Glazing
 

Could someone explain to me the correct way to go about glazing?
Thanks

Trace any thread of Karin Wells
 

Well, maybe not any thread. Still my impression from reading her comments is that she is the past and present master of this technique.

Or pick up a copy of the Ralph Mayer Handbook for Painters.

In a nutshell you need to know how long to let your layers dry and what colors are opaque versus transparent.

Joseph,

There's plenty of discussion on the "how" of glazing, but also be aware of the "why' -- and the "why not" -- of the technique. It's kind of a seductive subject, this notion of building up colour or altering tone with thin applications of nearly transparent pigments.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking of glazing as a way to "make up" for not getting colour and tone correct in the first place. An underbaked cake with rancid frosting will still be a big disappointment at the party, no matter how pretty the decorations stuck on at the end. Glazing is used to enhance an already sound passage or painting, not to repair a poor construction.

Be aware that a glaze is, after all, chemically accomplished by compromising the integrity of the paint, introducing an extreme quantity of a dispersant (oil, alkyd, etc.) into the paint to thin out the pigment to a transparent concentration. This tenuously bound pigment is applied in an extremely thin layer, which will not surprisingly be weaker and more brittle than thicker paint applications. And because it's sitting right on top of the painting, a subsequent cleaning to remove old varnish could, even with care, lift some areas of that thin glaze.

So yes, by all means get into the books and the websites and learn as much as you can about it, but use it sparingly and deliberately for a specifically intended purpose. Indiscriminately applied, a glaze can make a passage look muddy or dirty rather than luminous.

Steven

Most old masters here in the Netherlands didn't glaze. Glazing is one of the most misunderstood aspects of painting I think. There is the so-called 'glazing-myth'.

The dutch old masters relied on the proper mixing of the colours to achieve their effects. 'Glazing' can destroy a well-painted passage. (And I have some experience in wrongly applying glazes ;C )

What they did sometimes was to mix retouching varnish with pigment, so you get a very thin transparant layer. It's a bit like watercolour.

Hope this helps,

Greetings,
Peter

Peter and Steven,

Very well put; both of you. I'm glad to hear someone finally comment on the myth of the Dutch old masters' "building up layers of glazes". The old Dutch/Flemish "rule of three" techniques would not work if they had, in fact, used nothing but a series of glazes, as some people suppose they did. It is true that they might have used a number of relatively oil-rich layers, but that is not necessarily the same as a glaze.

As Steven pointed out, a glaze can be--and is--used to unify parts or the whole of a painting, once it is more-or-less completed. There are times when you need to strengthen this part, or warm up that one, and it makes more sense to do it as a glaze rather than re-paint the whole passage. But that's about as far as you can go to correct errors using a glaze.

To Joseph: think of glazing as simply "a transparent darker tone laid over a lighter preparation" period. A scumble is the same thing, except it's a light tone over a darker one. I usually use the term "glaze" to mean either of these; the main point being that these are transparent paint applications. In any event, the key is to keep a glaze thin. The transparency is acheived through the thinness of the paint or by using naturally transparent pigments, or both. If you use the latter, you need not add too much oil in order to make the thing transparent, so the paint layer may be stronger. The oil needs the pigment in order to dry properly and form a tough film. The pigment particles act as a matrix for the oil to bond with. It's something like a concrete floor slab that is made stronger by the addition of a metal grid over which the concrete is poured. Without the metal grid, the concrete slab is weak and prone to cracking.

You can keep a glaze relatively lean if you use a more-or-less dry brush technique to apply the paint. I use this a lot and I use my fingers to spread it around, too. In this way, I keep pretty good company because Titian was said to do this endlessly (spread thin paint around with his fingers.)

Anyway, experiment a bit and best of luck to you. Hope this is useful, too.

Juan

Glazing versus dilution
 

Just a reply to Stephen Sweeney: glazing need not compromise the paint film in any way. The pigment can be rubbed on with a cloth or even a finger, if you have no objection to touching the paint. Oil paint, fortunately, can be spread out easily. What you seem to be describing is more like a tinted varnish or wash. This approach to glazing is guaranteed to result in a very weak film, both as to colour and cohesion etc

Very small amounts of medium are required only to improve the spreadability of the paint. If you 'rub" the glaze on, there is no danger that the paint will be underbound, and lightening it is merely a matter of rubbing off what is too dark or intense. I suspect that many of the problems of muddiness, cracking and darkening are due to the over-use of medium, whether traditional or alkyd. Keep it simple!

