What varnish can you use on paper

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Many of my oil paintings that I still have are over thirty years old and have never been varnished. What do I clean the surface with before applying any coating including varnish? And why can I not use a polyethylene furniture varnish from the paint store?

I was a student of Frederick Taubes in the 40s s and he made me very conscious of the chemical contents of any varnish… Just wondering. Thank you for your answer. I look forward to your information on varnishing oil paintings. Great subject Will, thank you very much. As you know I have started in acrylics not so long time ago and you are so helpful.

I like that colours are so bright after varnishing, but I noticed sometimes there are some ugly streaks. I do use a very soft brush. What do I do wrong? I was wondering if this was accurate? I do the first coat horizontally left-to-right and the second coat vertically up-and-down.

Prevents glare…. It would all depend on the position of the lights that would be shining onto the painting, whether the lighting was from above a picture light for example of from the side a bright low window that has strong sunlight shining through The biggest jump in change in glare would be a change in the sheen applied.

Thanks Will, great article, and very helpful to have the links to the work shown and the handbook. Totally amazing that something written so long ago is still in circulation and relevant! Pleased you enjoyed it Carol, yes it is quite amazing the similarities of problems with varnishing with artists through the ages!

Really admire your professionalism in handling this website. As a beginnner, i am growing with confidence as well as being inspired. Happy Christmas and wishing you continued success in I had been fussing over this idea just this morning and on and off in recent months. A holiday gift, to find this in my e-mail inbox!! Thank you for the information, well-timed for me! Have you ever used Dorlands wax medium as a final varnish? After an isolation coat, it seems safer than removalble varnish, but I wonder whether cold wax is adequate protection.

It might be a good question for the oil and wax forum , who have much more experience using cold wax. Also, you might find coldwaxpainting. You are still at your best, Thanks for the info! I have heard and read over and over that oils over acrylics, is ok, but not the opposite, your isolation coat is prepared with acrylics, please enlighten me. Then you can paint over with either a waterbased or solvent based varnish.

Hi Will, Hope all is well. Just wondering what the point is of using a solvent based varnish considering the polymer acrylic varnishes are non yellowing and water resistant? Seems to me to be a waste of time, unless acrylic varnish is for acrylic painting and solvent varnish is for oil painting. I mean it is not as if anyone would allow people to touch and deliberately damage their works!

Hi Will…. Your article is perfect and I will be watching out for your next round of info on varnishing. Love your art, love your school and love your vids on Art Tutor…where I really discovered painting with acrylics my favourite medium. Cheers, Wanda. Nice to hear from you and pleased the varnishing article was good timing for your landscape paintings. I go to Art classes and have a great Art Teacher. Your Info and tips are fantastic and really helpful.

Thanks Will for taking your time and energy in putting your website together! Hi Will, great article as normal, I use atelier interactive acrylics cant get golden I obtained a Matisse clear sealer mm12 artists acrylic medium, it says for a light varnish where minimum protection is needed, , would this be okey for a isolation coat?

You might find this article from Marion Boddy-Evans helpful. Hello Will As usual you have given very informative advice. I have been wondering about glazing as I like the appearance. It is definitely worth considering. I have just finished a small painting of different character houses on a hill. Quite a quarky little piece. Thanks Will Shirley. Hi Shirley, Pleased you found the article of interest, your painting sounds like the perfect candidate!

Hi Will, thank you for this informative article. In your experience, does this sound ok for isolation coat? At almost 60, I am feeling like a creative kid again! Thanks for your excellent web site. So far I have made mistakes, but am learning with every attempt. This Christmas I am giving away paintings as gifts. Your varnishing article prevented me from making another mistake!

I was going to use bubble wrap as part of the gift wrap! I said I was a beginner Could you advise me as to how to properly package an acrylic painting? If you are sending via post it is also worth having a sheet of thick cardboard behind the canvas to prevent anything going through the canvas.

You can then make a cardboard corner protector for each corner as these will be the points that would take the most impact if the parcel was ever dropped. Thanks Will I am almost 67 I am feeling that with your excellent web site I am back at school!

Thanks for I ask will you toget tips for oil Paintings Regards. Very insightful and useful info. So well explained and touched upon every aspect of Varnishing…. I am lucky to have found you…. Thanks again. Hi Will Thanks for another very interesting article. About a year ago I completed a large acrylic on canvas x cm which also has areas of gold leaf applied to it. Your advice would be appreciated. Thanks Will, I have already applied the gloss gel medium coat and was wondering about the varnish…you have explained it all so well and easily that I have clarity!..

It looks great and is water proof. Thank you for your great tips and your great videos. Hi Jo, yes you could do that, it would be similar effect to using a non-removable water-based polymer varnish.

