Varnishing an Oil Painting

Art Lesson 30, Part 8

How to Varnish an Oil Painting

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Varnishing an Oil Painting

This is a completely dry painting, and now it’s ready to be varnished. The painting was glazed, and we can see that the most noticeable places are exactly the places that were glazed; the less Glazing Medium in the paint, the more matte it looks.

We already know the process of varnishing. We place the canvas flat on the horizontal surface and coat the canvas with varnish in one direction. Then, we dry it against a wall overnight.

The second varnish layer should be applied in a different direction.

This is how the painting looks before and after varnishing. We see again that the Varnish affects the painting – the surface of the painting that was so uneven now looks uniform.