Limitations of Art varnishes

[Beardie]

Hi all,

 

Thought I would add a little note about artists type varnishes being used for finishing models. It never occurred to me before now as I had only used my artists varnishes on oil paintings but I revently used them on a model and realised that they are not really suitable for 'intermediate' varnishing as they remain tacky and sort of soluble picking up fingerprints etc in handling and will most likely never lose their 'tackiness' and I came across a thread somewhere on here where someone complained of the same effect.

 

The reason for this is in the nature of the varnishes themselves, they are designed to be removeable for years after application in order that a painting can be cleaned and re-varnished. Not sure about the composition of the varnishes designed for use to protect acrylic paintings but they may well be exactly the same as those for oil paintings.

 

In the instance of the varnishes designed for oils they are composed of some clear material which remains soluble in white spirit for a long time if not permanently. On the plus side this nature means that, used as a final varnish, should a model become dirty/yellowed over time, then it will be a piece of cake to remove it with some white spirit (The white spirit shouldn't affect the underlying paint at all) bringing your model back to a 'just finished' appearance at which point a fresh coat of varnish can be applied.

[sapperastro]

This does not apply to all of the varnishes. Liquitex Gloss and Matte varnish is made as a permanent varnish, and while not especially hard wearing, gives reasonable protection, and has always been very easy for me to work with giving no problems.

 

You can get 'non permanent' varnishes, but it clearly states this on the bottle.