What is it about glazing medium?

M

MClimbin

New member
So, no hobby shops within a 100 mile radius of me has any VMC glazing medium. I went by Michael\'s Crafts and almost bought a 10 gallon bottle of Liquitex glazing medium, but it was gloss, so I didn\'t get it (it was probably only 20 ounces or so, but compared to the VMC bottle it was humongous).

This made me realize that I don\'t really know what glazing medium does, except break the surface tension of the liquid, and I\'m not even sure about that. So, here are my questions for you all:

Does anyone use some other product for glazes than glazing medium?

What does glazing medium do, anyway?

Would some other additive confer the same properties? Matte Medium for exmple?

Could I add matte medium to a gloss glaze medium for a more matte glaze?

Has anyone used the Liquitex glazing medium? How well did it work?

Because I use so much glazing medium each time I use it (8-10 drops per drop of paint), a big bottle sounds really nice (I could just refill my VMC bottle). It would probably be cheaper too, in the long run, and I could bequeathe the remainder to my 2 year old daughter when she starts painting at the age of 12. ;)

Thanks,
mc
 
G

generulpoleaxe

New member
the idea behind braking up surface tention for washes, and glazes, is to remove the tide marks that can be left after they have dried.

some people use washing up liquid instead.
 
X

Xavier

New member
Gloss mediums and Matt mediums are considered extenders and literally extend your paint. Extenders are designed to increase the translucency of your ones paint while keeping the binding strength (all mediums have binder material in them).

Some people achieve such translucency by thinning their paints with water, but they seriously reduce the amount of binding strength.

Gloss mediums are superior to Matt mediums in every ways, better for blending, layering, glazing and have a stronger binder, however they have one major flaw they dry with a sheen. A good Matt mediums will dry with no sheen, the trick is finding a good Matt Medium.

Extenders(gloss mediums) do not increase flow ( reduce surface tension) nor increase drying time. For those you need flow aids and retarders.


For gloss mediums most do a decent job, I\'ve used Liquitex, Golden, and Vajello they all work fine. However for Matt mediums, finding a company that actually creates a extender that does not have a sheen is hard. Personally I\'ve only been happy with Peblo, it can be found in dickblick

Liqutex came out with a product called \"Glazing Mediums\" that mixes two of their products a flow aid and gloss medium. The problem with that product is it dries with a sheen. For that reason I do not use their product.

I use peblo and dilute with water.

BTW Liqutex has excellent tutorials I strongly recommend their web site
 
M

MClimbin

New member
Xav, I think you might be talking about Pebeo, found here?

I\'ve been having this conversation over at the Reaper site too (Linky).

From the discussion over there, the general consensus seems to be that matte mediums, sorry media, are not good glazing media, as they are just the same acrylic medium as the gloss with something in it (like a kind of powder) to dull the shine. The problem is that the powder will affect the color and quality of the pigment if you use too much. Thus, the best glaze media will be glossy.

What do you think of those assertions? ;) In your experience do the matte media change the paint? A little or a lot, or not at all?

Just gettin\' everyone\'s point of view.

mc
 
X

Xavier

New member
Originally posted by MClimbin
Xav, I think you might be talking about Pebeo, found here?
Click to expand...
Sorry, yes that\'s the product.

I\'ve been having this conversation over at the Reaper site too (Linky).
Click to expand...
Trouble maker ; )

From the discussion over there, the general consensus seems to be that matte mediums, sorry media, are not good glazing media, as they are just the same acrylic medium as the gloss with something in it (like a kind of powder) to dull the shine. The problem is that the powder will affect the color and quality of the pigment if you use too much. Thus, the best glaze media will be glossy.

What do you think of those assertions? ;) In your experience do the matte media change the paint? A little or a lot, or not at all?

Just gettin\' everyone\'s point of view.
Click to expand...
Okay, I\'ve just skimmed the thread. My experience and opionon with those product is along the same line as the comments on the list. I was not happy with Liqutex, Vajello, Createx and Golden; Golden being the worst of the lot. Some where grainy if too much media to paint was added and all had a sheen even though they where suppose to be matte. (Well except for Createx Opaque Matte, works great but does dull out colors; I only use it for increasing the opaqueness of base colors with poor coverage)
Gloss/Glaze mediums have too much sheen for me, I was just not happy with any of these products. Though they are excellent for glazes and wet blending.

I\'ve tried using water only and find that water weakens the binding of the paint to much causing the paint to easily rub off. In addition one can also only dilute paint with so much before it looses its viscosity and becomes too runny.
In the end I found I liked to use a mixture of water and matte medium when I wanted to move towards a translucent layer.

So far the only matte medium product I\'ve been happy with is Pebeo. It is not grainy, it is truly matte, and dulls the colors only slightly. Pebeo will also reduce the sheen on paints that have inherently have sheen, where glaze will only make the sheen worse and water will not alter the sheen at all. It is the more expensive of the mediums and only comes in a larger container so I have used up only an eight in over a year.

Pebeo is as thick and pours like heated honey so I have to did lute it even further for my painting purposes. I tend to dilute Pebeo to 1:1 Pebeo to water and store it in a Reaper master classic bottle.

When painting I usually apply 1:1:1 Paint/Pebeo mix/Water. Which is roughly 1:1:2 Paint/Pebeo/Water

Best of Luck
Xavier
 
V

Verm1s

New member
My 2p: if you\'re using liquitex, you\'re using the \'economy\' stuff. I use Daler-Rowney matt medium and I haven\'t noticed many problems; though it has to be said that I only use a little at a time in thin mixes, and I\'m only just coming to the end of my first tube, so I don\'t have much of a frame of reference.
 
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