The final finished painting is at the bottom of this post.

This is how the painting looks before I have glazed it.  Take a look at the painting and you will be able to see how different a painting can look after glazes have been applied.

You may also see area or shapes of some things which haven’t been painted yet.   Some direct painting or glazing with the same color will also need to be done to bring the values in line.  Values are difficult to determine unless you can see how  all the various colors and glazes effect each other.   Often an artist should go back and take a look at anything that has been changed just to make sure that anything that needs tweeking gets tweeked.   This means perhaps darkening an area previously thought to be OK.

Above you will see a section of the painting.  Look at the light green leaf here in the middle, I will glaze over some burn’t senna and  then some green and  last some pink which should push the leaf back a bit and look  like a shadow.

You can see this in the next photo below.

Under the bright orange leaf there is also an area which is not defined, look at this area and see how it will be redefined by direct painting & glazing. This photo above shows how I changed the shape of this area (under the large orange leaf).

Next look at the photo below… there was a very light  shape which was only painted a light grey blue but was left mostly white.  You can also see the blue leaf’s edges (in the corner) was given a blue and purple glaze .

 Here is the that same area and you can see it has been painted around (negatively painted ) also a few direct touches help to bring a little critter to life.

 

Below in the next shot there is an area of the painting I had to grey up a bit while defining the finger like shape.  I glazed over this area with Phatho blue.

Then I decided to scumble in some Andrews Turquoise and some Cerulean blue  Both are a bit opaque and can be layered rather then glazed. Opaque paint will sit on top of the first layer of paint, in this case the dark blue paint.

  This is the right hand lower corner of the painting, You can see I put in various colors as glazes to give the butterfly shape some dimension and I also added some colors to his body for a little more emphasis. 

 Here is the final painting.  Notice I also painted the little vine like branches again so they would stand out against the background.  I also glazed the big brown leaf at the right hand bottom corner with bright red so it looks a bit brighter.  These things are subtle but often these little tweeks are all a painting needs.

 

.

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