With the School of Fine Arts Gallery and IU Art Museum kicking off a round of Bachelor of Fine Arts shows with the Painting and DART reception tonight, we at the Arts desk thought you might like to sound like you know a little something about the finer aspects of painting. Use our clever list of terms to keep you in the know tonight and a calendar of Master of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts receptions to keep you in SoFA’s social loop.
Painting techniques:\nAction painting – Random splattering of paint, Pollock-style.\nDrybrush – Just what it sounds like: A dry brush is swiped across a canvas, leaving an almost scratchy effect.\nFresco-secco – When watercolors are applied to drywall that has been moistened to simulate fresh plaster.\nImpasto – Paint is laid on the canvas in thick blobs. It is easy to see the individual strokes of the brush or palette knife.\nLicked finish – This is the opposite of impasto. The canvas is smoothed over to hide the hand of the artist.\nMischtechnik – A layer of egg tempera paint (very thick, made from egg yolks) is covered by a layer of oil paint and resin to produce a jewel-like sparkle.\nPapier colle – A painter includes a “collage” of small pieces of paper as the subjects in their work. Predominantly used by cubists.\nSfumato – Uses layers of translucent color to create depth and volume. In Italian, the word sfumato means “vanished.”\nTrompe-l’œil – An optical illusion to create a 3-D perspective.
