To varnish or not to varnish?

That is the question..... A minor controversy on the forum elsewhere, about varnishing acrylics; and the debate rages in other parts of the vast internet. There are those who always varnish their acrylics; those who never do; and those who have taken the Will Kemp/Golden Acrylics company's advice and applied an isolation coat of medium before varnishing, I think on the grounds that while it couldn't be removed, an appropriate varnish (ie, acrylic compatible but not necessarily acylic) could be. And here, one of our number has pronounced glossy varnish - which isn't just applied to acrylics, of course - as "vile": strong words, which caused me to peer furtively at my own acrylics to check for signs of excess gloss. I wonder what you do, Fair and Gentle Reader.... For myself, on the whole I varnish acrylics, with a fairly low gloss varnish: I'm not keen on satin varnishes, because they make the surface look a bit too soft for my liking; and I've never much cared for the look of matte varnish; it seems to dull the surface, or at least doesn't enhance colours as a gloss will. When I use a varnish, it's usually one made by Chromacolour - glossy if you were to shine a torch on it, but actually allowing for extreme clarity without distorting the picture or making that admittedly awful yacht-varnish gleam. Why varnish at all? Well - I wouldn't varnish acrylics painted in what Alwyn Crawshaw calls a "watercoloury way": I'd mount them and put them under glass. For a painting on board or canvas, though, which would normally be painted more robustly and with heavy-duty acrylic - I usually do. Because although acrylic paint is robust, and capable of resisting a fair amount of abuse, the surface of acrylic paint is more vulnerable than you might think, particularly to dirt. Depending on the paint used - acrylic does vary a lot in this respect - dirt can become ingrained. In the case of Cryla, which dries to an eggshell finish - you can almost polish it with a cloth - it takes a lot to make the paint dirty and it can be cleaned with a bit of soap and water; but with an acrylic with which you've used mostly water as the medium, and which dries to a more matte finish, the surface isn't actually as hard as oil paint: it will resist fading, even scratching; but dirt can dull it over time especially in the home of a smoker or someone who burns coal or wood for heating. So them's my reasons and methods. I wonder what others do, though? http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

You and me both, Syd - there is a correct way; you're supposed to apply one coat with up and down strokes, and another one with horizontal strokes; but I tend to find myself wobbling about in all directions. I did know someone who just poured it on, and then spread it out with anything that came to hand - seemed to work OK, but there can be snags when the light catches it. Oh, and yes - I would think you're right about the varnish you use: if it's milky when applied, it'll be an acrylic resin. I don't think it's removeable, but then - I'm not so sure that really matters. http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

Yes, it's a good idea to pour the varnish into a container in a warm room, and leave it for a while before applying it. I wouldn't actually try directly heating it - depending on the varnish you're using, there would be a huge fire-risk if you did. When the varnish is lukewarm, it'll flow better. I keep my room pretty warm anyway, and my varnishes and paints live with me, as it were (hence paint spattered all over my gas fire, but that's another subject). So it's normally OK for use. I'm sure a lot of people don't bother with this and think it's unnecessary, but actually it's not being precious - it's a good plan. Satin varnish is a product in its own right - which I don't like much. Mixing acrylic varnishes to achieve a soft, low-gloss effect - actually, I don't think I've ever done it: you can dilute the varnish a little, if it's acrylic, by the way. Though I don't think I've done that very often either. In theory this is a feasible thing to do: in practice I'd want to make sure I had enough varnish put to one side to cover the whole painting, because re-mixing the gloss and matte should you run out of it is going to be a chancy business - proportions will vary, however careful you are, and you could find the end result quite appalling, with glossy bits and matte bits and bits that were neither one thing or the other. You've got to get acrylic varnishing right - because once it's on, you can't get it off again: the only way you can hope to hide a disaster is to re-varnish it, and then you get a rather unpleasant texture and look. Still, life wasn't meant to be easy, was it......? http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

PS - I don't actually know what Golden Acrylic recommend - acrylic resin isn't a fire hazard, and there are other ways of warming it - putting the container in a large bowl of warm water, for instance. Golden make good products, I just haven't used them - go by the makers' instructions. http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk