The technique used by Tournier cannot be explained by the instruction dispensed by his masters. His initial training in his father's studio left little trace. Manfredi's influence was symptomatic; pupil of Pomarancio then Caravaggio, this painter remained faithful to the style of his first master and adopted a relatively traditional technique based on preparatory drawings. Nicolas Tournier, however, was a typically Caravaggesque painter. The analytical technique of his paintings shows that he painted directly onto his prepared canvas with large strokes, as is revealed in the UV fluorescent plate of the Soldier.
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He did not however, practice Caravaggio's scoring technique (whereby the artist actually scored the contours into the canvas). However, we have discovered that Tournier retraced the contours of his figures twice (see for example the infrared plate of Christ being carried to the tomb). The incredible number of pentimentos can be explained by this very direct approach. When he painted on an underlying motif, he did not use an intermediary layer between the old and the new composition but overpainted directly, which must have been a somewhat intrusive method. The laboratory analysis of his pigments proves that he adopted a typical Italian ochre medium while using the chalky Northern method of preparation popular in Eastern France. Generally speaking, Tournier's technique can be said to be efficient but lacking in subtlety, indeed his whole work lacks pure virtuosity.
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