Peter,

Excellently and concisely stated. I couldn't have said it any better than that, as is evidenced by the fact that I didn't.

Just as a further note; I've recently taken to adding some calcium carbonate to, primarily, scumbles. I have found that this way even the thinnest, rubbed-on layer stays put and does not seem to darken to invisibility, as so often happens when trying to lighten a passage with a thin, transparent over-paining. The CaCo3 seems to add just enough body to the paint for it to stabilize at whatever opacity is required of it.

All the best.

Juan

Glazing the Good and the Bad
 

If you want to see the good and bad effect of using glazes taken to the extreme. Look at the work of Maxfield Parrish. His goal was to match the translucent glow of stained glass with paint.(He also did work in stained and painted glass). His work is beautiful but many of his paintings are also extremely cracked and in danger of being lost. Restorers are tiring to save these works of a talented albeit very unconventional artist. If you consider he was working only as long ago as the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century the fact that his work is in such bad shape should serve as a warning if longevity of your work is a concern.

Now that said a large part of the problem was that in order to speed his work (he was a Illustrator and worked under deadlines) he used cobalt drier in his paint. It speeds drying times but also makes paint very brittle if you use too much.

Also I am sure he knew these things when he was doing it as a Illustrator longevity and prosperity is not your immediate concern getting the work to the publisher on time and getting paid is. So although we now value his work as a painting it was an illustration for income for him. And the client paying the fee did not care much what happened to the work even 2 days after it was reproduced never mind 30-100 years later.

Today there are modern fast drying painting mediums (Liquin) that if used correctly will allow you to mimic the work of Parrish with fewer of the bad side effects.

That said you must remember never put a fast drying layer of paint over a slow drying layer. That is were the term fat over lean comes from. Lean paint or paint with less oil (or a oil based painting medium like linseed oil) will dry faster then Fat paint (paint with more oil)

If you do not follow this rule and paint lean over fat then the top layer dries first but as the lower fat layer dries the top layer can

Another Word about Glazing
 

I work over a highly detailed monochromatic underpainting. For things like backgrounds, clothing, hair, etc., I will use a glaze to define the color of the passage and allow the underpainting to show through thereby defining the detail. The glaze is likened to a thin pane of colored glass. I glaze with a medium that contains a small amount of resin (venice turpentine) to strengthen the film, and I paint almost exclusively on ridgid surfaces.

There are definitely good reasons to glaze - if you have a process and materials that support it.

I agree, Peter, assuming the glaze is executed properly. My initial comments were extracted from the Fearmonger Shop Manual because I wrote in the context of the basic inquiry with which the thread began, and I thought a cautionary note was in order so that folks inclined to begin experimenting with the technique didn't needlessly suffer disappointing results. The hazards are minimal and the benefits rewarding if the process is carried out in the manner you described. I intended only to highlight that the new practitioner would do well to become informed about factors such as transparency/opacity of the pigments used, permanent/fugitive quality of those pigments, whether a particular glaze is intended to be a workable or a "finish" layer, whether the relative fat/lean characteristics of the glaze and the layers above and below it are compatible, and so on. Doubtless there are some "happy accidents" that occur, but I'd wager that the most successful glazing is that which has been planned for some time before the painting was ready for it, and planned for a specific effect in the overall picture. The cautionary tone would be worth it if even a few painters are dissuaded from applying, say, multiple layers of corrective "glaze" using an opaque paint thinned to excess with whatever medium might be used in order to achieve transparency.

Part of the "problem" is, as often happens, definition and semantics. What one writer means by "glaze" may be quite different from another's understanding. My devil's-advocate attempt elsewhere to deal with the variously-interpreted term "painterly" was not the highlight of my forensics experiments, and I won't try to top it here.

An end-note G'day to Wollongong from a one-time expat Sydneysider who did his first oil paintings around the Harbour in '95. Loved Arthur Streeton and the Heidelberg School so much, I published an article on them in the U.S. after I returned, to virtually no acclaim (well . . . my mum liked it), but I had a good time with it anyway.

