New Painting Technique: The Scumbling Painting

Glazing may also be wrongly identified as scumbling but in reality produces depth within the opposite way by resulting in the top of the painting.. 

 

Scumbling techniques have been utilized by old master technique because the 1600s to create smooth gradations modify a previously dried layer of paint and to give a sense of depth. This method is accomplished by applying thin layers of sunshine opaque colors over dark layers of dried transparent paint. The final results gives a painting a surface that various in how much of the under painting is revealed. 

An ultra thin layer of an opaque paint can soften an area of the painting while giving it a misty, almost out-of-focus look that might be usual for background objects. Adding a thicker layer of paint to an area would naturally give that object a look and feel to be within the foreground. However, scumbling an excessive amount of a canvas with thick opaque paint can lead to a return to some flattened sense of depth.

The scumbling painting technique is often accustomed to create a beam of light penetrating an otherwise darkens room. It's also helpful to give a glowing effect to intensify individual objects and skin tones.  An advantage of scumbling is that if it doesn't produce the desired effect the still wet top layer can be taken off having a clean cloth alone or with a solvent like turpentine when needed.  Famous painters and paintings that use a scumbling technique include: 

-Rembrandt and at least two of his famous paintings called “Artist Contemplating the Bust of Homer” and “Self Portrait”. These two were oil paintings on canvas. 

- In france they Master David Jacques-Louis and the painting “Madame Charles-Louis Trudaine”