This is Lisa.
-Hi!
What are we going to do today?
I'll be showing you how Rembrandt.. 
made a very dramatic lighting in a landscape he painted.
Welcome to RijksCreative,
a Rijksmuseum initiative.
In this course we will teach you the ways of Rembrandt..
using modern materials and techniques.
Let's go to our expert, Jane Turner.
Hi Jane!
Hello!
-What's so special about Rembrandt's usage.. 
of light and dark contrast?
-Rembrandt was a master of light and dark effects.
And you can see that in this landscape with the stone bridge..
with its contrasting weather effects.
A dark stormy cloud at up right..
and late afternoon sun streaking in from the left.
To convey that storm cloud he uses a 
bit of the ground to show through.
That gives it a brownie warm glow,
and uses little strokes of creamy white paint.
To highlight the figure, the edge of the bridge, the fence..
to convey that sharp effects of bright sunlight.
-Thanks Jane!
Lisa, take it away!
-Let's start!
We'll be making the colored ground first,
so that's an ocre yellow.
The ocre yellow in this case is an 
acrylic color so that it dries fast.
We can also use water..
to make it more thin.
And we start grounding the panel.
When you've applied the colored ocre ground..
You transfer the drawing, we've shown 
you in a different movie how you do that.
And when you have transferred the drawing on the colored ocre ground..
you can start applying the first shadow colors.
Rembrandt works with several base tones..
the first one is a red brown. 
Which I'm using in acrylics again then you.. 
can also use water again to make it thinner.
And then just start applying those first shadows..
and you can see in the painting that there is red..
A red brown color, red ocre or red earth pigment..
underneath many of the parts.
Always make sure each layer is dry before you start the next one.
So Rembrandt used several base colors
and then start really filling it in.
And you first have the colored ground layer, the ocre one.
Then you have the red earth layer for the first shadows.
Then you use the burned umber for the second layer.
And also in burned umber you see that there are these huge clouds.
With a bit of a coarse brush.. 
you just start applying the cloud.
And you see that Rembrandt also did that very much.
Showing the colored ground, the ocre ground still.
So you use the ocre ground.. 
and the shadow tone in this painting.
For the dramatic effect of the dark cloud.
Now I'm using a smaller brush.. 
to paint the dark outline and shadows 
of details in the painting.
So now we have two shadow layers.. 
and now I'll be applying the third shadow layer.
Which is a raw umber. 
I'm still using acrylic paint so that it'll dry fast.
The raw umber is very dark so I'm using a bit of white.. 
also to make it less dark and a bit more green.
When you add a white the brown gets a more green-ish hue.
And you use the raw umber to add an extra layer..
but you can also add new figures 
with the different shadow tone.
Here is a man doing something in the background.
You can see that all colors are applied very translucent.
So that you can see the underlying colors.
In this case I do that by mixing the 
acrylic paint with a lot of water.
When you are using oil paint - water mixable 
oil paint can of course be mixed with water.
But when you're using oil paint you can use.. 
a boiled oil to make it thinner.
Or brush it on very dry, that is also a 
possibility its the effect you want.
And this raw umber is applied, 
well basically everywhere.
It's also used for the trees because 
it has this green-ish color.
So you can just fill the trees with it.
A bit further then you did with the red-ish color.
I have now applied the third shadow color, 
which is a raw umber.
Underneath is a burned umber which 
is more brown-ish, more red-ish.
Underneath that is a red brown color or a red ocre.
And this makes for a very layered shadowing.. 
and already dramatic dark effect in the painting.
And you can see it looks like a drawing still.
Then now, when you start adding other colors.. 
you'll see that it starts become a painting.
It's very basic and very few colors are used in this painting.
I'm now applying some details with 
the raw umber and more white.
Then I'll start making more of the greens in the trees.
For instance there is someone here, 
there's a coach here very tiny.
There's someone with a cap.
Those are some details.
A bit lighter so that you see them better.
Now it's time to apply other colors then the.. 
brown and earth colors we've used before.
So I'm now setting up the pallet as we did before.
First the lighter colors, white and yellow.. 
and to be sure I also add another yellow.. 
in case that one isn't sufficient.
