Glazing

Try as we might, there are times when the gradient between our shades and our highlights are not quite as smooth as we would like.

Glazes to the rescue!

A glaze is simply a very thinned out color which is brushed over the miniature to leave a thin layer of pigment to tie the shades and highlights together.  The effect is subtile, but it can make a noticable difference in the final results.


Get yourself a few drop and thin it out until a swatch on your palette is fairly transparent. In the picture below, my first swatch on the left was too opaque. I added small amounts of water until I got to the fourth swatch.  That’s a good glaze consistency.

Do not apply the glaze as liberally as a wash. Just brush it on like you would a base coat.  Watch your recesses, and don’t let any pools form. If the glaze is covering too much, rinse and dry your brush and brush some glaze out.  The idea is to get a very thin layer of pigment over the area.  In this case, I used the glaze on the Royal Guard below to smooth out the transitions in the folds of their cloaks.