Busacca Gallery

This is a young man painted in oil, from the 1800s -- a portrait and a one-of-a-kind work of art. Portrait painting is a genre in painting where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Portraitists create their work by commission, for public and private persons, or are inspired by admiration or affection for the subject. Portraits are often important state and family records, as well as remembrances. Historically, portrait paintings have primarily memorialized the rich and powerful. Traditional oil painting techniques often begin with the artist sketching the figure onto the canvas with charcoal or a "clean", which is thinned paint. Oil paint can be mixed with turpentine or artist grade mineral spirits or other solvents to create a thinner, faster drying paint. Then the artist builds the figure in layers. A basic rule of oil paint application is 'fat over lean.' This means that each additional layer of paint should be a bit oilier than the layer below, to allow proper drying. When looking at original oil paintings, the various traits of oil paint allow one to sense the choices the artist made as they applied the paint. Traditionally, moving paint was accomplished with paint brushes, but there are other methods, including the palette knife, the rag, and even directly from the paint tube. Oil paint remains wet longer than many other types of artists' materials, enabling the artist to change the color, texture or form of the figure.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil — especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body and gloss. Other oils occasionally used include poppyseed oil, walnut oil, and safflower oil. These oils confer various properties to the oil paint, such as less yellowing or different drying times. Certain differences are also visible in the sheen of the paints depending on the oil. Painters often use different oils in the same painting depending on specific pigments and effects desired. The paints themselves also develop a particular feel depending on the medium.