Learn Oil Painting 2/2: How to Paint A Puppy Dog- Finishing/Glazing

This is the second of two videos that I (Merrill Kazanjian) made to help the beginner understand the process of oil painting. http://merrillk.com
Welcome to part 4 of my painting video. We are now going to talk about finishing a painting with a strategy called glazing. When an artist glazes he or she adds transparent color as the final layers of a painting. That means that an artist usually uses paints that are transparent to translucent. Most paint companies, put a marker on the outside of their tubes to let a customer know about the properties of the paint. An empty box means that the color is transparent, a half filled box means that the paint is translucent. For any beginner who wishes to try glazing, buy paints that are transparent to translucent.

I have a list of transparent to translucent paints on my website Merrillk.com. The "glazing colors" which I used to finish this painting are in a list at the end of the video description. When I set up my palette, I combine these special paints with a painting medium called Liquin....... But what does the painting medium do? And how does it help you glaze? Let me explain with an analogy; think of frozen orange juice and frozen grape juice! When these two juices are frozen in their containers, they are opaque, meaning that you cannot see through them. But, when you add the correct amount of water, the frozen orange juice becomes translucent and the frozen grape juice becomes transparent. In other words, the concentrated forms of these juices become diluted and the mixture spreads out.........Now think of the popular drinks, Gatorade, Vitamin Water, or Life Water....They are even more diluted from their concentrated form!

Glazing works the same way, but with paint medium, rather than water. The tube of paint is the equivalent of the frozen concentrated juice and the painting medium is the equivalent of the water. When a painter employs the strategy of glazing, he or she adds a good amount of painting medium to transparent and translucent paints.
My personal preference is to mix equal amounts of oil paint and Liquin Painting Medium on the palette with a palette knife.....and I usually leave a pool of Liquin on the side, so that I can dilute the mixture even more, if I need to.

Artists have put hundreds of layers of glazes on a painting, but you have to wait for the previous layer to dry. Now I will demonstrate the process.

Be sure use soft tipped brushes when you glaze oil paint. A fan brush is also a great tool to use. Fan brushes are used to spread wet paint on a paintings surface. They do not carry a lot of paint which is an advantage if you want to blend paint evenly (a brush that carries a lot of paint such as a large round brush has to be used VERY DELICATELY).

When I glaze, I usually apply the paint with round brushes. BUT, I manipulate the paint that I applied with fan brushes.

You can Glaze an Oil Painting Countless Times

The colors that I used to glaze were, Ultramarine Blue, Ultramatine Purple, Italian Brown Pink Lake and Davy's Grey from Old Holland Classic Oil Colors, Asphaltum Black from Mussini Oil Colors Chromatic Black from Gamblin Oil Colors and Zinc White from Vasari Oil Colors.