A Guide to Techniques: Glazing and Impasto

Oil painting techniques exist on a spectrum from the delicate to the tactile. At the delicate end lies glazing: applying a thin, transparent layer of paint over a dry, lighter underpainting. This builds depth and optical color mixing (e.g., a blue glaze over yellow creates a glowing green). At the opposite end lies impasto: applying paint thickly so that it stands out from the canvas, holding the marks of the brush or palette knife. Artists like Rembrandt used impasto for highlights in portraits to catch the light, while Van Gogh used it as his primary language, twisting thick globs of paint to express emotion and energy. The key rule for structural stability is “fat over lean”—each successive layer must contain more oil than the last to prevent cracking.