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Acrylic paints are a medium rich with a myriad of techniques, many of which have been borrowed from oil painting and one technique that many artists enjoy using is glazing.
Glazing is a simple enough technique to explain but has a little nuance when it comes to its application. In this article we will explain glazing with acrylic paints, the techniques involved and the products available to make glazing super simple.
Glazing is a technique that involves applying a thin layer of translucent colour over a dry one. This translucent layer of colour imparts a tint onto the lower layers of the painting. As the number of layers applied increases the tint becomes more and more pronounced.
As such the technique can be used to achieve subtle transitions between colours, increase colour intensity, or tint large areas to shift colours towards a specific mood i.e. adding a red glaze to blue to introduce a warmer purplish tone.
The applications of glazing are broad but it should be noted that it is a slow and methodical technique. Each glazed layer must dry before the next can be applied, or else you risk pulling up previous layers and ruining the technique. The results however are well worth the effort and allow you a very fine degree of control over the tones and hues of your painting.
The issue that you might run into when trying to glaze is getting the correct consistency. Thinning acrylic paint solely with water leads to the paint becoming under-bound, where the pigment separates from the binder. This causes problems such as a chalky or gritty finish and weak paint adhesion. Glaze medium increases the transparency of acrylic paint and lowers the viscosity without reducing the integrity of the binder. This means the paint maintains good adhesion and pigment stability despite the glaze’s dilute nature.
Another issue you may encounter is attempting to glaze with some colours. Glazing relies on transparency when it comes to application and some colours, some pigments, are naturally more opaque or more transparent than others. Reds, blues, purples, greens all tend to glaze well whilst colours that have a higher white content in them tend to become chalky and pastel when thinner to glaze consistency. To avoid ending up with chalky glazes we suggest considering the colours you use, as it is always easier to glaze down, use darker colours to bring down brighter ones and increase the richness and intensity. You can also check the paint you use as most paint tubes will state somewhere in the information the colour's opacity. They will usually be marked as transparent, semi-transparent or opaque. Try glazing with colours which are semi-transparent as the absolute most and transparent colours wherever possible.
Winsor & Newton Professional Glazing Medium
Glazing mediums slightly increase paint drying time, have self-levelling qualities, increase flow and dry with a smooth finish.
Winsor & Newton Galeria Short Handled Acrylic Brush
When glazing with acrylic paints you will want a brush which errs on the softer side with good absorbency. This will provide you with a smooth finish whilst allowing you to apply glaze layers without having to reload your brush as often. We suggest considering these brushes as a starting point.
Liquitex Professional Soft Body Acrylic & Liquitex Glazing Medium
As we have provided some suggestions for the mediums and brushes available we will also suggest some of the ranges of acrylic colour with have available which we think are a great place to start when looking to try your hand with the glazing technique.
April 25, 2023
Hi, I have been using Daler Rowny’s Cryla professional acrylics successfully for a long time. How do you rate it against other pro artist acrylics please? Is Liquidex as good a quality please when I want to sell my artwork?
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Ellie Jakeman
April 25, 2023
Hi Andrea, I personally use Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic paint on my commissions and find it very easy to use and I am very impressed by its pigment rich colour range.