Sacred Gifts and Glazing

My "Cupid and Psyche" got its wings and hair glazed on Saturday. We added a little paint to a homemade medium and painted it on. I'm not sure why we didn't just paint the wings and hair with paint--it's how the masters did it, and it looks cooler. When I'm done painting with paint though, I'll glaze the entire painting with a combination of medium with a little bit of raw umber mixed in. This will tie the painting together and warm up it up. The same technique was employed on the Sistine Chapel, the Mona Lisa, and every other classical academic painting done by the masters. That medium will cure and mix with the paint beneath, and will bring a whole new level of vibrancy... in about 50 years.

This is what I have so far, and I'll be noodling around with it these next two weeks.

While we were talking about glazing, Darin mentioned an interaction he had with a curator at the "Sacred Gifts" exhibition going on FOR ANOTHER WEEK at BYU. For those of you who don't know, the Sacred Gifts exhibition is a collection of religious works by Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann, and Frans Schwartz, the majority of which have never before left the castle or vault where they are stored, and will never leave again. 

When BYU borrows a painting for exhibition, they promise to restore the painting. In the case of Heinrich Hoffman's, "Christ and the Rich Young Ruler" the painting was restored by an art restorer in California. Now remember that when a classical painting is finished, it'll be glazed over with medium and a little bit of paint--usually raw umber oil paint. In this case, the restorer used some kind of red to glaze over the entire painting. Doing so subdued the details of the creases in Christ's red top. So now if you compare prints with the newly restored painting, you can see a difference in the details of Christ's top! 

Moral of the story, glazing is important, must be done with care, but it's awesome, and will make my painting look way cooler after I'm completely done with it.

Love // Christelle

P.S. If you have any questions please leave a comment!