Turbid Medium Effect

The layering of paint to create different effects has been used throughout the history of painting. But one technique, the turbid medium effect, will be described here. In this technique a light colored paint is thinly applied over a warm dark layer. This makes the top layer appear cooler than painting it over a lighter tone. Rembrandt used this technique extensively in his shadows and half tones. To do this he would paint an underlayer of a dark color to represent the shadows and half tones. He would then layer over this with a warm translucent color of the general lights of the scene. This created the cool half tones automatically. The turbid medium effect is fairly straightforward, but is worthy of experimentation to fully understand its possibilities.