This is the typical Old Master underpainting, where you take your image and you do it monochrome.
They generally used earth tones to do this.
And then on top, the glaze layer is where the color was added.
So, this is actually a copy of a detail of a Velásquez painting.
But you can get the sense of how color can be applied in layers instead of directly out
of the tube.
It creates a luminous effect because the light rays are actually shining through the clear
glazing layers and then bouncing out again.
So, that's where you get a more luminous effect rather than the flat color.
I'll show you what I mean by that.
So, this is a chart that I do in my glazing workshops we do one of these.
We make the vertical stripes in solid tube color.
Right out of the tube, nothing added, no glazing medium.
That's the first layer of stripes.
And then on the top we do the glaze of the transparent colors.
Do you know about the transparent and opaque colors?
Have you studied that?
OK, good.
So you want to be using your transparent colors on top and opaque colors underneath.
You don't have to use opaque underneath, but they did in this case create a solid field
of color.
So, let's talk a little bit about how you mix a glaze and how you might apply it.
I'm going to just take this canvas here and I should have cleaned off my poor brushes
before I got started.
I don't have my very favorite glazing brush with me, but I'm to use this soft bristle
brush.
This is a sable synthetic is what it's called.
It's a very soft brush.
And that's what Iike for glazing for traditional glazing because I was trained as an oil painter.
I did many years of glazing with oil painting mediums and they level really beautifully
- no brushstrokes.
It's almost like a glass-like surface when you're glazing with an oil glaze.
With acrylics, it's a little trickier getting it to level really smoothly and getting it
on and finessing it before it dries.
So, I definitely recommend the softest brush you can find and the way I do that is when
I take the try brush and run it over my wrist it feels really, really soft like a little
kitten or something like that.
It doesn't feel like a bunch of separate bristles, right?
You don't want that because the separate bristles will create specific brush strokes.
That's the purpose of those brushes.
Those are for that more expressive, textural brushstroke.
This is for very soft, smooth and you notice I used it for the blending to give it a softer
look.
So that's one tip.
Now, we're going to take some glazing medium.
And glazing medium is designed to level just like I mentioned with the oil glazes, they
level.
The gloss medium - you can see this - now I made this years ago maybe 16 years ago before
they came out with the glazing medium.
And I was using gloss medium and if you look closely - I'll pass this out - you can see
some brush strokes on there.
And that's because it was the gloss medium.
So, that's the difference - glazing medium is designed to level and become smooth and
the gloss medium will show the brushstrokes.
So, I generally, my technique is I use a generous amount of glazing medium - so you can see
that there.
And notice it's a little bit milky, translucent when it's wet.
That's a very thick application.
If you brush it out it looks much more clear.
But, just know that it will dry 100% clear and I have a disc of some medium so you can
see that.
So, if Iet this puddle just dry here on my palette I would be able to peel it up and
it would look like that clear disk.
OK, so what color should I add?
Student: Green Green!
OK, you got it!
So, I'm going to use a phthalo green which is a transparent green.
And phthalos are very, very strong tinting strength colors, so I'm going to add very
little of this.
What I do is I'll put a little drop of it there, like so.
And I'm going to use about one tenth of that amount.
I call it a twitch of color.
You can always add more but you can't take it out.
Have you found that?
When you're mixing your colors you try to mix a color and then suddenly the whole thing
is ruined - the whole pile of color is ruined.
So, I'm going to mix that in.
Do you see just that little bit tinted it so strongly?
And my technique for glazing is to build up many, many layers of a color.
So, I tend to very, very pale glazes and build up the color through the layers rather than
doing one darker glaze.
That's no right or wrong to it.
You could tint it darker and just do one layer.
And, in fact, for the purposes of the demonstration, I'm going to tint it darker because it will
show up a little better.
You see it's kind of stringy.
This is another instance where I have to mix it really well.
Did you find that when you were mixing your glazes?
You had to mix them really so they didn't become streaky.
It's tempting sometimes to want to do this with a brush because it's almost like using
a whisk to beat eggs or something.
But it also will make it frothy and the paint gets stuck in the ferrule of the brush so
end up clogging up your brush faster.
If you can be a little more patient and mix it thoroughly with a knife, that's the best
way.
I'm going to show you.
