How to Make Glazes for Painting
Paint glazes make opaque paint colors translucent. While there are different ways to make paint glazes, some work better than others do. For example, you can make paint glazes using acrylic paint and water, but this technique will result in glazes that dry within minutes and are hard to work with. Using a commercial paint extender to make your painting glaze will delay the drying time of the glaze and make it easier to work with.
Things You'll Need
- Disposable palette
- Acrylic paint
- Acrylic paint extender
- Stylus
- Oil paint
- Oil paint blending & glazing medium
- Palette knife
Instructions
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Make Acrylic Paint Glaze
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1
Pour a quarter-size puddle of acrylic paint onto your disposable palette.
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2
Pour a dime-size amount of acrylic paint extender next to the acrylic paint.
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3
Use a stylus to mix the extender into the puddle of acrylic paint. The painting glaze is the right consistency when the paint has the appearance and consistency of ink.
Make Oil Paint Glaze
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4
Pour out a dime-size puddle of oil paint onto your disposable palette.
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5
Pour an equal amount of oil paint blending and glazing medium directly into the puddle of oil paint. Oil glazes should be mixed at a ratio of 1:1.
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6
Use a palette knife to mix the oil paint blending and glazing medium into the oil paint. Keep mixing and adding extender until the oil paint becomes translucent.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Use a practice piece of paper to test your acrylic painting glaze before you apply it to your painting project. If the paint is still too thick, add more extender.
Paint glazes using multiple thin coats and allow each to dry before applying the next coat of glaze.
Oil paint glazes will look very different depending on which medium you use to make your glaze. Always test the oil paint glaze to be sure you get the look you want.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Polka Dot/Getty Images
