Today’s questions comes from Dominic and he asks:
“We are told that you should paint lean, then fat in oils. Meaning, thin paint first, then paint with more medium or thicker. But if you glaze (glazing is very thin transparent paint) over the thick paint won’t that be upsetting the norm? Glazing helps being out things that impasto can’t.”
Do you have any information that might help Dominic? Please leave your response in the comments box below. Thanks!
The primary point of fat over lean is for the stability of the paint and avoid cracking…when you glaze the glazing layer is so thin that it will not crack unless you are using so sort of a thick varnish medium. So go ahead and feel safe and glaze away!
Daniel Edmondson
No it doesn’t contradict. With glazing you use a lot of medium relative to the paint out of the the tube. Medium is the fat. Do not use thinners (the lean) over the under paint.
Glazing still follows the Fat over Lean rule because you’re adding more oil/medium to your paint to “thin” it down to glaze with. So while there is less paint/pigment, there is more oil, so more “fat”.
Straight on canvas you can glaze straight from the tube, but on top of the paint you add medium to the consistancy of ink and glaze over the paint.
It still follows the basic principle of fat over lean… Just don’t apply straight paint on top of the previously painted artwork, and try to scumble the paint in… That would ask for problems…
Happy Painting,
Lise King
I wish there was a better term than Fat over Lean. I have exactly the same question that Dominic had, and am still unsure of the answer..! I take it that the initial Fat over Lean refers more to the sarting layers, and once there’s a ton of layering gone one, a final glaze won’t do any harm..?
Phew, I used to think oil painting would be quicker…
So Lean means more thinner and fat means more Medium, is that it?? (and fat can mean pure paint too, right?)
Duh…
Thanks!
Julie
I have the same question as Dominik and I still cannot understand although I read all answers above. To my understanding, when you glaze you use more thinner (turpentine) and even no oil in the first layers. the amount of thinner decreases and of oil increases as you move to the upper layers, is that right?
I think the problem is when you want to add an opache colour in the upper layers (which can probably not be done since in order to make the opache colour transluscent you have to add too much thinner in it. is that right?
Maria I think you shouldn’t thin your paint with thinner(turpentine). You can thin your paint with more medium for glazing as it won’t go against the rule.