Glazing and scumbling properly

[andymania]

I was just wondering if anyone call tell me how the process of scumbling into glazes work in detail. When I try to scumble white or another light color over a dry dark color it produces this chalky, foggy nasty look. I assume that scumbles over dry dark areas are supposed to be further modified with glazes in order to get the right hue....also is there a certain white that would be best suited for scumbling??

[DSillustration]

When I try to scumble white or another light color over a dry dark color it produces this chalky, foggy nasty look.

That's precisely what scumbling is supposed to do.

I suppose that you don't like the way it looks because the scumbled area is so cool compared to the warmth beneath it.
Just remember, white is a cool color.
So much so, that old masters used to apply it thinly so that it would take on a bluish tint (since they rarely had blue available to them).

If you are scumbling over a warm area, try using combinations of cad red and cad yellow.
Otherwise, you will need to glaze warmth back over the cool scumbled area as you suspected.

It's also possible that it isn't looking good because you aren't working it into the surface hard enough.
To get a nice, white, even glow you need to use little to no medium, and with a stiff brush really work it into the surface until it's thin and even.

Like all techniques, scumbling has it's place.
It's not good for everything and not good on really large areas.
Sometimes you are better off using a direct application.
I use scumbling for little glints and glows.

[andymania]

Ah ok Dan I see. Should I still use a stiff bristle brush even when working on smooth gesso board? Also, did you by any chnace get me email with the head study problem?

[Bill]

That's a great piece of painting, and advice. Thank You.

[dwilliams]

I've always read in books that glazing lighter colors over darker colors, like you mentioned above, produces that cooler, chalkier effect, which is great for things like atmospheric perspective.

If you want to achieve really warm, dark colors like the dark spots in Rembrandt's paintings then you're supposed to glaze dark colors over lighter colors. Whenever I want warmer effects I'll deliberately paint the first layer lighter and darken it with glazes, and vice versa for scumbling.

[andymania]

So if i would like to carve out warm half lights within a shodow area, I should scumble with opaque warm areas. I tried last night taking some pure cadium red and scumbling it across a area of black and the black underneath desaturates the red just enough.