Cheers,
Steven

A glaze is pure color mixed with medium that is translucent. If you add any white (or other pigmented color) to the mixture, it is called a scumble.

Glazing is generally used to enrich/enhance a color that lies underneath...a result that you can't get by just mixing wet paint.

Sometimes I lay down a wet glaze into a dry area of my painting in order to begin to paint thick light into it. This not only adds color, it makes it convenient so that I am able to paint "wet into wet"...and yes, that destroys the effect of the glaze.

Before you begin to glaze a color, the paint underneath (sometimes an underpainting) needs to be rather finished looking. Glazing does not build or add form to a painted object....think of a glaze as adding more color and "atmosphere."

And for Pete's sake, use some common sense here, if you put a glaze onto a painting and it does nothing to enhance the look, wipe it off before it is dry and try something else. ;)

Glazing and medium
 

Karin!

Perhaps I've missed something. You say "if you add white or any other pigmented paint" (or was it color?) "it becomes a scumble".

My experience seems to be that the important point is the transparency of the pigment. If you use, say, pthalo or transparent quinacridones you definitely don't get a scumble. I agree broadly on white, but even this depends, for example, on whether it is flake, cremnitz, zinc or titanium. All oil paint is pigmented, is it not?

Would you say that whether it's a glaze or a scumble is dependent on the opacity of the pigment? Don't know that it matters as long as the effect is as intended...just intrigued once again by the way art terminology seems to mean different things to different people...

Re: Glazing and medium
 

I like to think of a glaze as likening it to a thin pane of colored glass. A glaze should generally be accomplished with transparent or semi-transparent paint. If you glaze with an opaque paint you are likely to get speckles of suspended opaque particles of pigment.

I tend to divide up my palette into "glaze paints" and "pigmented paint."

Some examples of "glaze" paints would be: Alizarin Crimson, Prussian Blue, Raw Sienna, Raw Umber...i.e., they are clear.

Some examples of "pigmented" paint would be:Yellow Ochre, Indian Red, Titanium White...i.e., they are opaque.

Yes, Zinc white is the most transparent white and I use it as a scumble to "cool" an area in a painting.

In general, a glaze adds a layer of color to what is underneath. What I refer to as a scumble is a little bit of "pigmented paint" plus a lot of medium. A scumble will look "milky."

Are the painting terms you use in Australia much different?

:bewildere I was so happy to find this particular subject for discussion as I have been in such a dilemma about all of this for using various mediums.

Let me say this, I have painted for many years, self-taught, and always used Liquin as I thought it was the only thing. Since then, I experimented (with suggestions from others) with mixtures.

Recently I apprenticed with an artist who teaches in the Dutch, Old Master techniques. Here is how I paint now in the order in which I was taught. Pay close attention please as I have definite questions about my problems afterward.

1. Drawing and umber painting of all the value stages. This umber layer is very thin a vaious degrees of value.

2. After that layer drys. I rub linseed oil directly onto the dry painting. I then proceed thinly painting the "dead color" or local color of the entire painting without any pure color and/or highlights, etc.

3. I continue do several layers but always first rubbing the juice of an onion onto the dry painting, then linseed and always thin my paint if with my "pre-mixed" medium of turp and damar varnish.

4. I will do this onion thing each and every time that I begin painting until the finish of the highlights, pure color. If I do not use the onion and mixture, then I use only my mixture of 1/3 damar, 1/3 turp, 1/3 linseed.

I love painting this way. But the problem.
After this dries, I usually have wet and dry streaks. I do not like to use damar varnish as it is so shiny and glassy. I read that I could use simly "retouch" varnish to finish it.
This drys the same way.

I never had such a problem with the Liquin and then Damar. But have not enjoyed painting with the Liquin as I cannot seem to manipulate or move the paint around and it drys too quickly for me.I must be doing something wrong. I have noticed that these layers have trouble drying at all. They stay quite tacky therefore prohibiting me to do a finish varnish. Help!

Any suggestions are appreciated. And particularialy about the Old Master techniques.

Patt

Splotchy paint
 

Patt, I too find that Liquin dries fairly quickly and I am having a problem with my skin tones looking 'splotchy'. I'm not sure of a better way to describe it. My 'Lady Agnew' after Sargent looks like she put on make-up and didn't do a good job of applying the foundation. I tried using a bigger brush but it didn't solve the problem. I am finding that with glazes each layer shows through and therefore any irregularities pile up on each other and are perhaps exaggerated.

