Delmus Phelps, has been painting professionally for more than 35 years, and specializes in hyper realistic still life renderings. You might know him from his floral paintings.
Delmus uses a very effective venetian painting technique that has been used for more than 400 years which it is very close to what the classical masters of realisms used to use: rich colors, strong composition and skillful brushwork. This is why his paintings have universal appeal:
Poinsetia
Golden Sisters
Full Red Blossom
Frontline II
Confederate Cemetery Rose
Buttercup
If you are interested in achieving masterful realism in your own paintings, Phelps has created A Real Art Lesson where he performs two different step-by-step painting demonstrations so you can get your training underway. He has highlighted all the technique details:
- Creating an attractive composition
- Preparing and toning your canvas: firm and ultra-smooth
- Transferring your drawing to canvas
- Mixing and preparing your paints
- Painting the umber under-layer
- Painting the gray layer (dead layer)
- Painting the color layers
- Adding final details to texture
Phelps deftly shows you how he has been able to consistently achieve great realism in his paintings and impress clients and other fellow artists during his personal shows. He is offering this unique training in two formats: a digital guide and a recently released Yellow Rose DVD oil painting demonstration. As a new release bonus, the DVD is currently including the digital guide mentioned free of charge.
If you want to improve your skills in realistic painting and maybe become the next Robert Bateman or Ken Davies, take a look at Delmus’ A Real Art Lesson digital guide. It is a beautiful guide with over 140 pages and 225 reference photos of detailed step-by-step art instruction. Go for the DVD if you are interested in improving your skills faster. I think the DVD is the better choice because you get the guide for free and nothing beats watching Delmus work on a high quality video and see the actual paint strokes and hear his narration.
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