Painting Tips Glazing Finishing a Painting with Transparent Oil Paint

What is Glazing? The technical answer is 1.) multiple thin layers of transparent oil paint (applied at the end of a painting)....but what I want YOU to remember is 2.) Glazing is pure magic 3.) Knowing how to glaze will take your painting abilities to the next level.

1.) Why glazing is an important painting strategy
2.) (We will touch a little bit on) The science of refracted light
3.) Which paints to use. (How can you tell if a paint is a glazing color?)
4.) Which brushes to use for glazing
5.) How to do it! (The technique of glazing oil paint)

Glaze layers happen at the final stages of a painting, so lets take you to the end of the painting that you just saw right now. I am going to keep things concise and to the point. Give me your full attention for the next few minutes and you will acquire a solid understanding of glazing.

1- Why is glazing an important painting strategy?

Think about the last time that you had a sunburn. When sunburns heal, a layer of skin usually peels off your body. Take a second to remember what that skin looks like. The peel of skin is very thin, smooth and it is possible to see light through it.

Our outermost layers of skin, the epidermis, is comprised of multiple layers of skin similar to the peeled layer of skin that you just imagined. Glazing, the application of multiple, thin, transparent to translucent layers, is like the epidermis of a painting and it is important for an artist to know how to glaze so that he or she can get a more life like effect to their work.

2- The Science of Refracted Light
Light refracts through the transparent and translucent layers of a painting. In other words, it penetrates these layers and picks up any color that these layers contain. A good analogy for this concept is a seashell on the beach. Think of how the color of a seashell seems to change when it is covered with ocean water. The shell seems to change color, but in actuality, all physical characteristics of the shell remain the same. The sunlight refracting through the water alters the shells appearance just as glaze layers affect the final appearance of a painting.

3- Which paints to use
Paint colors have different characteristics. For instance, red, is not just red when it comes to painting. Cadmium red, the color on the left, is extremely opaque and has a great covering power. The color on the right, alizarin crimson is extremely transparent with a lesser covering power. Notice how you can see the blue line through the alizarin crimson, but not the cadmium red.

Most paint companies label the outside of their paint tubes to communicate these differences. Usually a box or circle is used to say if a paint is transparent, translucent or opaque. A filled box or circle is a symbol stating that a color is opaque while the opposite is true if a paint is transparent.

When you glaze, you would add painting medium such as liquin to the paint. It is easy to glaze with transparent colors such as alizarin crimson but it is also possible to glaze with the cadmium red. In order to glaze with an opaque color, use a little bit of paint and a lot of painting medium. I would advise any beginner or novice painter to stick with transparent and translucent paints.

4.) Which brushes to use

When you glaze, have multiple soft tipped brushes within reach. A variety of sizes and shapes including round tip and fan brushes are ideal. Now we are ready for the demonstration




I did the glazing in three sittings over 21 days. It is important to let the paint thoroughly dry between glazes. If it doesnt, you will start picing up some of the previous layer. Notice that I am starting off by using two brushes. One to apply paint and the other to move the paint around. This is called dry brush technique and it is your most important glazing strategy. Dry brush gives you a smooth untextured finish......

I wouldnt recommend this for anyone trying glazing for the first time, but I am actually using titanium white when I create a highlight.....that is a white with extreme covering power....equal to what you saw with cadmium red. I use that only in the brighter highlight areas and when I use it, I use a ton of painting medium with it. ........

The shadows get a little tricky, I try to look at my reference photo to match the shape but I am very aware of their edges as well. If there is a soft edge, I soften it with another dry brush....This is VERY IMPORTANT....Do not clean your brush in mineral spirits or turpenoid. Instead, just wipe your brush on a paper towel because those paint thinners will dissolve the entire glaze.....If a brush becomes unworkable, put it aside and use another soft tipped brush.

