Varnishing Acryl or otherwise saturating?

[Uli]

Hi,
I'm pretty new. I have a question that I couldn't get answered by using the search function.
Did anyone try to varnish acryl colours or otherwise saturate them? I have done some experiments with mixed media, but I'm not satisfied yet. I love working with acryl colour, but I miss the intensity of oil colour.

Thanks
Uli

[The Pariano]

Varnishing does give your acrylic pieces back some of their saturation, I find glossy to be a bit to much but satin works well for me- either way I don't think you can match the intensity of oil color, it's the nature of the mediums.

[Uli]

Thank you Chris, for your reply. I have a faint memory that someone said that acryl reacts unevenly to varnish. Some parts get more intense than others, or something. Are there problems with varnishing, and what types of varnish would you use? Have you posted a varnished example somewhere?

[bhanu]

either way I don't think you can match the intensity of oil color, it's the nature of the mediums.
wrong.

I get saturated colors even without varnishes. As intense as oils.
ahh and use artist quality colors. they dont fade with time as compared to student ones.

Info on varnish
http://www.dickblick.com/zz006/44b/

[TASmith]

Why would you want to varnish any painting, acrylic or otherwise? This used to be done as a protective sealer, but varnish yellows over a period of about 50 years, and it's costly to have an art restorer remove the old coat and replace it with a new one. I've gone on tour with a professor at an art restoration school in Florence, Italy. So long as you use respected brands for paint, you don't need to protect them with varnish in the first place. That was for oil, and since acrylics is a plastic, it makes a much more flexible/durable coat, reisistant to cracking, etc. If you're worried about fading, keep it away from sunlight. No paint is truly sunproof - even the Great Wall of Los Angeles is fading.

If you want them to look wet, then mix your paints with glazing mediums - mix your own, or just buy Liquin or Galkyd.

Saturation and Intensity have to do with the hues you buy and how you mix or juxtapose them. Any color can gain intensity by placing its compliment next to it. Varnish won't add or take away this.

[Flake]

Why would you want to varnish any painting, acrylic or otherwise?

Some pigments dry glossier than others so a varnish will unify the surface and bring the darks back out.

[Marc Surrency]

Hi,

There are two reasons that varnish is used: 1) to protect the painting and 2) to restore and even out the look of dried oil paints. Dark oil paints dry much lighter and duller than they appear when wet. If the paiting is created in layers, then the sheen of the different layers/sections will not match. This is true even with high end artist paints - I use WN artists oils which range from $30-$100 US and the blacks and dark earthtones still dry lighter. To restore and even out the finish varnish is used. The reason that the oil paint looks different wet vs dry is due to the oil absorbing in the ground and lower layers. Each subsequent layer must have more oil to offset this as well as prevent cracking. As far as liquin goes for oils- it speeds up the drying time, which if you paint large scale or over days is the last thing you want. I know that your painting in acrylic, but I just wanted to point that out.

For acrylic paint there is no oil leaving the fresh paint layer therefore no change in lightness of the color. However, if the paint is applied to an irregular surface than another phenomena occurs, which is specular reflectance. That is the light scatters off of the surface and can make the colors look duller. You can check this by placing clear glass (not glare resistant) on the surface of the painting. If you see a difference, it can be taken care of by either faming the painting behind glass or by applying a varnish. Gamblin makes a varnish that was created with help by the National Gallery. It ages clear - not yellow and can be removed at any time.

Good luck

Marc

[Uli]

wow, thank you everybody for the replies. this is pretty helpful. I'm experimenting more with mixed media at the moment and will post the results later.
generally I'm aiming for a 19th century oil colour look. did anyone try water soluble oil colour mixed with acrylics?

[dose]

you can paint water soluble oil on top of dry acrylic safely, but not vice versa. And you definitely can't mix them together.

[Uli]

Dose, why can't I mix them? What happens?