Lately I have been exploring with watercolors on different materials. I like to use watercolor canvas and aquabord finding the finished product more exciting than the traditional matted and framed under glass watercolor.

I would always try to protect watercolours behind glass, as adding any product to the watersoluble surface of the watercolours runs the risk of re-wetting the paint and the level of protection will not be as great.

Thanks so much for sharing this info. I was at a frame store the other day and they asked if the painting was varnished. Until then I had know idea about varnishing. I searched the web found your site and shared knowledge and it was exactly what I needed to know.

Excellent extremely helpful article, Will. Thank you!!! Dear Will…. Thank you for the whole Package, full of useful information on the varnish topic. It would be very helpful if you could let me know as to how or whether exactly can i make corrections on a painting after it has been varnished and if so… the procedure to do so.. I am facing some difficulty with a budha painting in acrylic and asap need your advise. One painting not has dry bubbles on its surface, many equidistant to each other.

I tried applying a new coat but no change. Is this painting dead? LoL i know that its either too much water I mixed it 4 varnish to 1 water or too energetic mixing i was as gentle as possible. I am new to this and I have been reading over your site as to how to varnish my acrylic painting.

I bought acrylic liquid glazing gloss and Golden soft gel Gloss, thinking that that is what I needed to complete my varnish. But I am now confused.

Are those two products just for the isolation coat? What do I get for the actual varnish, if it is different than the products I listed above. If you could clarify for me, that would be awesome. Both of those buys are excellent products, the Acrylic liquid glazing gloss is perfect for applying thin glazing layers to your paintings, but is not needed for the varnish part of the painting. A Varnish — depending on your aesthetic choices either a Polymer varnish or Mineral Varnish as discussed in the article.

Temp, humidity, et al? Is there a preferable sweet spot? So, for example, in a recipe that requires ml of isolation coat, ml would be soft gel gloss and 50ml would be water, this would be 2 parts soft gel gloss to 1 part water or Thank you again for such valuable guidance. You are truly thorough and most enthusiastic, which I find very refreshing.

Hi Will, I use an acrylic satin finish varnish that comes in a spray can to protect my acrylic paintings and am satisfied with that. Most of my oil paintings over 30 years old have held their color very well. But there is one in dark background that shows some uneven patches of shine when looking at it from the side. How could that be remedied? Thanks for your help! Have a look at this article on varnishing oils which goes through the process.

I have a silly question. I would like to varnish a painting that I completed with acrylics. I like to mix my mediums up so I add flowers, glitter and what not but I have never sealed them before using varnish until I stumbled upon your site. I have learned a lot about how to make them better. Here is my silly question, what happens to glitter? I need to make a word pop on my painting. I have used silver paint already but it still needs to pop.

I was thinking about varnishing because I have some very visible brush strokes and what not that I want to even out. Will varnish make the glitter not so glittery? Should I varnish and then add glitter on top of it? Stupid I know but I am not a traditional painter by any means…. Great article! Im not a painter by any means, just a creator. I created a painting and added glitter over a part of the painting.

Can I varnish liquid over the glitter? Also, applying a liquid varnish would be hard to not move the glitter with the brush when applying it. A light spray would be easier to varnish the surface without disturbing the glitter, but would lose the sparkle.

Also, is this Liquitex product, a combination of something like a Soft Gel Gloss and a varnish? I noted another artist used a sponge to apply the Liquitex product. In essence it would be like putting down an isolation coat, and then another isolation coat that you had mixed in some polymer varnish ontop of that. It would give you a smoother application, but if you where going down this route you could just build up layers of the Liquitex fluid medium.

Hi Jim, as mentioned above, natural varnishes such as Dammar yellow over time. Man-made Synthetic varnishes do not yellow if they do yellow at all it is a very slight shift compared with natural varnishes. Any thoughts on whether to apply, and if so how to apply, the varnish? You can make a small test piece and really exaggerate the peaks and valleys, then judge how many applications gives you the result you like aesthetically. Hello Will. I am getting ready to varnish a commissioned painting acrylic.

I cannot quite make up my mind on the varnish. The solvent based varnish brush sounds better because it sounds like I have a larger window of time to apply the varnish.

But is it not suitable to use in my small home studio? Or would spraying be easier? Your opinion will be greatly appreciated! Hi Tomoko, personally I would go for the Solvent based Brush option. It would be worth the cost of varnish lost, rather than a painting finish ruined! Thank you so much for the reply, Will. Doing a test run makes a whole lot of sense -I would certainly feel more comfortable after that!

I also wanted to comment that your recent article on whites is very helpful. Thanks again! Cheers, Will. Im working very large scale watercolors ft across on canvas.