Sometimes I purposely do it poorly so you can see how the brushstrokes level.
I'm going to put a lot on there and brush that out on the canvas and this is the proverbial
"watching paint dry."
So, I'm going to hold that and it will take a little while, but you'll start to see in
the next 10 or 20 seconds it starts to change a little.
Can you notice a change yet?
Not yet.
I can start to see it a little bit now.
What do you notice?
Student: It's not as - 2nd student: It's softer
So the brushstrokes aren't quite as prominent or visible.
Now, we'll do some better brush technique.
So this is really not trying using not a good brush and just slapping it on there.
But, what i teach people to do is load up the brush.
I give it a very generous amount and then I kind of layer it like so.
I'm going to brush it out and I'm using my soft brush and I'm going to smooth it out.
Unfortunately this brush was really damp because it's better to use a dry brush (no water)
because I can see the bristles are splitting a little bit and creating those lines.
Can you see those lines in there?
That's because the brush was a little wet.
I use a bone-dry glazing brush when I do this.
And it creates a really smooth texture.
The same thing here - if I just smooth it out.
I'm actually going to be a little more generous since my brush is not helping me right now.
I'm going to have to start traveling with an extra brush.
And then I just let it rest like that it will also level itself out so it becomes a smoother
texture over time.
So, we'll let that sit for a little bit.
Any questions about glazing with acrylics?
Any tips I can give you?
Another approach is to do it very, very thin.
I know some people will do this type of very thin application of glaze.
I think because I was trained with oil painting, I was used to doing a thick more viscous glaze,
but there's nothing wrong with just applying a really thin veil of color and then it actually
doesn't matter if you use gloss medium or glazing medium because there's nothing really
to level at all.
Now, do you see how that's starting to level out already there?
So, you'll have to just take my word for it, if I had a better brush, I'd get a really
smooth application like you saw in my painting there.
But, since I don't, I'm just doing another technique which is just using the brush a
little bit more dry.
The other thing about the glazing medium is it dries more slowly.
So it give you more time to finesse the edges.
Say I was doing this face.
I was actually blending a couple of colors right here at the cheeks to give that flesh
to the cheek.
I needed time while it was still wet to blend the area in the other.
If it dries to quickly it's sort of like if you painted your fingernails and you applied
the second coat before the first was dry the you end up pulling.
Has that happened to anybody?
So, it's the same kind of thing.
Acrylics has a sweet spot when it's dry enough where you can put the next layer on.
Try not to be overzealous and put the next coat on until you know for sure.
You'll tap it - it's really, really nice and dry.
Any questions?
Student: Do you do the same process with really small details?
Like changing color in small areas?
Response: You don't have to load the brush.
I might just use in a small area a little brush like that.
Let's say I was doing the lips.
Green lips!
And I would just go in like that and just brush it like that.
Is that what you were asking?
Student: Yeah, yeah.
Michele: Yeah.
You just need a smaller brush.
So, any other questions?
You see as time goes this gets smoother and smoother.
Can you tell the difference from when it started?
So, for putting thick glazes you're going to have to do it flat not up at your easel.
Because if I stand this up, it's going to start dripping.
Student: If you want to lighten something, how?
You're not supposed to add white.
Michele: Oh, lighten a glaze. Student: Yeah, say you messed up and you want to go back
and bring that highlight back.
Michele: In general, it's interesting - I'm thinking - and maybe this isn't what you're
talking about.
Let me see if I'm getting you correctly.
So, you've done something that became to dark and you want to bring the highlight back?
Student: Yeah.
Michele: In general, what the old masters would do is they put the highlights in at
the very end and they just used white or whatever light mixture.
It's not even a glaze.
If you look at Franz Hals or some of those portrait painting like the little highlights,
it could be lace on a collar or something in the eye.
That would just a dab of a thicker paint on top of the glaze layer.
So that would be another step in the painting process.
Does that help?
In general it's pretty hard you can't really make anything lighter by glazing it.
If it's really an issue, sometimes people have to sand back the painting, sand the glaze
out, repaint the underpainting and then put the glaze on top.
That's a painstaking process but if you want to get it the way you want, sometimes you
just have to go the extra mile.
But it sounds like what you were talking about could just be to pop a little highlight on
the top.
Good question!
Thank you!
Any other questions about glazing?