My painting is very glossy, any ideas on best reduction of shine

Personally, I don't like highly glossy oils. Perhaps you have used too much liquin? It's certainly too early to varnish it ( 6 months at least and that's for fairly thin paint ). But when it's touch dry you can varnish it with " temporary" varnish, called "retouching varnish, which many people use for an exhibition if it's too early to varnish it properly ( I do this ). It brings out the darks and the whole thing looks freshly painted. The other thing you could do is "oil out", that is, mix up a medium ( when touch dry) and thinly coat the whole painting, which evens everything out. Finally, if you don't like the glossy finish, when It's ready to varnish ( months away) use a matt or semi gloss over it all. It's all a learning process and we've all been there, Alicia.

I don’t use Liquin, I use a mix of distilled turpentine and stand oil, ratio 60/40. You will need to give it a coat of varnish when it’s completely dry, patchy areas will not look good, as you’ve already established! I prefer matt varnish also, my choice is Gamsol which the makers claim can be applied after only a few weeks - something that not everyone will agree on, Robert for one, but that’s their claim. 

No that’s fine, I often use just distilled turpentine and it does dry flat/Matt.  This does give off an odour which some people don’t like, and is not good to breathe in. I’m used to it by now, but I always have a window open in my studio to be on the safe side. Just ask away Alicia, there’s always someone on here willing to help, that’s what I prefer most about the forum. Sansodor is an alternative, it’s odourless and will do the job adequately. I use it occasionally, but not everyone likes it! It’s very popular because it’s odourless.

You face a common problem - various ways of tackling it, but on the whole I admit to not being bothered: I expect some areas to be glossier than others.  But as a round-up -  1) I don't like Liquin - it stinks, to start with, and it will produce a rather hard gloss if used too extensively.  The only medium I use at the moment is Linseed oil, very occasionally stand oil (all of my painting is 'occasional' at the moment, though!).   2) Oiling-out is a controversial practice - especially when applied over the whole painting.  It increases the tendency to yellow - if you're going to do it, do so very lightly - the barest minimum of oil.   3) I don't use, or like, Retouching varnish - it's sticky and horrible stuff, its only redeeming feature being that eventually it evaporates. 4) Alan is correct: I don't believe for a minute that Gamvar is appropriate to use before 6 months at least have elapsed: it's a good varnish, I'm told, but the expert US painter Virgil Elliott disputes its suitability as an early application, and if Virgil says it, it's likely to be right.  5) Use of turps or Sansodor - well, being weird I like the smell of turps; it's a traditionally used solvent; it is a resinous product, and so probably better for the paint than mineral spirits (of which Sansodor is one).  Unfortunately, it's not very good for us - if you're going to use it, Alan's advice is (as usual!) quite right: have plenty of ventilation.  On the other hand, the fact that you can smell it is probably quite useful - you can't smell Sansodor (at least, not much) but it's not going to do you much good either; but you're less aware of that if there's no associated honk.   6) Try painting without any medium or solvent at all - it's a mistake to assume that every colour on your palette MUST have a dollop of oil or whatever in order to spread or manipulate.  But some clearly do - in which case, I'd try sticking to Linseed oil, and only enough of it to get the paint moving.  7) Consider stand-oil as a medium - not with everything, particularly not if you want to see your brush-strokes in the finished work, because it will tend to flatten them.  But in conjunction with a bit of well-judged, ordinary Linseed - it can work quite well.  But there will be differences in gloss. 8) The immediate appearance of a painting is not necessarily the way it's going to look for very long - as paint cures, solvents evaporate, and oils harden, leading to a reduction in glossiness (which I have occasionally regretted, because I do like a bit of oily gloss - I find it quite slurp-some).   9) I am not keen - and here I know Alan agrees - on very shiny oil paintings, hidden behind a sheen of high-gloss varnish: so I apply my varnish as sparingly as I can; but I do varnish, because I smoke cigars, because dirty varnish is easier to clean/remove than dirty paint, because it evens out glossy and dull patches (the latter described as "sinking in" - a way of minimizing that is to refrain from using Burnt Umber, which is notorious for causing it: otherwise a good pigment, so down to individual preference).   Well there we are, that's my 9-point tutorial for the day!  As always - take nothing as Gospel (even the gospels aren't...) and try things for yourself.  But, while I can't stop myself giving advice (I do try...) it is at least the best I have trawled from the experiences of better painters than I am, plus 50 years worth of experience - (always granted: if it was wrong 50 years ago, it's still going to be wrong now).

Alicia, your head is going to be spinning with all this advice. Just take things slowly, you'll learn by experience. We all have different opinions, re touching varnish is not sticky and horrible , I've never found it so, it must depend on how you use it. Good luck!

Shall we just say that if you wrap newspaper around paintings to be delivered to an exhibition, and you've applied retouching varnish, you'll soon learn that it IS sticky and  horrible.  

Nooo...Robert. You apply the retouching varnish well in advance and there's no problem.

Shall we just say that if you wrap newspaper around paintings to be delivered to an exhibition, and you've applied retouching varnish, you'll soon learn that it IS sticky and  horrible.