Oil Painting Terminology

• Wet into wet — wet color into, over or alongside other wet color

• Wet over dry — traditional approach allowing systematic control.

• Painting to completion or in sections — more control with latter but disjointed appearance is a danger.

• Painting in layers — principle behind traditional technique.

• Refining foundation — adding to the body color with more subtlety of color and tone.

• Finishing with glazes — final modifications of foundation and layers with glazes.

• Varying paint thickness — modifying tone and color by thickness of paint: common but needs great skill.

• Dead coloring — first application in layered technique, either built up subsequently into further layers or into underpainting.

• Underpainting — painting which is designed to combine with later painting (often but not necessarily glazes) to produce desired effect.

• Using ground — allowing the ground to partly show through in the finished picture.

• Body color — paint given body: dense paint: generally paint made opaque by adding white.

• Grisaille — underpainting wholly in shades of gray.

• Scumble — partial covering of white applied while paint below is still wet.

• Frottie — complete film of semi—transparent paint, either with glaze or smeared thin.

• Scraping back — paint scraped back to reveal ghost of last application or some of previous.

• Rubbing — using fingers to rub in paint: a controlled and useful technique.

• Glazing — layer of transparent color: laid on when paint below is practically dry: any color can be used with glazing medium but transparent colors are best.

• Impasto — thick paint standing proud of surrounding surface: used for textural effects and also with glazes.

• Blending — softening edges of paint after they have been applied, usually with clean brush.

• Teasing — manipulating paint after it has been set down.

• Hatching — strokes or cross-strokes in wet paint that blend at a distance.

• Scoring — scratching back to underlying layer: often used to represent hair or creases in skin.

• Oiling out. When the painting or part of the painting dries dull and opaque (i.e. the paint sinks in) it is wise, prior to continuing painting, to gently rub in a retouching varnish as as to correctly judge colours.