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Tips for Glazing over a layer of paint in Water Color

Glazing is a very simple thing to do but one must always remember that the
First tip: paper has to be bone dry before a glaze is attempted. Often I wait 24 hours for my paper to dry but a blow dryer seems to work for most. If you are a beginner, I would also recommend that you….
Second tip: glaze over pigments (colors) which are more likely to stay put. example…. rather than glaze over cobalt blue try painting a color over pathlo blue. Cobalt blue is a great color when you need to pick up color…
( something to remember when you want some white or light in your blue sky) and because of this it has to be glazed over very gently.
Third tip : When Glazing over one pigment with another its good to use transparent pigments so the two will look like a stained glass window and what you will see is a third color created by the two… If you use thick paint with a lot of opacity the result will be less dynamic.
Fourth tip: don’t plan to brush over the first layer more than 2 times (later you may be able to but only with experience) … If your third color (the color you created by painting over the first with the second) isn’t dark enough try to paint over the first layer again after you have dried the paper again.
Fifth Glazing tip: Your brush should not be sopping wet with the second color and water…this very wet mixture may reactivate the first layer and you do not want to pick the first color. The brush needs to have enough paint to get the area painted with as few strokes as possible. After you have wet your brush, pick up your paint, then remember to lightly touch the base of your brush against dry towel (paper or cloth ) to remove any excess water.

When inspiration is low, rather then trying to paint a painting… try to learn more about your color palette by creating a Glaze test box.
A fun exercise for learning great combinations or what a glazed color will look like is to make up some small 3 by 5 cards you can keep in a recipe box with notes. You will find your favorites and will also be able to see which colors are easier to glaze or more difficult to glaze over. I used a large 1 1/2 inch flat brush and just painted (usually in one stroke) squares of color on each card, allowed them to dry, then painted over the squares with a second and often a third color.
TIP
Writing down the specific brand of paint used and the color combinations is important. I also put in a note for myself (I have no memory) as to which layer (or order) the colors were painted in.

Without the struggle it wouldn’t be worth it! Keep painting.
Shanti Marie
ARTIST