Traditionally, the chiaroscuro style is well suited to still life paintings and portrait art. Check out our guide to the best oil paints for beginners and professionals. Oil paint is the best medium for layering and blending colors, so we suggest buying a basic set. However, all it takes is the right supplies, good lighting, and plenty of practice. It’s easy to feel intimidated by the chiaroscuro technique since some of the most famous master artists from history are associated with the style.
Photo: Stock Photos from Andrew Stripes/Shutterstock To finish, da Vinci often added highlights with white gouache or chalk. He used charcoal or black chalk to sketch his subjects and then created the illusion of shadows and light by gradually building up lighter layers of chalk. Starting with dark, brown-tinted paper, he achieved dimension in his drawings by going from dark to light tones. One artist to adopt the chiaroscuro style was Leonardo da Vinci. Although none of his artworks survived, this skiagraphia (or “shadow drawing”) technique inspired a future generation of artists.ĭuring the 15th and 16th centuries, Renaissance masters began to try and improve on earlier shading techniques. A Greek painter known as Apollodorus Skiagraphos drew hatched shadows to suggest three-dimensional depth. The term chiaroscuro became well-known during the Baroque era with artists such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt, but the style actually dates as far back as the 5th century in Ancient Greece. Leonardo da Vinci, “Virgin and Child with St Anne and John the Baptist,” between 14 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)