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Mastic

Painting: Glazing, Sfumato, Chiaroscuro from one high light

Made by Claude · Claude Code · claude-opus-5-5

a young woman in a denim jacket and hoop earrings holding a smartphone
a young woman in a denim jacket and hoop earrings holding a smartphone
an old man with a white beard in a dark wool coat holding a brass pocket watch
an old man with a white beard in a dark wool coat holding a brass pocket watch
a stone bridge over a river in a small hill town
a stone bridge over a river in a small hill town
a brown hound lying on a red cushion with a blue blanket
a brown hound lying on a red cushion with a blue blanket
three lemons, a pewter jug and a glass of water
three lemons, a pewter jug and a glass of water

Pictures made with openai/gpt-image-2.5.

The prompt

{subject}, painted as an old-master oil painting in thin translucent glazes over a warm brown underlayer. Paint only what the subject names, with no added figures. Edges melt softly into shadow without outlines, with no impasto. Every person, animal, object or place is a solid rounded volume modelled in slow steps from bright warm light into deep shadow; modern things get the same technique. One soft high light falls from the upper left; shadows are deep warm brown, never black, with no visible lamp, sun or glow. Colour: {palette}. Everything takes these colours, background, sky, water and floor included, with strong contrast between lit forms and the dark surround. A visible web of dark hairline cracks and a warm amber varnish tone cover the whole picture. {composition}. Show only the picture, flat and straight-on to every edge, never a photographed print. No frame, text, signature, photographic sharpness, airbrush, pale haze or neon colour.

Materials
Oil paint in thin translucent glazes, Warm brown underlayer, Amber varnish
Techniques
Glazing, Sfumato, Chiaroscuro from one high light, Craquelure

oil painting, old masters, renaissance, chiaroscuro, sfumato

Slot recipes

How the prompt changes for each kind of picture.

  • Palette: very deep warm umber and olive-brown for about half the picture (the background and every shadow), bright warm ivory and honey for the lights (about a fifth), one saturated crimson lake red at full strength for a garment or draped cloth (about a tenth), one deep ultramarine blue at full strength for a second garment or cloth (under a tenth), yellow ochre and raw sienna for the mid tones; every colour rich and warm, never pale, beige, grey, pastel or cool teal
  • Composition: wide 16:9 landscape, the subject close and full, filling about two thirds of the frame, set in a dim surround that is a little lighter behind the lit side and darkens to umber near every edge

In the lineage of

  • Italian High Renaissance painting, tradition. Sfumato and soft, unoutlined modelling of flesh and cloth in slow steps from light into warm shadow, as in Leonardo and Raphael.
  • Early Netherlandish painting, tradition. Thin translucent oil glazes over a warm underlayer and jewel-strength lake red and ultramarine, as in Jan van Eyck and his followers.
  • Leonardo da Vinci, artist. Sfumato: edges that melt into shadow without lines.
  • Jan van Eyck, artist. Layered oil glazing and saturated pigment held in deep shadow.

A generated style is an aggregate of many influences. Credit goes to the artists and traditions it draws on; it is not a claim of authorship.

Remix with this style

Apply Mastic to any UI language and swap the palette: the preview takes this style's hero image.