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See art in a fresh way.

Glazing is one of the greatest tools in the artists' repertory that no artist should be without. It is relatively easy to do, creates beautiful luminosity, and can free a painter's inhibitions.

There are many variations on glazing, but I would like to show you the method I like best.

For this demo I am only glazing, but glazing also works great in combination with other painting techniques, and for delicate finishing touches.

I start here by drawing the composition with a soft and sharp charcoal pencil.

I blend a little mars black and raw umber with lots of painting medium to create a fairly drippy consistency, and start painting from light to dark.

Medium

The general purpose painting medium I use is a mixture of 1/3 dammar varnish, 1/3 turpenoid, and 1/3 stand linseed oil.

Note: This glazing technique also works wonderfully with acrylic paints and water for the medium.

The glaze application should be transparent, almost runny. The idea is that it should tint or stain the canvas, creating see through layers. For those of you familiar with watercolor, the oil paint glaze should look similar.

[Note: the rule of thumb for oil painting medium for long projects with hundreds of layers of paint. Start with medium proportions heavy on turpenoid, and light on linseed oil. As you progress through with the layers, gradually reverse those proportions, ending heavily in linseed oil and light in turpenoid. The varnish can remain constant. The purpose for this is that oil paintings will crack if a faster drying layer (lean) is painted over a slow drying layer (fat). So it is important to start with fast drying and end in slow drying mediums.]

As with watercolor, you want to apply the tones in one or two goes. And you can blend in a little oil paint directly on the canvas to make an area darker.

Warning: don't fiddle too much with the wet paint, because at some point the paint will not adhere to the canvas. If this happens, simply let the canvas dry then resume painting.

To lighten wet glazed areas: 

I will wipe the area with a clothe or paper towel.

If it needs to be even lighter, I dip a clean brush in medium and apply it directly to an area, diluting it, then I use a paper towel to wipe off the excess medium and paint.

For a more realistic effect, I would let this dry and continue glazing for darker areas and details. But, to lighten areas and details, I would switch techniques to scumbling.  You can read about that here.

You can continue to glaze and scumble for countless layers. But, remember that the painting medium can act as a solvent, just as water does for a watercolor. So, only paint one layer at time, let it dry, and then resume.

Final note: glazing works incredibly well with color. Look for that has an upcoming tutorial.

I hope you enjoyed seeing technique in a fresh way.

Michael Newberry
Santa Monica, June 2009