Painting DaVinci Technique -Sfumato

hi my name is Antonius and I'm the painter of this video today I want to share with you this study I did on this very famous and amazing painting by Leonardo D Vinci Christ Salvador Mundi as we call this type of Christ and uh it's an amazing uh painting such a beautiful gaze of this Christ I it's time now that I wanted to study this and of course explore suato this technique of painting uh hazy transitions between light and Shadow it's a technique that uh uh D viny really uh perfected and uh I believe much of this technique is uh lost in um in in in practice I mean we have some theory of how you a painter can achieve this formato technique but I believe in practice this technique is pretty much lost so I haven't seen any um useful techniques on uh on YouTube or elsewhere I've tried to experiment in the past with the Fato technique but um I have to say that the results were not as great as the ones seen on the paintings of Leonardo so I really wanted to experiment on this hazy transitions between Shadows and Light and to keep these transparent layers of color that it's um they are evident in the paintings of of DaVinci but at the same time they are um very well built very well Define this the volume on the head so I have to say that uh in order to to do this uh I had to do some experimentation some um research let's say on the way color oil color behaves and uh little by little to um to paint something that uh resembles of the way that lonardo D viny has painted this painting of course I wasn't there while lonardo was painting his um this work but uh um and I'm pretty sure he might have followed a different technique a different way of building Shadow and light but nonetheless um I was pretty um excited and pretty happy with the final result of this study it uh the transitions really looked very similar to those of Leonardo and U um the theory is that you have to build fumat uh using um layers uh upon layers of color thin layers and this is what I followed here using these thin layers and applying them in such a way that um this foggy like this smoke like effect would be um created on the painting here you can see see that I have transferred my drawing on my panel and I have done an a very basic underpainting then using these thin layers of color I little by little I will apply those layers on the areas where the light should be and then using the brush I am uh moving the color around and create these subtle beautiful transitions of color the important and one thing that I have gained by doing this study is that um painters shouldn't be afraid shouldn't see it before there is with fear but rather than with um some kind of boldness some kind of um Mastery in uh in them and uh of course when we paint a study and we have to do uh some let's say um academic uh experiment um there's more of anxiety I have to be sincere I had some anxiety while painting this study just because I would feel a little bit disappointed if these efforts wouldn't resemble at least a little with the work of DaVinci so uh I was a little bit anxious but at the same time we have to be bold especially when we create a more personal a more unique original work of art um to we can use these techniques that uh we have learned from our studies but then be bold and aggressive in the way of um of perceiving the action of painting uh bold and uh paint uh I I find that this was the only way Those Old Masters perceived painting and they didn't always know what they were doing but it seems as if they knew and think that um a painter would experiment a master painter would experiment throughout his life would change wouldn't follow always the same recipe of painting and this is what uh we should do as well so one of the thing that I took from this is of course to do these studies of painting and apply what we learn on our own personal work sitting before our is without any fear without any um serious doubt that would kill our our excitement and uh our um Joy from painting but rather than paint with um some boldness and courage it's not an easy task but um and it's not always a road that uh brings us to a beautiful nice result but nonetheless we should um we should experiment and we should be bold here as you see I apply more and more thin layers of uh gradually brighter color and I somehow smear this color with my brush I move this color color with my brush in in such a way that a beautiful hazy layer of color is created on on the face of uh Christ in this case suato can be um it's a very characteristic way of painting of course um there are so many other ways of painting that can be brighter more Vivid more alive uh this though creates this hazy effect that is so unique to the work of Leonardo and many other Renaissance painters it creates this beautiful transition from Darkness to light in in a way that no other way of transitioning and blending uh colors will do so it's a beautiful nice tool to have in our painting Library let's say in our painting ways I can imagine how beautiful this way of painting flesh can can be shown in contemporary paintings contemporary works of art it could be something amazing and uh um I'm very glad I did this study in this way I will be able if I want to use this application of color this technique this format technique in my own personal work I have to say that uh it is um simply enough it's not something extremely extremely difficult it's uh um if you learn a little bit if you understand how materials behave both color and the brush uh then it's an easy way to to paint the study and to learn to to lighten flesh like smoke it's not something extremely difficult of course this is as I say my interpretation of the spato I'm not really sure if Leonardo used this specifically this same way but um I'm pretty happy I have to say I'm pretty um excited about the result and I feel great with uh reaching this uh kind of result on this study hi so on patreon.com you can find my full tutorial along with so many others about swato the Fato technique the way I have painted this study on salvator Mundi and this is an in detail lesson on the brushes the colors that I've used the way of handling the color and the brushes and I hope you'll find this very informative and uh uh useful for you thank you so much it's true that uh so many layers have been applied to create this beautiful effect and it's something that uh uh does take time for for this it took me like three setings before the easel I had to to wait after a point to for the uh layers to dry up a little bit before proceeding to adding some more layers and uh this brings this painting the the beauty and this it helps to to create this beautiful nice effect I have to say that I thought uh um that um I have to use very expensive brushes I have to use uh colors that are of the highest best quality in order to achieve this spato but uh I really have to say and you see you see it here that the brushes I'm using are synthetic I use some kinsky natural bristle brushes but for the most part the brushes can be synthetic soft synthetic brushes and U the the colors uh I use are not professional they are of good quality of course but not of those pigments that are extremely expensive extremely you know hard to find and fun see colors and of course I've used very few colors to achieve this flesh tone it's like I've used four or five colors in order to to achieve this spato effect here I imagine that uh somebody can add really really many layers as many as somebody likes but uh for me this was the the final um layer here it uh it gave me this really nice effect and um yeah I hope you enjoyed this uh video you can find more details on the full lesson uh I I will upload on patreon.com / paintingthe light on my page page there you can find the full detailed tutorial on the colors that I've used and the technique that I used but I really was very excited to share with you the results of this and for sure you can see how I apply these layers here and uh uh take an idea of this hazy foggy beautiful transition from light to Shadow it's really amazing and I have to say that uh I was really really excited if you want to learn how to use this and of course use it for your own personal work or just for doing these studies uh find me on patreon and uh find all the exclusive uh content there all the tutorials and lessons I have uploaded there and uh stay healthy stay creative I want to thank you so much for being here and I will see you soon with with another video bye