Sunday, February 13, 2011

Glazing and edges

I intended this painting to have glazes applied, so here is a picture of what glazing can do.  A glaze is essentially a small amount of pigment in a larger amount of medium (like oil) so that it becomes more transparent.  In my case I am using Liquin because it dries quickly and creates a very durable paint layer.  A transparent glaze allows the paint layers beneath it to show through, thus creating subtle tonal shifts.. In my case I am using Alizarin Crimson (a transparent color on its own) and Viridian (a cool green) to create a warm but dark brownish color (they are complements).  The crimson adds a nice depth.

I applied the glaze on the edges where the back of the figure meets the dark shadow behind it.  I also used it to bring out the shoulder blade from the rib cage and show the fleshy mid section between the ribs and the "hip" bone. The idea is to blur the edges to create a more rounded appearance as it approaches and gets lost in the shadow.  aka "lost edge" - Some edges should be "hard", some should be soft, and some should be lost.

You can click on this one to make it a little bigger.

more to come, and this one is getting close to getting varnished.

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