Amanda Jackson
Amanda’s demonstration style was excellent, informative, and challenging, most of the Acrylic painters learnt something new. The glazing technique is equally useful for watercolour and oil mediums which benefit from glazes, the slow build-up of colour from multiple layers of transparent washes. The surface shines through these multiple layers causing additive colour mixing which give the results a greater depth.
Amanda’s use of large brushes and a free style was also worth noting as we can get so easily tied up with the details and forget that it is the composition that counts. Her use of frequent stops and “the 10 metre rule” when she stood back from the work and considered the composition, hue and values of the painting, checking that the overall effect was what she required, was something we all know about but frequently forget.
The mixing of the glazing medium and the colour was interesting as even W&M don’t put that on the cans of medium and it took me a lot of wasted time and medium to appreciate that the ratio should be about 60% medium to 40% colour things us armatures don’t like wasting.
An additional inquiry after the demo highlighted that most Acrylic glazing mediums leave the finished work with a gloss sheen, so if the glaze is not over the whole work then a layer of gloss varnish pulls the work together.