Painting Teacher Interview Questions & Answers

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An implement that resembles a thick fountain-pen and which has a small container near the nozzle. By air pressure supplied from a container or a mechanical compressor, varnish, fixative or colours can be applied. It can produce effects from fine lines up to wide sweeps.

Introduced by Nicholas Jacques Conte, they are sticks of compressed compound of binder and pigments; the colours being sanguine, sepia and black. They are grease-free and can produce very sensitive work.

An Italian word for the marriage coffer. In the Renaissance period it was the fashion to have painted cassoni. Florence led with this vogue, and artists who decorated them included Botticelli and Uccello. The craze ceased towards the end of the 15th century when it was replaced by carved oaken chests.

The principle in oil painting that suggests each layer of paint should contain more oil than the one beneath. Awareness of this concept helps ensure permanence.

An illustration board intended for the commercial artist. The working face has a shallow dotted, stippled or textured embossing. When this is drawn upon with crayon or pencil a type of half-tone is produced.

A milk protein used as a binder for casein colours. It is prepared by drying the curd from sour milk, then grinding it into a yellowish powder. Casein is only water-soluble in the presence of an alkali such as ammonia, thus casein paints once dry are waterproof. A type of milk curd glue was used by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. It has also served as an adhesive for joining the planks of a panel.

A needle that has had its point bevelled to an oval facet that can be used in etching and engraving. It will make lines of varying thicknesses, and with engraving can be used to re-work and expand certain lines. A favourite tool of the 17th century graphic artists such as Jacques Callot (1592-1635).

A heavy laminated card with a white quality paper face that may be finished rough, 'not' or hot pressed.

Metallic salts which, when mixed with a drying oil speed oxidation and reduce drying time (Also called “siccatives”)

Has many uses in art, including: mixed with turpentine to make a wax polish for finishing oils, tempera and alkyds; mixed with varnish and turpentine to prepare a painting medium for oils; as a stiff paste with a small amount of turpentine to assist impasto; mixed with Venice turpentine and resin asan adhesive for relining a painting.

A liquid, that may be shellac in methylated spirits or synthetic cellulose solution, that is intended to be sprayed as a fine mist on to charcoal, soft pencil, chalk or pastel to consolidate the drawings and prevent smudging. This spraying must be done with care because too heavy an application can flood and float the drawing away. Tests should always be made with pastel as it is likely the fixative can alter tone and tint values.

A small convex mirror that instead of being silvered was blackened at the back. The idea was that being convex it would reduce the scene and by being blackened it would only reflect the main masses of the subject. The artist would sit with his back to the view and hold the glass in front of him so that he could look over his shoulder. It is said to have been devised by Claude Lorrain (1600-82). It was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries and may still be seen in action today.

Category of material in which an artist works; can also refer to an additive mixture used to modify the properties of artists’ colors.

A rich, fine, red clay used as a ground on a gesso panel for gold-leaf. The strong colour serving to enrich the optical effect of the very thin metal.

A drawing/sketching implement featuring a thick core of black and smooth graphite, capable of producing a wide tonal range.

Ajointed wooden figure, either quite small or life-size, that may be used as a substitute for the sitter. The fIgure is so made that the limbs can only be moved in the same way as an actual human fIgure. Popular 18th-century portrait-painters used them dressed in the clothes the sitter demanded and thus saved the clients many arduous hours sitting still.

A rectangular frame crossed with wires or threads to form squares, which the artist sets up between himself and his sitter at such a distance that his view is the same as the drawing he intends to make. The frame isolates his subject and if his paper is squared to correspond to the squares on the frame, he can quickly place the main outlines and details.

A phenomenon that occurs with varnish on paintings, and occasionally on polished furniture. Causes can include damp conditions during varnishing, picture hung in a chilly, draughty position, or exposed to gross humidity such as can be generated by some gas heating devices. The condition appears rather like the bloom on a black grape. If it is on the surface of the varnish it can normally be removed by gentle wiping with a piece of cotton wool. If underneath the varnish, which is rare, the only cure is to remove the varnish and to revarnish.

Painting in fresh plaster with pigments diluted with water; the curing plaster locks pigment permanently into surface

This question really throws people. If it is maths or English they sometimes look back at you as if you are mad. They assume it is obvious – a very dangerous assumption – and then completely fail to justify the subject's existence.

(also termed: Beaverboard, Masonite, Upson board) These boards are made from wood-pulp and/or waste paper. The front presents a smooth hard surface, the back having a textured tooth resembling a reverse canvas texture. Suitable for oils if sized and primed, also for acrylics if grounded with acrylic primer. Sizes over 20 x 24 in need some kind of battening for support.

In oil-painting it signifies the first underpainting. It should be low in oil content to enable subsequent layers of colour to adhere properly. In oil-paintings early layers of colour should always be lean; if they are too rich and thick paint is put on top, varying speeds of drying will almost certainly cause cracking.

A manner worked on by Alexander Cozens, which is elaborated on in A New Method for assisting the invention in drawing original compositions of Landscape (1786). The idea is that an accidental blot or brush mark on the paper can act as a trigger for an imaginative composition. Leonardo makes mention of a similar approach to marks on walls that could be worked in with a painting. Twentieth-century Surrealists have experimented with the child ploy of folding paper over a blot of colour to produce a fantastic shape from which some idea could grow.

To paint a picture in one sitting, particularly applicable to oil-painting. The French use the term au premier coup. It is the wisest method where heavy impasto is to be used. The paintings often have a virile life and freshness of colour and effect, not always attained by more precisely planned methods.

This is one of my favourite questions (it's based on a question my National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) coach used to ask me) because it gets candidates to think about their contribution to the school organisation and their team spirit. If I'm interviewing for a senior leader I would follow this up with: what would you want them to say about you in three years time? This way I can get a sense of where they want to develop as leaders.