Ocre, a bit of a greyish blue.. 
to imitate smolt. 
And a green.
Adding the raw umber, maybe I'll need it.
Last but not least: Black.
I'll now be painting nu the foliage, 
you can of course make your own green.
With blue and yellow. 
Or you can use an existing green, 
although you need to tone it down a little.. 
because it will be very, very green.
I'm doing it on the edge of the 
darker tones and ocre background.
So you see that the shadow parts.. 
in the trees are just brown.
And only when the sunlight.. 
touching the foliage, it becomes green.
There might be some green here.
The next step is to paint the sky.. 
and the water beneath.
You can do that at once.
You can see that the grey top.. 
of the sky were the second grey hue.
Comes back in the river in the painting and this way you..
build closer to the horizon you do that at once.
And also it's sensible to start with the upper part..
and also you'll have then the painting that is well..
framed really in darker colors in darker tones.
So you have the darker tones here and then.. 
you go to the lighter ones near the horizon.
And also by making this darker the light really.. 
centers here in the middle so we'll try to do that.
And I have this bit of greyish blue.. 
using a coarse brush again.
Going to make it more grey by adding black.
And we might even want to use real.. 
grey as well for variation.
For the wins of the painting it is good 
to start with the real grey.
And then you just have to test it.
Well this is very black-ish as you can see.
So I add some more white it is a bit too dark.
That is better.
Now it is a bit blue-ish already.
Now I add the real blue.
And it's a very dramatic sky so..
if you have a bright sky or a sky in nice weather..
you'd have this very systematic approach from dark to light.
But since the storm is just going 
away and making place for this..
beam of sunlight there is also darkness still..
here in the background.
And it's brushed really roughly onto the ocre ground.
Now this blue seems to reoccur so it's the second stage really.. 
of the sky after gray on top then you have the bluer grey..
which is one step.
Mirroring really in the water.
You can use the same blue there.
I take brush that is a bit finer.
And then you start filling in the water.
Again not too thick..
still pretty transparent.
We're now working our way up in the sky..
or working our way down actually.
Going to a lighter blue.
So still we're using this blue making it a little grey..
otherwise it's too blue.
So you have several stages of grey-blue really.
When it's almost dry, you can go over it with the brush again.
So you can erase the brush strokes a bit so you see them less.
In some parts Rembrandt deliberate showed the brush strokes.
In the cloud.
But here where it's bluer he concealed them again later..
so we have to wait till it dried a bit.
We keep adding white when we're getting closer to the horizon.
Sometimes very near the horizon some yellow was added.
I'm not sure if Rembrandt did that.
But it is a bit warm.
So now the sky is finished enough.
Important is that I left this here lighter and lighter here.
So that you can have this sunbeam coming very powerful..
on this group of trees in the middle.
There is also a ring of light on the stone bridge.
By highlighting that, you can finish the painting really..
because you really pull it forward by adding the highlights.
And doing that with a bright light yellow..
and for the trees a bit of green.
Rembrandt really made this nice..
well, almost circular shapes.
Adding a bit of warmer yellow,
because it's too pale.
I'm using a bit of raw umber to make it a more.. 
grey-ish tone here for the tree trunk.
Okay, you see I've added some highlights.
To really get the strong beam of light that Rembrandt created..
you of course have to even a more darker space..
in the surrounding, so if you do it at home you can 
just be careful and do that.
It's all about enhancing the contrast.
Here there's slighter.. 
blue really working a bit.
It's very suggestive, you don't really see it.
Or it's hard to see it.
But there is this kind of.. 
beamish light blue fleck in the sky really.
Which function as a sunbeam or gives the effect that the sun.. 
is very brightly coming through the clouds.
And that's a nice thing about how Rembrandt works really.
It's all really dark.. 
and then there is this big 
contrast between light and dark.
And just by some light, very few light but very bright light. 
He gives you this clair-obscur feeling of the painting.
By using very few colors he makes the whole painting, 
which is very interesting.
A landscape is not the most typical thing for Rembrandt to paint.
But in this landscape he did.. 
use his typical clair-obscur workings he
used in other paintings as well.
What a lovely painting Lisa!
Okay, thanks! Bye.