From 3 feet away it looks great, but I know I'm having trouble. Is it possible to use too little pigment with the Liquin? After I put the first layer on I could hardly tell any difference at all. I just waited for that to dry and applied another.

Thanks,
Joan

I'd love to help you guys but from the descriptions of your painting methods I can't figure out what you are doing. Sorry.

The only help I can offer you is how to extend the drying time of Liquin. Winsor Newton has a product called "Blending and Glazing Medium." If you add a couple of drops of that to your puddle of Liquin, it will retard the drying time. This will let you "play" with your paint for a much longer period of time, but it can still dry overnight.

If you really want to extend the time your paint stays wet (days), switch from Liquin to Gamblin's Neo-Megilp.

Thanks to all

Karin, I did not describe the technique very well but it seems that this technique was one of the Old Masters--the artist who does this technique is at http://flemishrealism.com and his name is David Weaver. I think that is his page. As a matter of fact, I just noticed that on the inside cover of The Artists Magazine June 2002, he is there and Maimeri Paints seem to be endorsing him and his work. Check it out and get back to me.

He teaches with and onion and linseed combination. I am certainly not an Art Historian so I do not know, but it seems that years back this was a common practice for the Old Masters, the onion changing the viscosity of the linseed. I love it not only because of slower drying but because you are actually painting onto wet linseed oil which has been applied to the panel or canvas. I actually rub the oil onto the panel with the palm of my hand. Painting into this is so smooth and pleasing.

And Joan, I know what you mean. I understand that paint dries at different intervals and at the end of all the drying process, I then look at it from the side with the light across it and there is shiny and dull areas, probably showing that I worked on it at different times and it dries at different levels. I hate this too and can't seem to get a smooth all over even look in my finished paintings. There is so much to learn about all of this. I have painted many years and yet when it comes to the technical part of mixing this and that, I do get so confused and quite discouraged.

If anyone there would give a run down of their techniques...just what you use as a painting medium while painting and then what do you put on your finished painting? :?

Patt:

Rubbing Garlic and Onion on paintings has been a practice for many hundreds of years. It is usually used when painting over a dry layer or a layer that is shiny or slick. The garlic or onion applied to the surface will eat into the paint layer a bit and help the adhesion of your subsequent layers.

As to your use of a Damar-based medium. Yes, the damar is what is causing the gloss to the finished work. Actually, it is a hallmark of many Dutch masters that their works are quite glossy and enamel like.

As to the streaking, I suspect it may be caused by the use of the onion and linseed combo. I would exercise care in spreading linseed directly into your painting as it has a tendency to yellow quite a bit over time and it takes forever to dry. I might suggest using a spray instead made of 9 parts rectified turpentine and 1 part stand oil. Apply your onion juice, let it sit for a couple of minutes and wipe it off with a cloth. Then spray this mixture onto the passage you will work on - wait about 3-5 minutes for the turps to evaporate off (ventilation please) and you will be left with a very thin coat of stand oil on the surface. This should mimic your linseed oil and allow you to paint wet into wet without the deliterious effects of the linseed and hopefully, and this is only my guess, it will help with the streaking.

As to your question about retouch varnish, most retouch varnishes are just Damar and Turp. I use them to seal my charcoals and as the first layer after my underpainting to bring the values up to true. I would only use it at the end of the painting if I were fairly confident that the layers underneath were mostly dry. The turp in the retouch will hasten the drying of the top layer, but middle and bottom layers may still be wet - cracking could occur when they fully dry. I recommend waiting at least 6 months before final varnishing. That said, I usually apply a thin coat of my medium to the finished painting to even out all of the areas and bring the gloss to a uniform sheen over the whole painting.

Again, these are just my opinions and my outright guesses in some areas, so take them for what they are. Hope it helps. :)

:sunnysmil
Michael, I appreciate your suggestions and all of the information. I will certainly take your advice into considration. The reason I began using the Retouch Varnish is from a suggestion taken from an art magazine (more than likely). I know to wait for at least 6 months to 1 year before a final varnish but the retouch was suggested to use sooner and as a final varnish. The results are not great for me so I definitely will make some kind of change. I get too anxious to finalize my paintings as they seem so uneven in sheen that I want to do something to be able to show the artwork without that "ugly" uneven look.This brings the values up as you said and I like that. Know what I mean?

