Glazing

Glazing is the oil painting technique of building up thin layers of translucent glazes of oil paint and oil to visually mix the colour on the surface without physically mixing the paint to form the colour. With this technique a rich depth of colour and translucency can be achieved that cannot be replicated by mixing the paint before application. Each layer of glaze is applied over a dried layer in increasingly oil-heavy or ‘fat’ layers.

Glazes can also be applied when painting with Acrylic too but not to achieve the same translucency. The glazes, instead, change the value, hue or texture of a surface with the addition of different liquid mediums. There are also glazes that can increase or decrease the rate at which paints dry or alter the surface such as crackle glaze which gives an appearance of an antique, cracked surface.