How to paint realistic details by studying famous art & artists through art history

Posted on by veronica

When I travel and visit art museums, I study the art. I often take pictures of closeups and details in the oil paintings to see how famous artists conveyed realism through texture and detail in their masterpieces. Some top art museums have digital art collections available to view and even download online these days but many don’t.

I find it enjoyable to take pictures of jewelry, fabric, bows, gowns, metal, gold, silver and other details I see in art. I learned a lot by studying such detailed paintings and if you’re interested in the realist oil painting techniques, I suggest making painted copies of your favorite paintings. I hope this blog post can inspire you to do just that. Enjoy!

All photos are taken by me- Veronica Winters unless noted otherwise. Also, many famous paintings are in the public domain and can be downloaded for free from art museums websites like the Met, the National Gallery of Art, etc.

Agnolo Bronzino-Eleonora of Toledo with Her Son Giovanni-painting details-blog
Agnolo Bronzino, Eleonora of Toledo with Her Son Giovanni, painting details of pearls and fabric. | photo: V. Winters. From 1539 to 1572, Bronzino served as the court painter to Cosimo I, duke of Florence. The Florentine artist, Bronzino painted in the Mannerist art style – emotionless figures and hyperrealist painting details of jewelry and fabric gowns.
Bronzino
Titian, a closeup of hands, fur and jewelry rings | photo: V. Winters
Holbein-the ambassadors closeup
Holbein, The ambassadors, a closeup of fur. National Art Gallery in London. Notice how soft the fur looks in comparison to carefully painted golden details in fabric.

A close up of a painting showing white lace, Metz, France. Photo: Veronica Winters
Art closeup at the CA’ d’ ORO palace in Venice, Italy
Sargent, Mrs. Joshua Montgomery Sears, a closeup of a white gown, Huston art museum

lady reading letters of Heloise and Abelard-1780-A. dAgesci
Auguste Bernard d’Agesci, A lady reading letters of Heloise and Abelard, 1780, oil painting, Art Institute of Chicago

Titian, Portrait of a Lady, a golden earring and pearl detail, the Pitti palace, Italy

Some ribbon and fabric details at the Smithsonian National Art Gallery
Turin, Italy. Here the meticulously created details of fabric are layered over the initial painting of a fancy yellow jacket.
oil painting closeup-the Soumaya Art museum, Mexico city, Mexico
oil painting closeup, the Soumaya Art museum, Mexico city, Mexico | I love the variety of textures created in this fabric.

veronica winters painting

white fabric detail-Smithsonian
White fabric detail at the Smithsonian National Art Gallery. | Notice how abstract the details look painted over the base color. Stroke direction and curvature are essential to describe forms, shapes and textures.

how to paint realistic details-white fabric and gold details- the Smithsonian
White fabric and gold details, the Smithsonian. | Notice, how gold reads as gold because of few light highlights added to the general shape of these golden accents. How to mix gold color: You should use browns with a touch of either red or yellow (depending on the reflected light) to color mix gold color. It’s not about mixing lots of yellow into the oil paint, rather it’s using ochre and brown oil paint like raw sienna, burnt sienna, raw umber and bunt umber to create the shape first and then adding some strategic highlights over it where the light hits it the most.
Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, The Marquise de Pezay, and the Marquise de Rougé with Her Sons Alexis and Adrien 1787. Image downloaded from the Smithsonian website. | This is a beautiful closeup of the female face that shows how to paint hair, face and fabric. The hair is always soft in classical art painting. The fabric has soft edges but definite highlights. The earring has the most defined edge. French female painter, Vigée Le Brun was a self-taught artist who got quickly noticed by her future husband – famous art dealer – Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun. The artist enjoyed both the opulent lifestyle and career in Paris and way beyond France, painting the wealthy and royals in Austria, Russia, Italy, Germany, England, etc. She is known for her official portrait of Marie-Antoinette. Her high-paying clientele loved her art style – creative poses based on classical ideals, realism and color choices.

Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun The Marquise de Pezay, and the Marquise de Rougé with Her Sons Alexis and Adrien 1787
Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, The Marquise de Pezay, and the Marquise de Rougé with Her Sons Alexis and Adrien 1787. Image downloaded from the Smithsonian website. | Although I find Le Brun’s art less intriguing in terms of subject and meaning, I think her ability to paint realistic gowns and details is supreme. Notice how she catches the light on fabric in broad strokes of golden pink. We can feel the shimmer of fabric looking at this intense turquoise-blue and a lush golden sash.

details of hands and animal-the Smithsonian
details of hands and animal, the Smithsonian.
de heem details-the Smithsonian
de Heem, still life painting detail, The Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art | The seventieth-century painter, de Heem is one of my favorite Dutch still life painters who captured life of the wealthy in lux objects and food items. I learned a lot about classical realist painting by studying Dutch art, mainly composition, color choices and objects’ texture. His deliberate compositions feature careful balance of all objects and textures. Usually a piece of fabric leads the eye to the focal point. The background has subtle colors that support high-contrast still life.
de Heem, oil painting details of glass, fabric and silver. The Smithsonian.
Dutch painting of donuts and sweets at the Smithsonian.
Dutch painting of sweets at the Smithsonian.
ringling art museum_Munari_still life with plates
Munari, still life with plates, closeup, the Ringling Museum of Art.
Lavinia Fontana, jewelry painting detail, The Smithsonian
Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of Costanza Alidosi, closup of jewelry- c. 1595, oil on canvas, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington. | Famous female artist of her time, Fontana lived in Bologna, Italy in late1500s. It was highly unusual to have a name and a career as a female artist in Europe before late 19th century. It was also a strange choice to depict the mythological nudes at that time. Like other female artists of the past, she was trained by her father- Prospero Fontana in the late mannerist style. When she married, her husband became her manager; Apparently Lavinia made a lot of money painting portraits of noblewomen and religious subjects for churches because she had a big family of 11 children whom she supported!
Golden jewelry and fabric details at the Smithsonian
Lace and jacket fabric details at the Smithsonian.
Rembrandt, Lucretia, 1664, dress details. The National Gallery of Art (Smithsonian) has 737 works of art by Rembrandt! Notice how abstract the strokes are describing texture and light of the fabric. These are thick strokes with deliberate rotation and movement of the brush.
Rembrandt, Lucretia, 1664, dress and jewelry details. Notice how the artist uses greys to juxtapose colors. Thick, painterly strokes shape and sculpt the subject.

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