I really like the look of them before varnishing. Up to now was using various spray applications. I feel this takes away from the subtle matt look which has the added benefit of many creative options to light it without hot spots… when I varnish it, theres a sheen which reflects light in places and in general I think it looks worse than the original. Also when I spray it on, seems its very uneven due to the large size.

Im considering brushing, but…. How dangerous is it to leave a watercolor painting unvarnished? That would be my top pick, but dont think its safe. Im curious also about trying wax varnish — I know this would give it a whole other effect, but im curious if that affect could be beautiful vs. Could a painting that large be wax varnished and polished effectively? Where might I learn more about the technique?

The last consideration is archival qualities. Do I need to worry about reversible varnishes? In what cases? In addition, varnishes on works created using Gouache, water colour and drawing cannot be removed. You might find this article of interest that goes into different approaches including wax specifically for watercolours.

Hope this helps,. I enjoyed it but was over my head. Am 80 plus is why. I am only painting on white gift bags from m. Just thought the varnish would hold picture on good. Friends have been using as decorative pieces. I ve never varnished before but have delivered my paintings framed with uv glass. Now i paint acrylic on wood, gray scale white to black with a lot of texture brush marks and hard edges, glazing and transparencies due to regular matte gel.

I would like to accentuate the vividness and depth of the colors and textures, like a wet effect but without it shining crazy. The paintings will go behind uv glass again. After reading your articles i was thinking of trying glossy isolation coat with a satin varnish on top. How would you see it? Are the old paintings safe behind glass if nothing at all was applied over the paint? Thanks very much , Charles. Hi Charles, yes that sounds like the perfect approach, apply an isolation coat first so you can see how the painting will look with a gloss finish, then you can judge if the satin will work the best for you.

Your previous paintings will be well protected behind the glass. Hi, Thank you for the useful tips about the isolation coat. I have some Winsor and Newton Gloss Gel. Is it suitable as an isolation coat?

It looks less dense and more transparent than the Golden soft gel, does it still need to be mixed with water? Regarding the drying time, you provide some very useful information, but just to avoid any confusion could you please summarize the various steps Painting drying time Drying time between layers of isolation coats Isolation coat drying time before applying the varnish Drying time between layers of varnish.

Thanks a lot and apologies for being a bit fastidious. Just a bit anxious about experimenting with varnishing on acrylic for the first time…. Painting drying time Isolation can be applied after 24 hours drying with standard acrylics.

The drying time will vary depending on brand and type of varnish used, details will usually be on the bottle of the varnish. This was very informative and very helpful. Just a few quick questions. Can I just do a quick isolation coat and be done? Or do I need to do more if I do an isolation coat? Hi Heather, you could just go straight on with a polymer varnish, the isolation coat is only if you intend to replace the varnish layer in the future.

Totally love LOVE your site! Such generosity in sharing your information and knowledge, and so cheerful and encouraging too. Fabulous for a newbie to the craft. SOOOO …. Will a matte varnish improve it due to lightening the darks , or will a gloss be better due to increasing the tonal range? A gloss varnish would make more of a difference than the matte, but a few extra brushstrokes of paint would be the best remedy.

I painted with oil but used golden extra heavy gel to enhance…used it all over. Should I also varnish or is the gel a type of varnish? Usually you would have an acrylic base and then an oil paint ontop due to the differences in drying time and the lack of adhesion of the acrylic medium onto the oil surface.

First I made Giclee, then I enhanced with oil colors not painting everything Next I went over covering all and adding some texture with Golden Gel Gloss medium which is acrylic…Now, do I varnish with acrylic based varnish or oil based varnish? Hi Lina, Ahhh, that adds a slight complication as the ink for a Giclee print is usually water based, so solvent-based oil varnishes are best avoided, the only varnishes that can be applied to a Giclee print are acrylic water-based varnishes.

I would usually add acrylics to a Giclee if enhancing areas of the print due to oil being in direct contact with the water based print which can cause discolouration over time by the oil soaking into the unprimed surface. Thx so much… Lets hope the family enjoys the picture long enoough for that to happen..

Just wanted to let you know I painted the giclee with oil, textured with acrylic gel and varnished with acrylic varnish and it looks great! Thank you for your help….. Next question…got an old half finished oil painting sitting around…last night I smothered it with acrylic gesso primer…leaving lots of texture.

I intend to paint with oil over it…. Yes, because you would have painted acrylics ontop of oil, rather than the oil ontop of acrylics. I also never heard of an isolation coat before. Do you recommend I change my habits? Hi Nicole, nice to hear from you, your paintings will still be technically sound and protected with the varnish, the isolation coat just makes it easier for the varnish layer to glide onto the surface and gives a protective layer so in the future if the varnish needs replacing the acrylic paint surface will be protected when the varnish is removed.

