Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface in very thick layers, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides texture; the paint appears to be coming out of the canvas.
Impasto The color can also be applied so thick that individual colors are mixed directly on the painting surface and not on the palette. After drying, the relief-like structure is retained.
Because of their rather thicker consistency and their long drying time, which can be extended by adding linseed oil, especially oil paint is often used for Impasto. Also, acrylic paint can be used, while the short drying time of the paint is often extended by appropriate painting medium. Water or tempera paints can not be used for Impasto because of their liquid consistency.
The Impastotechnik is mainly used for two reasons. On the one hand, the light is reflected by the surface structure, the artist can specifically influence the incidence of light. On the other hand, the image receives power and dynamics, the viewer can recognize the brushwork, the speed and the intensity of the paint application. Painters such as Rembrandt or Titian used the Impastotechnik mainly to influence the light in their paintings, the drapery of clothes or jewelry received the desired plasticity. In later times, the expressiveness of Impasto was a reason for the use. So Impasto was often used by Vincent van Gogh. A modern example is the work of the English painter Frank Auerbach, who creates almost three-dimensional images with Impasto.
Impasto reception in painting in the form of a dense, juicy lining of paints to enhance the effect of light and texture, in engraving – a skilful combination of dashes with a dotted line, serving for the same purpose.
It is created by applying a thick layer of paint from a tube or diluted with a small amount of diluent with rough brush strokes or a palette knife. This technique achieves a greater relief of the picture, an increase in the light effect and texture. Typically used at the final stage of writing a work.
Dye brush strokes can be of different types: long and dot brush strokes, combs, lines of different widths. Due to the preservation of traces of a brush or palette knife, these forms become expressive.
With the help of impasto, attention is drawn to the relief of the picture, since strokes protrude above the surface of the canvas and a three-dimensional effect is created.
Paintings written using impiasto techniques differ in their dynamics and expression.
Oil paint is the traditional medium for impasto painting, due to its thick consistency and slow drying time. Acrylic paint can also be used for impasto by adding heavy body acrylic gels. Impasto is generally not seen done in watercolor or tempera without the addition of thickening agent due to the inherent thinness of these media. An artist working in pastels can produce a limited impasto effect by pressing a soft pastel firmly against the paper.
The impasto technique serves several purposes. First, it makes the light reflect in a particular way, giving the artist additional control over the play of light in the painting. Second, it can add expressiveness to the painting, with the viewer being able to notice the strength and speed by which the artist applied the paint. Third, impasto can push a piece from a painting to a three-dimensional sculptural rendering. The first objective was originally sought by masters such as Rembrandt, Titian, and Vermeer, to represent folds in clothes or jewels: it was then juxtaposed with a more delicate painting style. Much later, the French Impressionists created pieces covering entire canvases with rich impasto textures. Vincent van Gogh used it frequently for aesthetics and expression. Abstract expressionists such as Hans Hofmann and Willem de Kooning also made extensive use of it, motivated in part by a desire to create paintings which dramatically record the action of painting itself. Still more recently, Frank Auerbach has used such heavy impasto that some of his paintings become nearly three-dimensional.
Impasto gives texture to the painting, meaning it can be opposed to more flat, smooth, or blended painting styles.
Many artists have used the impasto technique. Some of the more notable ones including: Rembrandt van Rijn, Diego Velázquez, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning.
One of the famous artists who applied the technique of impasto – Vincent Van Gogh, who applied a thick layer of paint, and then smeared with his fingers.
One of the ways of jewelry enameling in the form of layer-by-layer application of fine-grained enamel immediately on a metal surface, forming a volumetric relief.
Impasto was used as a term for indicating, not quite correctly, a variety of italian ceramics from poorly tortured clay, baked to brown, brown or black. In the tradition of pottery, Villanavians were decorated with impasto incisions in the form of lines and dots. They were made both by hands, and on a potter’s wheel.