I have yet to mess up a finish using this method. What is your favorite method?

This is the method that I use as well. A little trick that I do when varnishing is when I am in between varnishing, I will use a spray bottle of water and spray my t-shirt inside the zip lock bag to keep the varnish from drying out and get out as much of that air as possible. Your varnish cloth can last for weeks!

Again love your teaching technique!

This!! ❤❤ Thank you for this. You've made me WAY less fearful of varnishing now! I've been so scared to do this because I thought each layer needed to be perfect. You are awesome my man 😊😃🎨

Excellent! Now it will be easier to finish my paintings, fabulous outcome!

Thank you for your wonderful tips. The varnish brings out the vibrance of the colours more, as well as protects the art.

My "favorite method" doing it your way!! Like always, great video. Thank you for sharing.

Lol. Love your tee shirt

Since watching this video, not only do I use this method and only this method to finish my canvas pours. But I’ve shared it in the pouring groups I am in on FB almost every day. People are always asking about how to finish their paintings without ________________. Thank You

I really appreciate you sharing your method and in such great detail!

Excellent, excellent advice!! Now I can tackle this w/much more confidence & info by doing it this way. Thank you!

Another really helpful video. Thank you. Personally I've gone to using spray varnish, so much easier (although it does work out a bit more expensive). Love the painting you used here btw.

Brilliant tutorial. Thanks 💚☮️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

So glad saw you do this way to add varnish as was getting lines from the brush! Now know need to have the rag just a tad wet!

Thank you for this tutorial. The painting you used here is beautiful. I love it.

❤️ thank you for sharing your tips!

Your piece is gorgeous and the varnishing tutorial is very helpful. Thank you for sharing. 🎶💞🎶

Thanks, David, really doesn't look scary at all! I'm going to go give this a try. Beautiful painting.

Love to watch you work. 😁 Thank for showing us how to do this.☮️💖🎶

You’re my hero, David! I’ve only been at this for about a year (yikes!) and by some weird twist of fate and can occasionally pour out a good one. Then go to varnish and ruin it with streaks, dullness,etc until I have too many coats on and it’s plastic. Seems not to matter too much because by that time a cat hair will surely have fallen in. Argh!! I think the trick will be diluting the varnish. Always an optimist!! Thanks for all the great tutorials.

I just find and watched this video and I’m so happy. Because varnish is my biggest problem😄 thank you so much 🙏 I will watch your all videos after this 😌🌺

Great, specific tutorial. AND love the music - don't care for trance music. This is fun AND helpful!

Great tips! Thank you!

Really need this thank you!

Thanks for this. I had a 24 x 36 commission and didn't want to mess it up. Your way worked just right.

Thank you so much for this video! You're literally my hero. I've been wanting to varnish a few paintings for a while now but it scares me to death. I had bad experiences before 😔 so I'm really thankful to you. You're a great teacher.

