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Originally Posted by Anthony Emmolo
You know your stuff Virgil,
Another question though:
What is the proper use of Retouch Varnish? A friend of mine, a 65ish year old woman from Milano, who was trained in the old style studios of Italy in her youth told me that Retouch Varnish has a different use. Her English wasn't good enough to explain the proper function of Retouch Varnish, and my Italian wasn't good enough to rely on that.
I live in Shanghai, China and books are basically impossible to come by here. I naively left my Ralph Mayer book in California. Can you tell me a website that would have information on the dangers of misusing materials, and the correct ways to use them. Please don't mention Amazon.com for a purchase. I'm here rebuilding an art career after a couple of bad gallery sale years and my credit card has been melted during the crunch as my debts went through the roof. At the moment I am a part-time painter-part time English teacher.
Thank you in advance,
Anthony
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Anthony,
The intended use for retouch varnish is to help a painting look better that is too recently completed for it to be ready for a final varnish. However, I'm not so sure that's a good idea, as far as the long-term effects it might have on the picture are concerned. It depends on a number of factors, including what kind of retouch varnish, what method is used for applying it, how much of it is applied, how freshly painted the painting is, what pigments were used, how thick the paint is, etc., etc. I spray it on lightly when I use it at all, and then only after waiting as long as I can for the paint to cure. I use a Paasche VL-3 airbrush for spraying it, and I do it outdoors on a hot day while wearing a gas mask. A friend of mine died recently of lung disease after having worked with airbrush as an illustrator for too many years, so I'm very careful about spraying anything.
I don't know of any web site I could recommend for reliable technical information about painting, but these issues are discussed regularly on the Cowdisley Forum, on Yahoo Groups. I'm the Moderator there, and participate in the discussions fairly regularly.
Virgil Elliott