TwoInchBrush - Forum

Hi Darlene.

If you let painting to dry completely then you can add any details to it without the fear you'll mess entire painting. If something goes wrong you can completely wipe fresh new layer back to the one that is dry and re-paint again. Just use linseed oil and soft rag to wipe it well. Under dry painting i mean give it 2-3 weeks to dry if paint layer is quite thin. If very thin (like sky in BR method) then 1 week shall be alright between paint layers.

A little thing to note that when it dries color dulls a bit and you may want to wipe area where you plan to paint with linseed oil but then with a piece of rag to remove it almost to nothing. That tiny oil sheen will be sufficient to see dried colors in their full power again.

Glazing - is a method that is done in this order , dry - apply thin layer - dry again - apply new thin layer again- etc.

Thanks for the tips, Sunnylady! I'll have to put some thought into this before I continue. Thanks again!

Its not so bad if you just want to add some foreground grass or flowers, something like that. I just did it on a half dry painting by first adding liquid clear to my brush and then pick up some colour and mix on the palette. Then really carefully add the detail to the painting. But if its whole areas of the canvas you want to "re-paint", I don't know. I've heard you can "oil-out" an area and then re-paint but I haven't tried it. It might help to know that if you think you're going to need more than one session to complete a painting at the onset, you can just work on the top half leaving the other half dry for now, and then work on the bottom half. I did it with a seascape and it worked a treat, during the first session I started with the top half, painted the sky, and the second session the lower half the wave. The two halves were separated by a length of making tape anyway so it was the perfect way to work on this particular painting. Do let us know how you get on.

Thanks for the tips, LandscapePainter. I actually need to do some palette knife work and I'm really hesitant to try it. I need to add some shadow color to a cliff I painted - it definitely needs something. I will let you know! Thanks again.

With pallet knife you may want to try apply and wipe excess of retouch varnish. This is designed to soften top oil film just enough to let the upper layer to attach well to it. Only one thing - you will need to apply quite quick as it works after 15 till 30 min and after 30 min it loses the power. It is advised to work with retouch by one small area at a time.

For shadows you may use just a flat brush and apply thin or thick layer of shadow colors. Pallet knife on dry painting will be an interesting experimentation with textures. I did it once after retouch varnishing and it was rough and thick texture. I will be looking forward to hear from you. That's very interesting what will be your conclusions.

Great tips from Sunnylady. I often feel tired about half way through a painting but it can be hard to know where and when to stop. I like to finish my painting in one session so I tend to rush the last bit, and it shows. Several online artists say the same thing, don't spend too much time on the background. I think that's good advice, for me anyway.

I typically do my paintings in two or three sessions. I do the majority in one.. then I am always back at it in a few hours to change, add or detail things.. then the next day I am back at it for further tweaks. And it's not always small changes, sometimes it's pretty major changes. I have found that even in 100 degree heat, I can come back in 24 hours and scrape off most of something I don't like. Even when it's dry I can make changes but they tend to be minor changes then. I'm at the point right now I'm "blending" some of Ross's style with Kevin's style so each painting is something of an experiment