Sfumato
"The function of painting is expression. In the great paintings of the past, it is not possible to choose between pure craftsmanship without expression, and pure expression without craftsmanship because expression and craftsmanship are so fused that they cannot divorce from eachother."
Metropolitan Seminar in Art, By John Canaday, portfolio 9)

Throught the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci we could not find any explanation of the sfumato technique per se, but only suggestions and statements implying its use. For example, "...that your light and shade blend without stroke and border [but] looking like smoke.

The Sfumato technique described here is a product of trial and error and from hints and clues picked up from here and there. For example, in an Art News article from September, 1994, titled: Mona's Smile Does She Need a Face-Lift?- we learn from museum experts that Leonardo also used his fingers in painting, and varnish in the technique.

From those clues and hints and particularly from this short text ("It was substantially a technique of thin glazes akin to that used by the great Flemish painters of the fifteenth century; by this technique he achieved a direct connection between the first touches and the last in so much as the latter were influenced by the former which he allowed to show through even in the finished work. The various layers of colour were covered with an oily varnish which was meant to increase the final 'translucent' quality. That is why Leonardo's painting is called 'in oils' and we shall keep that terminology in the present catalogue. But in fact it is more a mixed technique including the types of media used in the typically medieval 'tempera' technique.") we did our own experiments and accumulated some experiences that we want to represent below:
Sfumato (smoke) Technique doesn't imply that we cannot use lines in our painting, but "cover them up" under veils of varnish smoke. This technique can be used to partly or fully over the course of doing the painting.

At the beginning of the painting we prepare our panel with gesso or tempera. But for excercise, we find that bondo, which is used in auto painting, is the best because it bites the pigment. The Sfumato could be described basically as the below:

So far we have had no success in using oil painting with this technique because of the slow-combustion phenomena once covered by varnish. We also failed many times with acrylics possibly because of the same reason. We suspect that Leonardo had the same problem of slow-combustion in the "Battle of Anghiari" because of the use of bitumen in mixing with colors. The best results so far come from using natural dry pigment that we use our fingers to paint with. The advantage of using finger is that the pigment can be spread extremely thin and leave no edge, therefore we can blend or create shading of any degree of sublety.

To anchor the dry pigment we apply clear varnish by using a spray can, but the result could be the same in using an old atomizer and spraying the varnish by blowing through the mouth piece. Of course for very small areas, we use color varnish with water or alcohol as media and apply it by brush.

We notice that almost no two pictures of Mona Lisa look the same in color, shade, tint, or tone. So we deduct that he may have used mica powder of different highlight as a reflective layer, and the result is quite satisfying. The combination of Damask spraying varnish and dry pigment powder is excellent.

The technique itself is quite simple, but the varnishing skill and Leonardo's keen observation of minute detail, light, and color effect compromise us many a lifetime to learn.

Exhibition A

This is the first application of the described Sfumato technique above. The goal is not to achieve exact likeness, but the effects of varnishes over dry pigments and the use of different media.

The area around the hand bubbled up and flaked off because of the intentional use of oil and acrylics on that part. The result demonstrated that slow combustion sets in when varnishes are applied over oil or acrylic bases. The painting is done over a plywood panel and is mirror reversed, to prove the originality of the described Sfumato technique above.

This is an old atomizer that could be used to spray varnishes over dry pigments.

Contrary to popular belief, Leonardo did not use and easle in his studio for painting, but a "chest" which could be used as a "bench" when "shut up", as described in his notebooks. The use of the flat chest is more practical because in its flat position, it is easier to spread dry pigments and varnish do not run down easily when applied.

Leonardo's own description: "Let a b c d be the chest on which the work may be raised or lowered, so that the work moves up and down and not the painter. And every evening you can let down the work and shut it up above so that in the evening it may be in the fashion of a chest which, when shut up may serve the purpose of a bench." (Richter, Paul, 257).