I may have missed it, but did Bob use liquid clear on this painting? I know that he used a black canvas and then covered it with vandyke brown and prussion blue.

    Joel Nope, Bob doesn't use any here, or at least doesn't tell so. In a later episode, he explained that it could be done without yet it is more easy if you applied some first.
    Several other community members, myself included, had that experience and indeed, it is far more easy if you use a little liquid clear up front. No harm in that (except when you use too much! So always give it a whipe with some paper towel after application).
    Hope this helps ya!

        It's funny because I used Winter Moon as an initial reference for a painting I did a few days ago. I wanted to get an idea of how to make a night sky. Bob doesn't mention using the clear in this episode. What I did is throw some liquid clear up on my palette and mix in mostly black and a bit of prussian blue. I used to coat the entire canvas with a thin coat of clear and then coat that with a thin coat of color, but I figured this saves me a step. So, only one coating of, I guess, what we can call 'liquid blue/black.' Hope that helps.

        6 days later

        The canvas prep is very similar to Northern Lights. He uses a flat black acryllic (can you use black gesso?) and he lets that dry completely. Then he uses van dyke brown and prussian blue that act as his base in the absence of liquid white and or liquid clear.

        Northern Lights (Season 8 Episode 13) is going to be my next painting and I've been studying it for a while now.

          I started using liquid clear but I am much happier using linseed or safflower oil. Linseed is a bit yellow vs safflower. If you pull the material safety sheet for liquid clear its a mix of the two plus some thinner. The problem I've had with LQ is if you get even just a bit thick, your pigment will sliiiiiiiiid down the canvas before it dries. Also, getting thinner on it is bad.. very bad. What I do now is if I need the whole canvas covered, I'll use LQ because I have it but I put in on then use a shop paper towel to wipe it down so it's a THIN layer. Thinner than liquid white. And I am extremely cautious with making sure my dry is dry and little thinner gets on the painting. Or I use linseed oil.. very thin coat. I love working with black canvas ( black gesso) so I'm always experimenting with things.

          PS - what happens you ask when you hit LQ with paint thinned with thinner? Oh.. fun stuff. .I was working on a space picture with stars so I thinned out some Ti White with some thinner and flicked it on the canvas.. each flick ended up with a "halo" around it as the thinner reacted to the LQ. I ended up brushing out the stars.. then thinning some TiWhite with linseed oil and flick, flick.. that worked pretty well. No halos.

            wybnormal The "violent reaction" (quoth Bob) of liquid clear and paint thinner is a technique employed in the later seasons. Once he used it to simulate snow, another time ("Oriental Falls") to give a watercolor effect, and another time, I think, to give the impression of wood grain. So linseed oil as a prep works for most paintings where he uses liquid clear (you can't blame him for trying to get people to use more of his products), in a few cases it's indispensable.

              I'll have to look up those episodes. I found it out the hard way with a look of sheer panic on my face 😃

              19 days later

              If you are looking for the "violent" reaction episodes, Daisy Delight (Season 11 Episode 3)
              does that too.

              5 days later

              yeah.. I looked those up 😃 Wish I had know about it first. I'm sure the look of abject panic on my face when my painting started to slide off was priceless..

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