"The lookout"

[Jeanine Jackson]

I think you have successfully pulled much from little here... The photo is a frightening source given the low light on face... The masterful comments made above will enhance an already miraculous job!

[Stanka Kordic]

Hi Mike,

You did a great job on this!

Just wanted to share my experiences with Liquin. Its all I've used since I left college (many moons ago). It's incredibly versatile, but you have to work fast, I guess. I can get 6 hours in a day from it, except in very hot weather. Basically I work alla prima in layers. Do my thing, go home, come back the next day and its dry. I then decide what to do, another all-prima day, a glazing day, or both. The trick is to use very little, enough to mix with, or glaze with. At the end, I use it as a protective varnish and I've had beautiful results with it..knock on wood. Hope this helps!

[Mike McCarty]

The trick is to use very little, enough to mix with, or glaze with

Stanka, I think this could be my problem. I was using a lot of the Liquin. When you begin the day do you mix colors with enough Liquin to get the desired consistency or do you keep your paint seperate and have a glob of liquin on the side to dip into? When I use linseed oil and turp I would mix it into the colors. I found that if I did that with liquin the next day I had lost the paint on my palete... all dried up. So I would take my mixed paint and glom in the liquin, to much no doubt, each time before going to the canvas.

Jeanine, thanks for the kind words. I think I would have done a better job on the details of the face if I could have used a larger canvas. Bigger is often better.

[Stanka Kordic]

Mike,

Just a LITTLE glob on the side (kind of like salad dressing).. It's better to add when you run out than have one big one. I never add it to my paint in a marked quantity unless I'm doing a large area rather thickly and want it to dry faster. And make sure you wipe your mixing area clean at the end of the day or you'll have pemanent, colorful splotches there.