The Varnish will be suitable for stretched canvas. Here is the Golden technical page on Polymer varnish that goes into more details. Hope this helps, Will. Thanks so much Will, This helps a lot and makes me feel much better.

Thanks for sharing so much knowledge. Hi, Thank you for the article. I must missed something. Can you point out to me? Most of the time I would then mix a bespoke solvent based varnish by adding matte varnish to a gloss varnish. So in essence creating a controllable satin finish. Question: I purchased a recently purchased small oil painting.

I am not going to frame it, just put it on an easel. It was not varnished. Is it essential that it be varnished or can I display on a shelf as is? Thanks for your time. Hi Will, I need some help.

The problem is a kind of leaves with velvety and porous texture that absorb part of the varnish, leaving stains when dry. I tried with acrilic varnishes, Liquitex, Mod Podge, Delta but the same result.

Somebody told me that is because those are waterbased, so I should try a more hard resin coat or a silicon varnish. Please, any recommendation in this case? Thanks for the info. Is it ok to roll the canvas after letting the varnish dry? This guide by Agora Gallery goes through the steps. Thanks Will for the link to Agora Gallery.

I feel relieved — somewhat. Hi Will, Your website is so informative, really interesting to browse through! I have completed a Christmas mural in acrylics on 6 large canvases which will be used for a couple of years as set dressing at a visitor attraction. The paint is applied relatively thinly so should be truly dried, however they are a last minute request therefore any type of varnishing needs to be done in a short timescale!

Any advice would be much appreciated, Thanks, Sarah. Due to the nature of the pieces you could apply a final picture varnish straight onto the canvas without an isolation coat. Alternatively, due to the size of the canvas and the fact that the canvas could be moved around a lot you could also use yacht varnish. It will yellow slightly, but will be more cost effective on the large scale and give a very tough finish.

Gel Medium : Use an acrylic gel medium. I've used Soft Gel Medium by Golden to seal my mixed media pieces, and it worked really well. I hope those suggestions help!

If you try something and it works well for you, let me know! Now, pencils consist not only of graphite. The lead of a pencil contains graphite as pigment, clay as binder and grease and wax as impregnating agent, which also allows for smoother abrasion and better writing ability of the pencil. The higher the clay content, the harder the pencil. So, if harder pencils contain more clay, is it easier to varnish those?

We carried out adhesion tests on pencil marks made with pencils by Faber-Castell of various hardness, on canvas board that was painted with Fluid Matte Cerulean Blue. We found that after 2 weeks of drying time GOLDEN Varnishes had good adhesion on soft and on hard pencil marks, while the Isolation Coat indeed had better adhesion on harder pencils Image 3. When we tested the varnishes and the Isolation Coat after only 4 days Image 4 , there were failures on soft as well as on hard pencils.

On paper the story was quite different Image 5. Varnished pencil on paper had such good adhesion that the tape used in the testing tore the paper. Thus, the bond of the varnish to the pencil was stronger than the internal paper bond.

Harder pencils also resist smearing and bleeding better when brush- coated with wet acrylic product. We found that 2B or harder pencils can be brushed over with Polymer Varnish, for instance, without lifting the graphite Image 6. However, we only tested one brand of pencil, namely Faber-Castell, and results may vary with other brands.

When brush varnishing graphite drawings, which consist only of a few lines, it can help to apply an acrylic medium on top of the drawing first, thereby following the graphite line closely.

Alternatively, using the smearing to create shadows or shading could be used as a technique. The product is highlighted here. For artworks with large and thick areas of graphite, we recommend not to varnish at all. Since graphite is water soluble, the MSA and Archival Varnishes may be the better option, since they are less likely to smear and tend to adhere better to graphite than the water based Isolation Coat and Polymer Varnish.

When varnishing dry media, the main issue is usually the change in appearance, that can affect color saturation, color value, surface sheen and the general character of the surface Image 7. There is a fine line between barely fixing the drawing and saturating it to the extent that the pigments are actually surrounded in varnish and thus secured to the substrate. If the fixative is very thin, pigments can still lift when the surface is rubbed, but the appearance of the dry mark is preserved better.

How sensitive charcoal and soft pastels is demonstrated here. Therefore, spraying may be the best possibility to apply varnish so that mechanical action on these surfaces is avoided. Some artists prefer Matte Varnishes to truly protect their drawing and preserve a little of the matte sheen, natural to charcoal, soft pastels and similar media. Heavier coats of varnish provide better protection, but can cause more change in color values, saturation and surface sheen.

Colored pencils are wax or oil based, which makes long term adhesion of subsequent varnishes and topcoats problematic. The oil and wax content also makes them sensitive to many organic solvents that are common in varnishes.