Monday 24 May 2010

Roberson & Co - Glaze Medium

Product Review by John W (our resident fountain of knowledge on all things related to painting!)

- Glaze Medium is very effective for 'realist' styles of painting. Essentially, it is a fast drying (overnight), clear varnish, to which oil paint is added in order to make a glaze. (It is not used on its own).

- A little paint, added to the glaze medium and brushed over a passage of painting, will tint the background colour, whilst still allowing the background to show through clearly.

- Glazes can be built up, layer after layer, over a fairly monochromatic ground to achieve an 'Old Master' finish, which allows light to refract through the layers to the white ground and back.

- This would have been the technique as used by Van Eyck, Leonardo and countless painters from the 16th century onwards.

- Alternatively, glazes can be used over thicker impastoed paint to subtly change the colour values. For instance, to deepen and add life to shadows, or to vary the colour around highlights and half-tones. This would have been the way glazes were used by Rembrandt, Titan and Caravaggio.

'Conversion of St. Paul' - Caravaggio - 1600 (approx.)


- Oil glazes are best carried out with transparent (non-opaque) oil colours, and really are a versatile way to add another dimension to a painting.

- Glaze medium is available in a Matt or Gloss finish, and is sold at Chromos in 60ml, 250ml, 500ml or 1 litre bottles.

Glaze medium is also a well-known favourite with many contemporary painters and translates well to modern styles of painting, for examlpe one of my personal favourites, Justin Mortimer: http://justinmortimer.co.uk/Portraits.htm
Please send us YOUR photos of your own work done using this product, and we will post it up here....


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