Portrait of Youtube User Bronyacovooper- Pencil, Markers, Color Pencil, Oil Paint, Photoshop

This is a mixed media portrait of multi talented youtube user BronyaCovooper. He is an outstanding sculptor, and a ridiculously good musician! The music in the background is by his former band Jonny and the Shamen. Check out his page here- http://youtube.com/bronyacovooper . I used a mixed media approach to create this portrait. Here were the steps.....
1.) pencil
2.) then I used prismacolor markers
3.) followed by color pencil (prismacolor)
4.) then I scanned what I did so far and opened it up in.....
5.) Photoshop- (digital adjustments)
6.) Printed on a wide format printer
7.) 1 more layer of color pencil
8.) Oil paint
9.) Photoshop

To see more of my work or to commission me for a portrait/youtube video contact me through my website Merrillk.com Thanks, Merrill Kazanjian

Artmorph Favre + Kerry + Hogan + Specter

Brett Favre retired how many times??? John Kerry, the famous presidential candidate flip flopper lost an election due to his indecisiveness...Hulk Hogan, the iconic wrestler and reality TV star, was a "good guy" then a bad guy" then a "good guy again. Arlen Specter notoriously, changed political parties! Indecisiveness....Flip Flopping....Standing on the fence...Changing sides or ideologies....Making a decision but going back on it.....These men have one thing in common....Changing their mind. I thought that it would be interesting to use my photo editing skills to morph their faces together.

YOUDRAW Lebron James How to Draw LBJ Step by Step

Today, you are going to draw Lebron James...Never draw before? Thats OK! I broke this process down in to simple steps for you. I recommend that you pause the video at the end of each step and get in the habit of looking at the reference image on the screen at least once every five seconds. To make this as easy as possible, I uploaded a print version of this lesson to my website. Go to http://merrillk.com and type in LeBron in the search box. Or, if you are watching on youtube, click the link to the right. All that you will need is a pencil and some paper to draw and a q tip or a blending tool to do the shading in the second part of this video. Good luck! Here we go!

This part has 24 steps and it will be followed by a Lebron shading tutorial.
Step 1- Make a rainbow shape
Step 2- Make another rainbow shape above the first, with a slightly higher arc. This will be LeBron's headband. At the end of this step, it should resemble a banana shape.
Step 3- Make one more rainbow shape slightly above the top of the headband this will be Lebrons hair.
Step 4- Is a little tricky. Add the 2 shapes that you see. Notice that the one on (your) left is slightly larger than the one on (your) right.
Step 5- Add the backward L shape that you see.
Step 6- Add the shape that looks like the "little dipper" (pot shape).
Step 7- Add the next 2 lines. Notice that these two lines connect with the bottom of the shape from step 4.
Step 8- Add the 2 small rainbow shapes for the tops of Lebrons Eyes, and take an extra second to notice how each end connects to form a new shape above the eye.
Step 9- Add 2 U shapes under each eye lid. Dont make circles though, leave the top blocked by the upper eyelid.
Step 10- Take a second to observe the gross outline of the nose. Notice that the shape is about the same height as the forehead.
Step 11- The next lines that you see are the outline of Lebrons moustache. Notice that the 2 vertical lines go DIRECTLY below the mid part of Lebrons eyes.
Step 12- Next, put in Lebrons upper lip. Notice that it looks like a flattened letter M.
Step 13- Now put in his bottom lip. It is shaped like a boat. The shape in between the 2 lips looks like the roof of a Pizza Hut.
Step 14- Now, do your best to put in the ear shapes. Notice that his head is turned slightly, so the ear on your right will be a little smaller.
Step 15- Try to observe the line for his chin and jaw and then draw it.
Step 16- Observe and add these lines for the neck.
Step 17- Add the shoulders
Step 18- This v shape will be an important shadow on the neck.
Step 19- Add the W shape between the chin and lower lip.
Step 20- Connect the W shape with the bottom of each ear.
Step 21- Add the nostrils
Step 22- Add the bottom line for the eye.
Step 23- Add two V shapes under the eyes
Step 24- For the final step before we shade, notice the three shapes that are being added on each ear.

What is Youtube's Place in Art History?

