COMMANDO WATERCOLOR

Glazing

Glazing - a method of layer one thin layer of paint over another in order to achieve depth of color and luminosity


I LOVE glazing.  For me this method of paint application brings out the best qualities of watercolor paint.  Watercolors are just that - water-soluble - paints which dissolve in water, paints which thin with water, and paints that interact with each other when wet.  Watercolor paint when thinned with water allows itself to be painted in layers with the white paper and the preceeding layers visible through it.  This quality is what gives watercolor luminosity and glow.  Let's see how this works.

First - the white of the paper is the first glowing layer.  If the layers placed over the white paper are thin enough (mixed with enough water) the glow of the white comes through the paint, giving it interest.

Second - when other layers of paint are added, the preceeding layers show through.  For instance, if the first layer is yellow and the second is blue, the net result is green - not a flat green, but one which glows with the underpainting of white paper and yellow paint.  If the yellow and green pigments are premixed and then applied to the paper, the glow of layering is lost and the result is more flat in color.

The Chinese Peddlar is an example of this type of painting.  This handsome, toothless garlic peddlar caught my eye in China and I knew that he was waiting to be captured in paint.  First I tranferred the drawing to the 300 lb. Arches watercolor paper.  I then began to layer in the underneath colors of the shadows and folds of the painting. As you can tell from the left-hand side of the first underpainting, the shadows were applied first.  The right-hand side demonstrates a further layer of red/orange - the underpainting of the final coat color.   The painting on the right-side is the final painting - a far cry from the beginning - but glowing because of the layering of paints, each one giving its own definition to the final whole.

More about glazing in lessons to come.

Question - do you use glazing techniques?  What are some of your thoughts about glazing?

Happy creating!

Jean