process

Scraping to Restart

Scraping a failed passage down to the ground rather than correcting it layer by layer.

What it actually is

Correcting wet paint with more wet paint usually produces worse paint. The painters who resolved this early—Repin, Sargent, Auerbach, in different eras—all made scraping part of their working method. When a passage reads wrong, the fastest way back is a palette knife to the ground and a fresh start. Auerbach scraped whole paintings at the end of daily sessions. The final canvas is one day's work on a foundation built from months of erasure.

Painters who used this

Ilya Repin1844–1930 · Russia

The Peredvizhniki history painter and portraitist who worked from zenith-lit studios, standing, from long social sittings, and painted monumental scenes from years of field observation.

John Singer Sargent1856–1925 · United States

The late-nineteenth-century portraitist who worked in sight-size from a north-lit London studio, standing, in pure oil color without medium—placing each mark from six to twelve feet away and scraping the canvas to the ground when a passage failed.

Related techniques

Oil Modello

A small, fully resolved oil sketch on canvas made to lock in composition and color for a much larger final work—the planning document of the Baroque and Rococo.

Series Method

Painting the same motif dozens of times under different light, season, or mood—treating the series rather than the single canvas as the finished work.

Tonal Imprimatura

A thin, neutral-colored wash applied over the full canvas before painting begins, killing the white and establishing a middle value.