i like it, there are alot of interesting things happening in the piece. got quite bit of character, and almost comical in a way, while at the same time holds meaning. nice work.

Stellar work as always. Faved.

I have to burden you with a technical question: do you use a high-gloss varnish? matte/gloss is the bane of my life. I tend towards dark backgrounds, but as soon as you introduce whites into the foregorund, the light parts become matte and the background stays glossy (often in a maddeningly uneven way). I mostly don't use mediums and only use a little sansodor to clean my brushes, not to thin the paint. I don't want to use a gloss varnish, but when I've used matte varnishes in the past, they haven't made the glossy dark areas any less shiny. The drawback of wanting it to stay matte is that I lose some of the depth of the darkness, but I'm not a fan of very shiny canvases.

Help me out here!... if I want the whole image to be consistently matte, without losing colour or tonal values, what should I be using?

you are awesome , man !!!!!!!!!!1

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羅卓睿© Michael Andrew Law 2009

Matte varnish should never be used as the primary coat since the resins can absorb into the ground and cause the kind of problems you speak of where some areas appear glossier.

Instead, set up an isolation coat as a barrier to the varnish.

This can be done with watered down gloss gels or with certain mediums, i.e. liquitex gloss medium & varnish, golden also has products for this. Then follow up with any varnish finish, be it matte, satin or gloss for an even finish.

Another alternative is to lightly coat the piece withremovable gloss varnish first as an isolation barrier. Once all areas are completely covered in lightly applied layers, then use the matte, which will not absorb due to the resiliency of the gloss varnish. This method has the advantage of being more archival in the sense that you can remove the varnish and get down to the painting itself, whereas in the other scenario, you cannot get past the isolation coat which is pure acrylic.

This does have a deeper looking finish from what I recall in its former state. The darks seem to pop out more prominently. As stated before, great composition and really excellent work!

Superb imagery, brilliantly executed. This is very inspiring to me. Another perfect gallery worthy piece!

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_{...has been known to be Greek from time to time...}

Use My Stock Photos at ~AthenaStock

thanks Denis.
I know the pre varnish just seemed very flat. It sucks when the ref isn't meeting the work.
Thanks for the feedback,
Jason

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Jason John

you know to be honest I just cover the painting with a coat of Liquin. I know it is not a varnish, but I really had some similar problems when using professional varnishes such as a look like glass over the piece or the varnish reactivating and the painting becoming a dust vacuum. Liquin is really nice because it really brings out the depth of value without looking too matte or too glass like. I usually just brush it on smooth with a very soft 2 or 3" flat. I don't use medium that often either, but on occasion the old 1/3 works great (turp/oil/and damar or resin drying agent). I really hope this helps a lot.
Best,
Jason

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Jason John

yeah I have been really trying to keep a bit of humor in the piece ,but it can slip away so fast.
Thanks,
Jason

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Jason John