Venice waterway by Raymond Ellis

Hi Raymond.. I may have missed your comment on another page. I am still curious as to what you mean by "glaze" Do you mean "Varnish" sorry for being so pedantic, but I realy am interested.

He means a transparent coat of oil colour over dried paint - the term does come from oil-painting originally, it got borrowed by some watercolourists. I banged on at length about this in reply to your previous question. If we ask Raymond very nicely, he might tell us what medium he uses with the glaze: some use Liquin, some stand oil, some buy it by the bottle under the term "glazing medium", and some mix up their own.

Thanks Robert.. sorry to have missed out on your banging on . I am only just begining to do oils at all so a lot of the terminology anf techniques are alien to me. So dont shout...So it is not a finishing varnish which puts a solid transparent coat onto a painting either oil or acrylic . what is stand oil?

Hi Sylvia,....the term "glaze "refers to the application of a coloured wash to the final painting. This proceedure can be applyed to both watercolour and oil alike. Simply, it is a mixture of certain colours(pigments) to produce a thin liquid wash that is appled to the painting to give an overall "lift "to the painting. In the case of the Venice painting, for example, I wanted to brighten up the entire surface of the painting, so I mixed yellow, brown umber, a touch of meridian, and titanium white, and mixed in a quantity of(in this particular case) white spirit, and reduced it down to a very thin, liquid consistency, and when the painting was completely dry, applied it to the surface of the painting with a wide, soft brush. Often, a thin medium (No.1) can be used rather than white spirit, but I particularly like white spirit because of its rapid drying quality. Remember, the mix of colour to the glaze is crutial, to ensure you get the colour you want. So, always prepare a similar surface to the painting, and test the overall effect before applying to the painting.