Glazing with Matt Medium

Glazing with Matt Medium is a useful alternative to a traditional glaze. Historically, glazing was used by artists to brighten colour and provide uniformity to a painting. Acrylic Matt Medium can provide a similar effect by mixing it with an acrylic colour, today we used Professional Acrylic Lemon Yellow and a board over a dry acrylic painting that has a masked line of tape down the middle to preserve the original surface for comparison later. Using a 1-inch Monarch Glazing Brush to minimize the visibility of any brush marks, we painted half the painting with the Matt Medium and acrylic paint mixture. The other half is painted with a mixture of Glazing Medium and Professional Acrylic Lemon Yellow. When dry, the tape is removed to reveal three surfaces; the side glazed with Matt Medium absorbs light and provides a soft, matt finish whilst the sided that was treated with Glazing Medium is reflective and shiny. The area that was masked protected the original surface to show the difference that glazing makes. You can glaze in multiple layers to create rich, complex hues and when the glaze is fully dry, the work can still be varnished as well.