Artist Cellar

Layering the paints

The key to layering the paint is in knowing the opacity of each of the varieties as products which are more opaque have a more dominant appearance on your surface.

The general rule is to apply your paints according to their opaque levels, either from opaque to translucent or translucent to opaque. Take your paints and line them up in order starting with the translucent colors, then glazes, semi-opaque and finally opaque. When you work, start from one end and work towards the other. Chose to begin with opaque colors or the translucent colors but don't start in the middle.

Stewart Gill paints are designed to intermix within the ranges but can also be layered directly on the surface with one exception, Galactica. Galactica will dull if mixed with other paints so for the most brilliant finish, apply Galactica as the final layer.

The following table sorts out the layers and the suggested products for those layers.

Layer	Suggested Products	Appearance	Method
Background Layers	Colourise	Translucent Matte	Color washes, solid blocks of color or patterns
Middle Layers	Pearlise Alchemy	Semi-Opaque, moderate shine Shiny, Interference Color	Medium concentration glazes painted over the background layers to create depth while allowing the background to stay visible.
Top Layers	Metamica Byzantia Galactica	High shine, opaque High shine, opaque Highly reflective	Use as sharply-defined highlights to pull background and middle-layer colors forward.
Optional Final Layer	Alchemy Colourise	Shiny, Interference Translucent Matte	Thin washes and glazes. Use sparingly to push bright highlights or bold areas to the background.