Using Glazes

Two-colour glazes: dry-on-dry; Damp-on-damp

Glazes are semi-transparent washes of colour and can be thought of as tinted egg medium; they’re mixed on the palette with this idea in mind.

• To make a colour glaze, place a small amount of egg medium into the palette cavity, then ‘tint’ it with a small amount of pigment colour that has already been dissolved with water to form a paste.

• Use a large soft brush

• Dry off excess paint from the brush before applying a layer of glaze, otherwise surface ‘pooling’ of paint can occur.

• Depth of the colour is built up by successive layers of the same glaze. Allow each glaze layer to dry.

Visual colour mixing

Dry-on-dry

Try overlaying this another colour glaze; the result will be a visual colour mix that is translucent and light-reflective.

Damp-on-damp: ‘petit lac’

• When the initial glaze colour is almost dry, overlay it with a new colour glaze so that the edges softly ‘bleed’ into the underlying value. Some atmospheric affects suggest sky and water, or silk fabric.

• These applications will be explored in the following blog.