Glazing techniques

This term I've enrolled in the Contemporary landscape painting course at Art Est. Our tutor Carla is a kiwi painter well regarded for her beautiful skies. Carla promised to teach me how to glaze. I've often wondered how the Dutch masters get their luminescent effect. The answer it seems is the patient application on multiple layers of thinly diluted colour in a glaze medium.


Great isn't it? It looks almost renaissance and a landscape of Europe rather than the Cook river in Sydney.

To get an effect of deep shadows which are usually purple, glaze alternate layers of ultramarine and magenta. Both colours must be transparent for it to work. Glazing allows the colours to be optically mixed on the canvas.

To knock back a colour eg green so that it recedes, glaze with orange ( its complementary colour). I'm quite thrilled with this effect, just have to experiment a bit more.