What is youtubes place in art history?
Youtube is the early 21st century version of an art musuem. Its the new Louvre. I think that the most significant art of today is being posted on youtube and ill prove that at the end of this video. So, all great art is a reflection of the era in which it was created...I dont think that todays art will be done justice if it is housed in a museum building like the art of the past. There was a time when painting was the greatest visual technology in the world but it became less relevant with the inventions of photography and video. There was a big debate in contemporary art about whether painting was dead and I credit youtube for bringing painting and other forms of art back to life. The difference is performance. In todays art, the performance is more important than the final product and youtube gives artists an arena to perform and document their work to an audience that views a billion videos a day from around the world. Youtube viewers are the art curators of the 21st century. You do this when you favorite a video or rate it.......or subscribe to a channel. This is a much more democratic method than the past. So much of what we see in museums was decided by a relatively small group of individuals. Also, youtube is becoming a major patron for artists, although I think that this is happening by accident. I have seen a lot of artists become youtube partners........and that gives artists a financial alternative to the gallery system.

YOGI BARE- Naked Yoga Instructor Drawing / Painting / Tradigital Mixed Media Artwork

was listening to the radio on my way to class one day and the DJ started talking about a naked yoga class. Visual images rushed to my mind! I started to sketch out my ideas. Couldn't concentrate on the school stuff. I came home and did this video. Sometimes inspiration can be stupid! But it's still inspiration so I went with it! True story.
-Merrill Kazanjian

These are the steps that I took to make this character. (How I made it)

1.) Pencil Drawing
2.) Layer of Prismacolor and AD Markers
3.) Scan with scanner and use Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro 9 to do a digital collage.
4.) Print on to new sheet of paper
5.) Layer of Color Pencil over the Printout (to tie things together and prime the paper for Oil Paint)
6.) Layer of Opaque (cant see through it) Oil Paint
7.) Scan again
8.) Use PSP and Photoshop CS3 again to touch up my "Nude Yoga Man Character"
9.) Save as a PNG file (Portable Network Graphic) PNG's are like stickers- you could stick them over any digital file as many times as you want.

Facial Expressions Drawing Shock, Fear and Terror

This is a continuation on my series on facial expressions. Today, We are going to concentrate on the expressions of shock and fear. I video taped the creation of 14 sketches, to give you a lot of chances to learn. You will see profile, 3/4 and frontal views and both male and female faces. But, before we begin, take a second to glance at the major differences. This information will be discussed in the video and you can download on my website Merrillk.com. Just type the words shock and fear in the search box to download this resource. Or, if you are watching on my youtube channel, hit the link to the right to view this resource. I hope that you learn a lot. Here we go.

Character 1- In the first character, I want to highlight the gaping mouth. Notice that the top teeth are exposed. When you draw this expression, the top lip is pulled up, which shortens the distance between the lip and the nose

Character 2- For this character, I want to highlight that the eyebrows usually separate and the forehead flattens for this expression. This is the opposite of the expression of anger where the eyebrows are pulled closer to each other.

Character 3- For this sketch I want you to notice the separation of the iris from the bottom eyelid as well as the perfect C shape that the mouth is in when it is in profile.

Character 4- For this character, take note of the separation between the iris and the top eyelid and the amount of space between the eyebrows- Both very common in a fearful expression.

Character 5- For this character, I want to highlight the lines on either side of the nose. For this expression you can make these lines more visible.

Character 6- This character has his eyes shut tight and his mouth open wider than any other character in the picture. To draw a scream, make the area between the eyelids as dark as the lashes and darken the area around the eye. Make the mouth extra wide.

Character 7- This character seems more startled than scared because her mouth is less open and there is relatively little shading around the eye.

Character 8- In this character, I wish that I left the mouth in the classic C shape for drawing this expression in profile view.

Character 9- Notice the dark rings under the eyes of this character. That and the separation between the iris and the upper eyelid makes him look distraught. Also notice that the mouth doesn't always have to be gaped open to convey fear. Instead, I filled the gap with teeth.

Character 10- This character has a lot of facial commonalities with the other characters that have been drawn so far. I added a still pose with a pointing finger to supplement the facial expression.

Character 11- A very common pose to convey shock and fear is to place both hands on either side of the face- Also known as the OMG pose.

Character 12- Notice that this character has separation on both sides of her iris. A great way to make someone look terrified.

Character 13- Since this character wears glasses, I made each eye seem magnified. I wish that I added a separation between the iris and the eyelid.

Character 14- I should have stopped at 13!. I made his head too small for his position in the picture. I know this because the people in the row behind him were significantly bigger- a mistake in perspective drawing.