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Acrylics-wash, glaze and veils?

Discussion in 'Acrylics' started by chailey, Aug 23, 2015.

  1. chailey Active Member

    Country:
    England
    Thanks for the encouragement Gary, do you reckon a puppy may be the answer to my mediocre painting skills?;)
    garyhiggins likes this.
  2. garyhiggins A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    I'm pretty sure a puppy is the answer to almost anything, and if you want to go really Jackson Pollock you can always dip their tail in the paint :).
    As an old time oil painter, I've always had a fear that with acrylics being so fast, I'm going to touch the brush to the paint and it's going to set in place like superglue :(. However I had a situation where i had to paint armour and I couldn't do my usual cheat by just staining and polishing the cast metal, so I got some Darkstar metalics, made myself a wet palette and slowing things down with some glaze medium, I coped. In fact I enjoyed them so much I'm now ready to try a whole figure in acrylics (y).
    Best wishes, Gary.
    chailey and Claude Portsmouth like this.
  3. kansas kid Well-Known Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Well, I'm rather late chiming in here. And I will say I still
    am not able to put a 5'clock shadow on a 200mm bust. So
    I have a great deal to learn about acrylics. But the reason
    I started this post, is to say that in between washes I use
    a hair dryer to speed up the drying time. Oh well. it woiks
    fer me, mates. The idea, in my opinion that we are determining
    washes in different categoreies, is silly. All those mentionings,
    in my opinioning, of filters, and vails, is just silly. All of that
    is still a wash. . . why complicate it with a lot of different terms
    that are not anything but confusing to a lot of beginners?
    Yes, you can disagree, I am sure. But I will stick with my
    opinion, on this particular matter. The Miami Jayhawk
    chailey, garyhiggins and billyturnip like this.
  4. Ron Tamburrini A Fixture

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    This is a veil veil_2675608b.jpg
  5. garyhiggins A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    I enjoy glazing,,,,,,,,,,,,, it stops the rain blowing in the windows????????
  6. Ferris A Fixture


    Rick, I agree with you that it is not important what exact word is used, but in my opinion there really is a difference between a wash on the one hand and veil/glaze/filter on the other.

    A wash, as it was introduced, I think, in AFV modelling decades ago (I associate it with Verlinden, but he probably wasn't the first to mention it) has the purpose to accentuate recesses and edges. It is applied in rather a liquid form and intended to flow.

    Glazes/veils/filters (all the same, I agree) are intended to cover a big or small area with a transparent colour layer. The purpose is to chance or enrich the overall finish of an area. In applying it, flow is the one thing to avoid.

    If you intended to say that we shouldn't be pedantic about names and definitions I fully agree, but saying washes/veils/etc are one and the same is missing out on a very useful and distinct painting technique.

    Cheers
    Adrian
    garyhiggins likes this.
  7. sippog Active Member

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    I'm always trying different media to get acrylics to behave more like oils and have had the most success with matte medium and retarder diluted.
    It really does seem to make the paint more transparent and 'spreadable'. But be warned: I pre-mixed a batch and after a bit, it went off and smelled like rotten eggs - still worked though.
    Gel also seems to work quite well for transparency - good especially if you want very matte or gloss finishes.
    garyhiggins likes this.
  8. hall-moye@msn.com Active Member

    Country:
    United-States
    For quicker drying time ,I use a hair dryer for acrylics. And a croc pot for oils.
  9. Metal Extremo Well-Known Member

    The hair dryer is a necessary tool for me too.

    I laugh when you say is difficult to paint with acrylics. I can't obtain nothing good with oils. Is impossible for me the dithering of a light without invade a zone of base or shadow. Easier with acrylics men ;) And with a scale smaller than 1:12 is sci-fi for me try to paint anything with oils.
    With Acrylics, the trick is the dilution. You can see a million of tutorials at Youtube, but you need someone painting with you, and then take a brush and with his painting, draw a line in a paper, stain the trouser of a miniature, put your finger inside the mix. The texture of the mix is the secret. Take it.
    The form that Ferrys wrote is one to pain with acrylics. Problem. Is very slow. I know. I used to paint in that way.
    There is another form. Painting with steps. One mix for base. Three/four mixes for lights and two/three for shadow. Between a mix and the next you have an edge. With glaces delete it. Is faster to get a global vision. The time must be spent into delete the edges with glaces. Painting has less water and cover more with this form.
    The last form is between both. My way to paint is no glaces and no steps. A point of dilution intermediate. Is the faster in my opinion.

    I'm agree with Ferrys.
    Some painters distingished filter and glace.
    Defy filter as a layer to change a bit the original colour. For example you have a green surface and want a more desaturate green. A couple of filters in red, and you get it.
    Defy glace as a layer of various to get with transparences differents effects. A glace has more water than a filter
  10. John Ballard Well-Known Member

    Just to add to the argument, I come from an old school painting on canvas with oils back ground, and in my world the terms are specific. A Glaze is the application of a transparent coat of a darker paint over a lighter base. If you are applying a lighter paint over a dark base then that is called a Scumble. Now I know that most acrylic paints are not truly transparent but can be made to appear so by thinning the paint down.
    The idea of a wash is specifically a modelling term and is usually referring to the act of applying a very thin colour over a large surface, so that it accumulates in recessed detail causing that detail to be accented.
    At the end of the day the terms don't really matter since it's the thing on the other end of the paint brush that makes all the difference.
    John

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