Practicing with Glazing

 

For class I created a handout.

It included the 4 Golden Rules of Glazing:

1. Bone Dry Base Layer.

       The underlying layer must be 100% dry. If it is warm or damp to the touch, any new paint will activate and bleed into the bottom layer, creating unwanted mud. Use a hair dryer if needed.

2. One Pass & a Light Touch

     Apply the glaze with a single, gentle stroke. Avoid scrubbing or going back over a wet area. Water and friction lift dried paint underneath, disrupting the smooth layer.

3. Use soft, high-capacity brushes

     Hard bristles scratch into the dry first glaze

4. Transparent pigments only. Glazing relies on transparency. Opaque or semi-opaque can leave a chalky film that hides underlying layers.

Short list of transparent colors:

Blues: Pthalo blue, Indanthrone, cobalt, Prussian

Yellows: Hansaw light, aureolin, Azo

Reds: quin rose, permanent rose, alizarin crimson

Greens/purples: pthalo green, swap, dioxazine violet

earth: quin gold, burnt sienna

Glazing Practice

The first practice was with a flat brush. Choose a warm and cool of each primary. (I used Hansa yellow and new gamboge, permanent rose and coral, cobalt and cerulean.) You can choose other colors in addition.

Make a watery mix of each color on your palette.

Use the flat brush to make a stripe of each color going vertically. (in first glazes, the paint is thin.) I try to label my colors.

Dry completely. This is very important. Not drying your layers will cause muddy colors and fuzzy edges.

Use the same colors in the same order for horizontal stripes. Voila! An instant visual color mixing chart.

You will notice a few things. 1. Glazing over the same colors increases its value. 2. Whether you glaze blue over red or red over blue makes a difference. In this chart I've circled the blue over yellow on the bottom and the yellow over the blue on the top. 3. The colors often look more vibrant and interesting than if you had just mixed it on your palette.

Here is a small glazing chart with secondary colors. I used transparent pyrrol orange, lime green, sap green, violet and yellow.

SECOND PRACTICE

Draw three 3-dimensional objects on a piece of watercolor paper. I chose apples because at the time I felt pretty unimaginative, and apples sounded about right.

Paint the far left object with an underpainting of yellow, leaving a white highlight where the light might hit. For the second one, paint only the shaded part of the object WITH THE COMPLEMENT OF THE FINISHED COLOR. In other words, if I want a green apple, paint the shadows red. If I want a blue apple, paint the shadows orange. If I want a yellow apple, paint the shadows purple.

*At this point, I need to point out that you don't want a hard edge on these shadows. The easiest way to have a soft edge is to wet the area first. Apply the paint where the shadow will be darkest, and then encourage the paint toward the lighter part of the shadow. You should end up with a soft edge on the light part of the shadow.

For the right apple, paint it with a light value of whatever you want it to end up. I want a red apple (see, not too imaginative), so my first layer will be very light red.

So here is my evil plan.

I want you to see the glow you can get from underpainting with the yellow.

I want you (On shape 2) to see that using an opposite creates great shading.

On shape 3, I want you to notice that some colors by themselves can't create enough value change to make an object appear 3D.

I want you to notice that without at least 3 value changes, object appear to be flat.

On shape 1, begin applying another color over the yellow. Each time, leave a little of the previous value showing, drying between each value change.

One shape 2, begin applying the main color. I used a red shadow, so I'm going to start applying green. My first layer will be light. I'll leave some of the light green, then use a slightly darker green. Finally, I will leave some of the green, and make a dark green. Each time paint over the shadow.

On shape 3, I will keep adding the same color, making the layers darker each time. It is important that you LEAVE the lighter values each time.

Here is a second layer. I increased the yellow with quin gold, leaving the lighter side of the apple with the original yellow showing. For the green apple, I put a light green over everything, leaving a lightlight. For the third apple, I left a section of the first layer of light red showing where it is lightest, making it slightly darker on the shadow side. BUT NOT VERY DARK YET> They are starting to show some volume, but need at least one more value.

NOTICE: My edges are SOFT and gradual.

A third layer. The one with the yellow undertone is looking pretty sunlit and vibrant.

the middle one has a darker layer of green and notice how the red shadow is looking more like a shadow. The one on the right is having its value increased, leaving some of the previous values, keeping the edges soft. Needs another value, I think. 

Here's where I can't get much darker with the red so I have to add blue or purple to increase the value on the third apple.

And a little on the bottom of the first apple....

And now for my magic transparent pyrrol orange trick:

I was OK with the dark purplish red, but wanted to show

what an overglaze can do.

Trouble shooting:

*Problem: The bottom layer melted or bled. Bottom layer was still damp, or brush stroke was too heavy.

*Problem: The color looks dull and chalky. An opaque or semi-opaque pitment was used for the overglaze.

*Problem: Hard edges formed around the glaze. Paint was applied too thick or dried unevenly. Soften edges quicky with damp, clean brush before the edge sets.