My glaze dried too dull

Susan Kuban · 03-21-2006, 12:56 PM

I used a brown "glaze" to darken the busy background of a portrait. The glaze consisted of several colors of paint that added up to brown, plus mineral spirits and the medium I use, which is called Max Horbund's #3 medium (it is the consistency of vaseline and comes in a tube). I don't really know what proportions I used.

This glaze did a good job of knocking back the brightness of my background, but when I completed the foreground, the background now looks very dull in comparison. Also, my brown colored glaze has made all those background elements a bit too similar in appearance.

Is there a way of removing the glaze safely? Or can I apply something that would heighten the color and make it come closer in sheen to the foreground?

By the way, I can't afford to wait six months to apply the final varnish - it's a commission that is promised for a particular event that will take place in two months' time.

Thanks, Susan

Richard Bingham · 03-21-2006, 03:28 PM

Susan, it's pretty hard to tell what's going on or what to do without seeing the piece, or knowing more about your materials and methods.

Perhaps someone who uses Max Horbund's #3 medium can be of more help. A glazing medium should be "fat" enough to be relatively easily removed with mineral spirits and a soft rag . . . or perhaps spike, if something stronger is needed to "bite".

What's in Horbund's #3? A cursory websearch doesn't reveal it as a "market" item. Did you study with Max Horbund? What colors did you glaze with? Is the medium recommended for glazing?

All else being equal, it's not unusual for a passage to "sink" and appear dull. If you are in general happy with the results, a light spray of retouch varnish should solve the dullness without ill effect. I prefer copal retouch.

Susan Kuban · 03-21-2006, 06:38 PM

Thanks for your quick reply, Richard. I glazed with sap green, alizarin crimson, and I may have added some burnt or even raw umber. I guess it was the umber that really caused the dullness.

Max Horbund's No. 3 Medium is made by Max Horbund, :-), an artist himself, in New York City. I learned of this product through an artist friend who liked it. The label reads, "Ingredients: A mixture of pure archival drying oils, permanent balsam and other essential oils, beeswax, mastic and dammar crystal." I don't know if that will be helpful to you in understanding what I've put on my canvas.

I've tried a gentle swipe of a corner of the glazed area with a soft rag and mineral spirits. This is not going to work - it removed just a very little pigment, yet the weave of the canvas was exposed.

I think I am going to have to cover that dull area with something, whether it be another, fatter glaze, or a varnish over the whole painting. Is it safe to apply a glaze based on some other oil over what is already there?

Richard Bingham · 03-21-2006, 07:05 PM

Susan, thanks for the run-down on the medium. Not unusual materials, and should have been "fat" enough for a finish sheen.

Alizarin and sap green would not be problematic as glaze colors, but umbers, especially burnt umber, are really prone to "sink".

Some mediums of similar composition can be "bullet-proof".

The less you do, the better it will be in the long run. You can consider oiling out the offending passage when it's thoroughly dry, I still think retouch varnish is the best immediate short-term answer.

Alexandra Tyng · 03-21-2006, 07:59 PM

Hi Susan,

Another idea--you could leave the glaze alone, but repaint the parts of the background that are closer, i.e. middle distance. You can grey the colors slightly with the same 3 colors, but not as much as they were greyed (or browned) by the glaze. That would give you an illusion of different degrees of distance. Of course, I have no idea what the background is like, so this is a purely hypothetical solution.

Michele Rushworth · 03-21-2006, 10:51 PM

With the pigments and the driers/resins etc. in the medium I doubt there is anything that will remove just the most recent layer of your glaze. I would oil it out (I use a 50/50 mixture of linseed and mineral spirits) to bring back the sheen, and then repaint whatever needs boosting back up to its former level of brightness. You may need to oil out again when it's all done. I prefer that to retouch varnish, myself.