Studying The Artist Pt. 1 : Van Gogh

Who Is Vincent Van Gogh ?

Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands in 1853. He loved art as a kid, but he tried lots of different jobs before he decided to paint full-time when he was 27. When he didn’t make it as an artist in the Netherlands, he moved to Paris with his art dealer brother Theo in 1886.

Van Gogh’s time in Paris was a total bust. “It seems to me almost impossible to be able to work in Paris, unless you have a refuge in which to recover and regain your peace of mind and self-composure,” he wrote in a letter to Theo in 1888. “Without that, you’d be bound to get utterly numbed.” Seeking tranquility, Van Gogh journeyed south and found solace in the charming village of Arles.

In Arles, Van Gogh really honed his unique style, with super bright colors and expressive brushstrokes. You can see this style in all his work from 1888, like his Bedroom at Arles series, Café Terrace at Night, and Starry Night Over the Rhône.

The Van Gogh Technique

Vincent Van Gogh is known for using the impasto technique, where he applied paint directly onto the canvas and mixed it with his fingers. One of his famous works, The Starry Night, showcases this technique. To make the stars pop, Van Gogh applied thick paint with bold brushstrokes, emphasizing the lights.

Artists didn’t mind using thickening agents to make their brushstrokes look even thicker and more expressive. This added a cool texture to the painting. One common substance for this was wax. With each brushstroke, the palette knife or spatula left its mark on the painting. Artists from all over, from the Renaissance to the Impressionists, used this technique. The Impressionists even used paste from tubes directly onto the canvas to create the outlines they needed with a brush once the paint was dry.

How To Paint Like Van Gogh

There are many ways to apply paint to a base . You can use a brush, a palette knife, a tube, or add other things :

1. Let the thick layer dry slowly. This helps prevent cracking and wrinkles.
2. If the ingredients are too fatty, it’s harder to create textures and brush strokes.
3. Flat brushes or small brushes made of artificial horsehair work well.
4. If you add sawdust, sand, or very fine grit to the pigment, it gives the paint a unique texture and makes brush strokes bigger.

Some artists cover their finished paintings with a special glaze. It’s a thin layer that protects the paint from cracking, wrinkles, and peeling.

Notice that Van Gogh’s brushwork tends to follow the form of what he was painting. Think of how the sunlight radiates, how the ground undulates, how the foliage grows, etc. He painted with thick and very deliberate strokes of paint. The subject looks totally worn out, with his head in his hands. It was a scene that Van Gogh would use as inspiration for a painting eight years later, in 1890, just weeks before he sadly passed away.

Van Gogh sometimes mixed his paint colors on his canvas, especially when he had strokes next to each other. But don’t go overboard with this. He didn’t intentionally blend his colors together. Van Gogh didn’t use medium in his paints because it would make his impasto look dull. He wanted a matte finish, so he’d lay the paint on towels to absorb some of the oil.

Van Gogh often went over his drawing and made it darker with lines. His strokes might look straight, but as they make shapes and patterns, they also make the painting move. It’s like building up paint and brushwork. It takes time and you have to be patient. Keep going until you’ve filled your canvas. And don’t worry if some of the original colors show through between your strokes of paint; Vincent did that a lot.

My attempt at doing an Van Gogh like artwork in Digital Art is below :]

I hope this tutorial helps you understand and learn about Van Gogh’s work and how to paint like him. Feel free to share your Van Gogh-style artwork in the comments below or tag @byzahraartz or @DIYvinci on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook.

Information Sources :

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/vincent-van-goghs-newly-discovered-work-display?epik=dj0yJnU9aC1pdVpsVkNVVkxsaFhidXByZzVDOXJFOG9RSzMyTWQmcD0wJm49eEFGamZQRUlhSHVKVUsxTlJ5MGdkZyZ0PUFBQUFBR2ZwZDhV

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-art-world/the-world-changing-trees-of-vincent-van-gogh?epik=dj0yJnU9VFdFNkw0X3JMRnBEcUEyNzZqTi1vWl8xTEhoSmR5Z2QmcD0wJm49eUk0SjQ4UHZiQ2w0T205WDVMSTdqQSZ0PUFBQUFBR2ZwZC1F

https://mymodernmet.com/starry-night-over-the-rhone/

https://www.oldholland.com/academy/impasto/#:~:text=The%20impasto%20technique%20is%20usually,the%20painting%20The%20Starry%20Night.

https://www.outdoorpainter.com/step-by-step-how-to-paint-like-vincent-van-gogh/