|
You know your stuff Virgil,
The colors that dry chalky are indeed the earth colors. Two of my favorite earth tones are Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna. They are both known for chalkiness. However, Burnt Umber with a mix of Ultramarine Blue or Prussian blue gives a beautiful warm deep shadow. I've tried other brown family colors and I enjoy Burnt Umber the most. I've also done the oil rubs, and it works very well for small areas. I guess that is the way I will have to work in the future. I was using the Retouch varnish to work the whole painting at once.
Another question though:
What is the proper use of Retouch Varnish? A friend of mine, a 65ish year old woman from Milano, who was trained in the old style studios of Italy in her youth told me that Retouch Varnish has a different use. Her English wasn't good enough to explain the proper function of Retouch Varnish, and my Italian wasn't good enough to rely on that.
I live in Shanghai, China and books are basically impossible to come by here. I naively left my Ralph Mayer book in California. Can you tell me a website that would have information on the dangers of misusing materials, and the correct ways to use them. Please don't mention Amazon.com for a purchase. I'm here rebuilding an art career after a couple of bad gallery sale years and my credit card has been melted during the crunch as my debts went through the roof. At the moment I am a part-time painter-part time English teacher.
Thank you in advance,
Anthony
|