Well, some of Caravaggio’s paintings have recently been found to contain mercury salt, a light-sensitive chemical that’s used in film. I know you’re thinking that’s more like a projector than a camera, since cameras record things.Ĭaravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew, oil on canvas, c. When light entered through that hole, whatever was on the other side of the wall was projected into the studio and while the image was upside down, color and proportion were preserved perfectly. Two centuries before the invention of the modern camera, Caravaggio turned his studio into a giant camera obscura by making a small hole in one wall of his studio. There are a lot of reports that artists like Vermeer and Caravaggio used a camera obscura to get their images onto canvas. Most cartoons were covered up by frescoes, but some were never completed and can still be seen today, like the Raphael Cartoons in London. When they were finished and pulled the cartoon away from the wall, they would have a perfect outline of their drawing. When the drawing (called a “Cartoon”) was complete, the artist would poke holes along the outlines, hold the drawing up to the fresco wall and, using a bag of soot, would “pounce” over the holes. They didn’t have high tech equipment to help them get their small drawing into a large fresco, so they would copy their drawing onto a large piece of thick, heavy paper the same size as the wall where the fresco was to go. First-some art history!ĭuring the Renaissance (and a little before…and a little after), artists would paint large frescoes on walls. With that said, I’ll share some quick and dirty secrets to getting your image on canvas without having to actually draw (much). My hope is that you’ve already gone through all the drawing section and you’re just here because you’re so excited to start painting. And let’s face it-some images are just too hard or time consuming to draw by hand. So here’s the deal: I’d rather you know how to draw to get your image onto your canvas, but not everyone feels that way.
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