Editing Wet-on-wet

{{short description|Painting technique}}
{{Redirect|Alla Prima|the restaurant|Alla Prima (restaurant)}}
[[File:Frans Hals - Portrait of Jasper Schade CZE NG.O 638.jpg|thumb|[[Frans Hals]], [[Jasper Schade van Westrum]] (1645); painted mostly wet-on-wet. The forehead has portions of wet (white) over dry (brown/black). ]]
[[Image:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 097.jpg|thumb|[[Rembrandt]], ''[[Portrait of Jan Six]]'' (1654) has numerous uses of the wet-on-wet method.]]
[[Image:Winslow Homer Rowing Home.jpg|thumb|[[Winslow Homer]], ''Rowing Home'' (1890), an example of the wet-on-wet technique in watercolor, especially in the sky]]

'''Wet-on-wet''', or '''''alla prima''''' (Italian, meaning ''at first attempt''), '''direct painting''' or '''au premier coup''',<ref>[http://painting.about.com/od/artglossarya/g/defallaprima.htm "Techniques for Creating a Painting"]. ThoughtCo. Retrieved 29 October 2020.</ref> is a [[painting]] technique in which layers of wet paint are applied to previously administered layers of wet paint. Used mostly in [[oil painting]], the technique requires a fast way of working, because the work has to be finished before the first layers have dried.

==Technique==
Traditionally, a new layer of oil-based paint is applied to most parts of a painting only after allowing a previous layer to dry completely; this drying process can take from several days to several weeks, depending on the thickness of the paint. In contrast, work performed using ''alla prima'' can be carried out in one or more sessions (depending on the types of paint used and their respective drying times), and it is common for such a work to be finished in only one session or "sitting".<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110227092642/http://www.easy-oil-painting-techniques.org/oil-painting-process.html "Art Glossary: alla prima"]}}. easy-oil-painting-techniques.org.</ref>

In the medium of [[Watercolor painting|watercolors]], wet-on-wet painting requires a certain finesse in embracing unpredictability. Highly translucent and prone to accidents, watercolor paint will bloom in unpredictable ways that, depending on the artist's frame of mind, can be a boon or a burden.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120811061749/http://www.artsicle.com/blog/a-primer-in-wet-media "Art 101: Primer in Wet Media"] Medium.com.</ref>

==History==
Wet-on-wet painting has been practiced alongside other techniques since the development of oil painting and was used by several of the major [[Early Netherlandish painting|Early Netherlandish painters]] in parts of their pictures, such as [[Jan van Eyck]] in the [[Arnolfini portrait]], and [[Rogier van der Weyden]].<ref>National Gallery Publications: ''The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools'' by Lorne Campbell, 1998, {{ISBN|1-85709-171-X}}.</ref> 

Since the mid-19th century, the use of commercially produced paints in small collapsible tubes has facilitated an easily accessible variety of colors to be used for rapid and on-the-spot painting. [[Impressionists]] such as [[Claude Monet]], [[Post-Impressionism|post-Impressionists]] such as [[Vincent van Gogh]], realists such as [[John Singer Sargent]] and [[Robert Henri]] and [[George Bellows]], [[Expressionism|Expressionists]] such as [[Chaïm Soutine]] and [[Yitzhak Frenkel]], and the [[Abstract Expressionist]] [[Willem de Kooning]] have in different ways employed this technique, and it is still heavily used by both figurative and non-figurative fine artists.<ref name="Gury2008">{{cite book|author=Al Gury|title=Alla Prima: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Direct Painting|year=2008|publisher=Watson-Guptill Pub.|isbn=978-0-8230-9834-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/allaprimacontemp00gury}}</ref> Artist [[Bob Ross]] employed the technique for his show ''[[The Joy of Painting]]'' in order to produce complete pieces in real-time within a single episode, after learning the technique from his mentor [[Bill Alexander (painter)|William "Bill" Alexander]].

==In industry==
Wet-on-wet applications are common in the auto industry.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2016-04-25|title=Painting Wet on Wet...Really? [Exploring the Myths]|url=https://kta.com/kta-university/painting-wet-on-wet-exploring-myths/|access-date=2021-07-09|website=KTA-Tator|language=en-US}}</ref> A handful of products exist allowing for the use of wet-on-wet applications in [[housepainting]], but the practice is not widespread.<ref name=":0" />

==References==
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== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|wet-on-wet|alla prima}}
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[[Category:Painting techniques]]