Orientation to Preliminary Study : Indirect Technique Underpainting

Stratigraphy refers to the layers of a painting. By learning stratigraphy we can understand how paintings are constructed. There are two main branches to oil painting – direct and indirect. In this course, because we refer to the Renaissance Venetian and Florentine masters such as Mantegna, Giorgione, Leonardo and Botticelli, then later mischtechnik (Ernst Fuchs, Robert Venosa etc) our orientation is in learning Indirect technique. This puts us on solid foundations to learn later contemporary variations like Mischtechnik, reductive technique and Soffio.

As you will see in the video, painting can be divided into Direct (solid, alla prima) and Indirect methods. These differences will be elaborated on through the course.