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Recently I am fascinated by so many oil painting brushstroke techniques!

What I found in my painting journey is the more you paint, the more you open the opportunity to explore the vast land of different painting techniques and methods. And that will greatly benefit you as an artist. 

In another post we discussed different brushstrokes: https://yingmclane.com/mastering-the-art-of-oil-painting-brush-strokes/

In this post I am going to details about two painting techniques are similar but not totally the same—

Sgraffito and scumbling

Sgraffito is a technique that scratches through still-wet paint to reveal the underneath layer of paint.  

The term sgraffito comes from the Italian word sgraffito which means “to scratch.” 

It’s particularly useful in impasto paintings, providing another level of texture as well as contrasting colors.

Any object that will scratch a line into the paint can be used for sgraffito. For example, the end of a brush is perfect for drawing thin lines like hairs. 

One thing to remember when doing sgraffito with oils is that the color you want to show through must be totally dry before you apply the next layer. Or you’ll scratch off both layers.

When the initial color has dried, apply the color you’re going to scratch through. Make sure the paint is not runny, or the paint will drip down into the areas you’ve scratched. 

Sgraffito can be used to create special effects if you’re painting on a canvas with a relatively coarse weave like cotton duck canvas, You can use your painting knife to scrape off the paint and reveal the paint underneath. The new color will seep in between the canvas weaves.

Famous paintings used sgraffito:

“The Triumph of Death” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1562)

Bruegel’s powerful depiction of death and destruction features intricate sgraffito in the armor of the skeletal figures. The scratched details create a haunting texture, emphasizing the grim nature of the subject.

“Woman with a Guitar” by Georges Braque (1913)

Georges Braque, one of the founders of Cubism, used sgraffito to fragment and reshape the image. In “Woman with a Guitar,” he scratched and scraped to create the fractured forms, contributing to the revolutionary style of the artwork.

Scumbling 

Another popular oil painting technique is scumbling, click here to read more:https://yingmclane.com/scumbling-painting-technique-what-you-should-know/