Sandy,

You can certainly glaze multiple times, letting the paint dry in between. And there is no reason why you have to use the same color from one glaze layer to the next. They will mix optically, so that blue glazed over yellow will make green. Just be aware that transparent glaze layers absorb light, so multiple glaze layers darken the value of that section of the painting.

There’s no identified limit to how many layers you can glaze, especially if you keep each layer very thin.

Note, however, that one of the reasons I don’t use alkyd painting mediums such as Liquin is that I have heard a few scattered reports that it can cause paint layers to peel away, especially when glazing. Other artists report no problems whatsoever.

I have been struggling with glazing to some success - (and sometimes not). I’ll be trying a few of these techniques out immediately.

Very grateful. :)

SPQR,

I’m a big fan of glazing. For the most part, the artists you cite (except perhaps Turner) used a mix of opaque and transparent passages in painting. The tinted effect is most noticeable if you use it over large areas, or if you don’t know what you are doing. All of them certainly did know far more about painting than I do. Nevertheless, for us regular folks, it is all too easy to get glazing effects that are unconvincing if you are not careful.

A tiny addition of white is not particularly noticeable, to anyone’s eyes. That’s particularly the case with flake white, which is what all of those painters used. I don’t know that they mixed white into their glazes—I expect they did so sometimes, but not other times.

I agree. A mixture of opaque and transparent passages creates the most vivid illusion of reality, overall. Adding a small amount of white to glaze mixtures tends to reduce the “tinted photograph” effect that glazing can produce.