I have heard that Linseed can yellow over time.I have to try a differnt way. I think this is one of the most diffecult things about painting. There are so many differnt ways and not necessarily wrong just different and the fun part is trying to decide which is for you.
Thanks so much again
Patt

Patt,

Did you purchase and are you following the "Old Master" techniques as described on David weaver's step-by-step videos as shown on his website at: http://flemishrealism.com? Which video are you following?

Or did you find David's step-by-step directions somewhere else?

Patt:

Per your request, what follows is the technique I use to paint. It is just one method of painting, but it works great for me. It was taught to me by Frank Covino whose teaching I highly recommend to anyone interested in classical realism with an old master touch. His website is www.portrait-art.com. Frank is 70 this year, so catch him while you still can. I cannot say enough about what he and his knowledge have done for my work.
____________________________________

I do a complete charcoal rendering of the form - this establishes the cartoon and serves as the first blush for the values, and the map for the underpainting. I fix the charcoal with retouch varnish.

Next, I do a complete monochromatic underpainting over the charcoal. I usually use a grisaille/verdaccio combination. I do use an alkyd medium during the underpainting as I want it to be rock hard dry before I start applying dead color. I take the underpainting to as finished a state and as much detail as I can. Spray with Damar Retouch Varnish to bring the values up when done.

Next I begin my dead color stage. I glaze first - things that can be glazed - clothes, backgrounds, foliage, hair, etc. I use the following medium:

5 parts Damar Varnish
5 parts Rectified Turpentine
3 parts Stand Oil
1 part Venice Turpentine

For opaque passages of the painting, I use this medium and spray it on (PreVal sprayer at HW store $5 bucks) and then paint into it. For finishing touches and high detail, I use the medium I told you about previously as it stays open longer than the above medium does.
_______________________________________

From further reading of your posts, it sounds like parts of your painting are "sinking in". You will get that a lot with colors like umbers - they just seem to absorb the oil and look dull on the painting in comparison to other areas. If you rub a small amount of your medium into them, it should bring them back up.

Hope that helps. :)

Terminology
 

Hi again, Karin!

No, I don't think Aussie terminology is a foreign language. Sounds to me like we have the same understanding of opacity and transparency.

Just as a matter of interest, though: one of my teachers often adds a LITTLE bit of cremnitz white to his glazes. He has two reasons for this: first, that lead helps to produce a stable, tough film that dries a bit faster- second, that a very small amount of semi-opaque paint in the transparent film can produce subtle colour changes, and smooth out irregularities. It's still a glaze; you don't notice the white because it's so subtle. Sort of like adding a tiny bit of Chinese white to a watercolour wash, say, to change a crimson to a "pink".

I think maybe Brits and Aussies tend to think of scumbles as "broken" brushwork that allows the underlayer to show through- but as I said in my previous post, it doesn't really matter as long as the effect is what you want, right?

Cheers!

Karin,

I have a quick moment and will answer your question. Actually, he lives within an hour of me and I studied with him as an apprentice, painting this technique and watching him also. I also have taken 2 workshops from him and getting ready to do another one. I love his technique, but personally, I feel that his edges are too hard and the skin tone a bit too waxy and I prefer more Rembrandt hard and soft paintery procedure. But what can I say------he is out there much more than I.

Cheers,
Patt

Peter:

Adding a tiny bit of the cremnitz white to a glaze layer sounds like a good idea. I have used zinc white for this, but it doesn't do anything to enhance the stability of the paint. As to the nomenclature of painting, I find it frustrating that even though some of us artists think we're talking about the same thing when we use a term...we're not. I could use a good dictionary of "art" terminology - know any?

Patt:

Since you are following the methods taught by David Weaver, I suggest that you bring your problem painting to him and he can probably tell you exactly what went wrong.

I've see his work and his teachings seem solid. If you can master the technique he teaches, there is no reason why you cannot (within his guidelines) tweak the edges and adjust the light to your liking.

Until you master one particular way of painting (whatever it is), I don't think that you should add other techniques into it. When you have mastered something, then you can "play around with it" and make it your own. If you're going to work with David, I suggest that you be rigid about doing what he says until you get a result at least as good as his in a technical sense.