Tutorial Tuesday: Glaze Medium

Man, things have been a bit rough around the edges this week with the new semester starting and the House of Paincakes taking off considerably faster than Dethtron and I had even dreamed possible.  Actually, the fact that new blog has more followers than old blog is one of those things that makes me jealous of myself.  Thankfully, day two has been much more subdued and allowed us both to get our feet back under ourselves.

In any case, since I imagine that some new traffic is headed my way via the super cool new network I've helped create, Its pretty important - paramount, even - that I keep up the post schedule.  Wouldn't look right if one of the founders dropped off the face of the planet now, would it?

Probably not.

So, I find myself at the nub end of another Tuesday and in need of another Tutorial to link the two concepts together Voltron style to form blazing sword and Tutorial Tuesday. 


Tonight's tutorial is from the geniuses over at Brushthralls.  In total, 100% honesty, the article on glaze medium was probably the most important article for me back in 2005-6 when I picked up the brush again after a very, very long hiatus.  Actually, the whole Brushthralls site is just loaded with good stuff - the essentially taught me how to paint.  But this article in particular really blew the doors off of my mind. Actually, its so important to me that I think its entirely appropriate to give it a a super link to make sure you guys don't miss it:


Glaze Medium via Brushthralls.com

To this day, nearly five years after my first Winsor and Newton series 7, I still use glaze medium in almost all my regular painting.  Even after all the knowledge and skill I've set out to acquire and even after being exposed to all sorts of crazy and advanced techniques, I still come back to the contents of this article. 

An updated version of this article can be found at the original author's personal blog.   YoungWolf7 is pretty awesome.

I cannot recommend this article enough.

However, the sad fact of the matter is that when I first found this gem, the Brushthralls site was still going strong.  New material was constantly in the pipes and they were really pushing the envelope for tutorial creation and effective education.

Not so much now.  Most of the original guys have moved on or lost interest.  Many of the articles never made the transition to the new blog-style site and can only be accessed through the archives (like the Glaze Medium article).  Last year, the old authors made an effort to keep the site going with new blood, but the articles just weren't as good.  Its been 11 months since anything new was posted.  A this point, I'm worried that their doors aren't too far from closing.  Sad times.

Oh well, it happens.  Running a blog or hobby site for free can be rough.  Especially when cancer had one of the guys on the ropes.

In any case, the tutorials the Brushthralls have on their site and its archives are well worth a read.  Pretty timeless stuff, truth be told.

Enough of this maudlin crap. 

On to the notes that I have from this article:

- be careful when adding the glaze medium - add too much and you can get this chalky effect.  Sometimes its better add water along with the glaze medium.

- I think its only mentioned in passing, but the Vallejo glaze medium acts as a drying retarder.  It's entirely understated.  Adding glaze medium to your paints can slow down your drying times considerably.  If you can't wait, you'll need a haridryer.

-  Speaking of drying times: a little bit of glaze medium will go a long way in extending drying times - but won't have the same magnitude of an affect on the paint thickness.  Be careful with this!  It's really easy to get into a situation where you were impatient and put too much paint on the surface and end up with all kinds of lumps and bumps.

- If you're having problems with two-brush blending, a little bit of glaze medium added for its effect on drying times and paint flow will work wonders for keeping the paint workable while you dick around with the blending.  It also does wonders for layering as well

- the leather brown recipe that is detailed in the tutorial is pretty boss and very easy to recreate.  All with a mere 3 colors (plus the glaze).

Welp, there you have it.  This tutorial has been in my tool box for years and hasn't failed me yet. I urge you to check it out.