Awesome video thank you so much for sharing❣️👍😁👩‍🎨

I recently had to varnish 140 paintings over a coupe of months for an exhibition. I watched Gina Deluca’s video on varnishing. She used a car wash sponge inside a stocking. I improved on that with a rounded edge oval microfibres sponge. I went through a few stockings but used the same sponge for the 700 coats - I put on at least five thin coats, sometimes 7 coats, of Liquitex varnish and they looked great. You DON’T saturate the sponge with water - don’t use any water at all! That affects the gloss look of the varnish and it’s probably why your cloth starts to dry as you showed us. It can also make the varnish cloudy. You need to wet it thoroughly with varnish but you don’t oversaturate it - it will last for a very long time. I also achieved a good look over the last 3 or 4 years using a wide black sponge brush and floating it over the top in even rows from top to bottom, then back the other way. The thing is you don’t try to squeeze any varnish out - it stays moist, and after the initial waste you don’t need to use any more. It was still good after many coats unless it was snagged, but you only soak up the varnish initially, then you add what you need to the painting - it’s not wasted as it stays in the sponge. I don’t think rinsing with water is the way to go - especially if you want a clear gloss look on your painting - they look very professionally done without any water at all. I find water can contaminate the sponge and affects the varnish. Most varnish bottles have a warning that it shouldn’t be mixed with water. Another tip - I always store my sponges in the fridge in a ziplock bag with the air squeezed out, and date it. Because it has a lot of varnish in it you don’t get wet and dry areas as you do with cloth. The reason I had to replace the stocking was because it would occasionally snag on a corner. It left a line behind. The rounded edge sponge was brilliant as it didn’t leave any sort of mark. The sponges were 2 for $1 in Shiploads - a reject type store in Tasmania, Australia, but the car wash sponges are perfectly ok - thanks Gina. I’d recommend everyone watch her video if they want to give your paintings a professional varnish. Another tip: there is a difference between dry and cured. I wait 6 weeks before I varnish as you can still pick up pigment when it isn’t cured. I recently dragged orange pigment over a negative white space. Be careful with bold colours. You can always spray a gloss coat on first to seal it if you think it might blend. Matt finish varnish is more forgiving but I do them with the wide, black sponge brushes and then keep the brush in the fridge. Once again, if it’s wet with varnish it won’t dry out. Don’t use the same sponge for Matt as you do for gloss. If I want a truly thick gloss coat in one go, I use ‘Liquitex Pouring Medium and varnish’ and pour it over in one lot and tilt the medium over the canvaslike a basecoat. This is demonstrated in ‘Pouring Your Heart Out” with Julie Cutt. She’s an Australian Pourer. It’s quite an old video and it does waste a lot of varnish/medium but if you do it perfectly it looks like it’s had 50 coats. If it’s not perfect you can redo it. I buy the large buckets for this technique. It looks like resin but is much cheaper - especially if you’re in the US and get your Liquitex products far cheaper than they are in Australia. Practise on smaller canvasses first. There aren’t a lot of videos on varnishing but I find the sponge/stocking method very quick - you can add another coat the same day. You should never overwork your varnish or you might come back the next day and find they are cloudy, the warning is in fine print on the label if you use Liquitex. It says you shouldn’t add water too. I hope this helps people who have large numbers to varnish together. The finish makes a huge difference when they are for sale.

Absolutely awesome my friend! I really enjoy watching! See you soon

Varnished my 30x40 this way with several coats. Turned out great!👌. I was definitely nervous in the beginning.

I use a rendition of this…I use a small squirt bottle and bigger wipes spreading it around with great results. So much better than a brush or sponge. 😊

Thank you. This was very helpful.

I know this video is not recent but I have been struggling with varnish. I watched your video and just finished four costs on four paintings and I see no streaks. Thank you very much!!

Thank yo so much

Thank you very much for all the information you share. Finally some things are beginning to make sense! May I ask you to do a video about the terminology used in paint names. Such as Azo, Othello, Quinacridone, Prussian, etc. And then some are light, some are heavy, and so on. Thanks again. Keep up your efforts for our sake! Otherwise, we'll all have nothing but mud!

I was having this thought this morning. How to varnish paintings. Thank you for this video

This one!! This is the size I'm talking about on my previous comment on your other video!!

This was helpful, thanks 👍🙂

Thank you so so much. This is so helpful. Wow I didnt thinking a t shirt lol

My apologies to Othello! Auto correct doesn't know what Pthalo is!

I have just used spray varnish as I need to finish fast what ever I have finished, but the mess its horrendous... I move house, so I need it a fast solution, but once I am settled, I will definitely try your style. So THANK YOU once for doing this video...

Cute shirt!

I am going to try your style for sure, as I made a mess of every other style!

That’s a beautiful picture I love it I think it’s gorgeous… I’m still having a hard on trying to get cells And lacing … I also haven’t done very well with the heat gun it moves the paint around… And I am really bad super bad with the hairdryer I mean wicked bad… I have use flood glue and water silicon oil (I’ve gone through a half a bottle in one week) coconut oil WD-40 alcohol and Anti- frizz hair oil

👍

Nice! I'll try your method next, (...have had a bit of ptsd after ruining 2 of my best paintings). If I get leftover varnish that I watered down can I save & use that for later or should I toss it and mix new each time? And do you think I could just rinse the cloth out thoroughly with water after I'm done if I don't think I'll use it within a couple of months? Thanks!😄

Looks amazing! Just had a thought watching you. What if you folded your cloth in half again. I would think that the sides of the cloth without varnish would mop up some of the varnish or leave marks.

Thank you for the extremely helpful video. I have the Daler Rowney acrylic mediums soluble gloss varnish but I've been putting off varnishing as I'm afraid of ruining my painting. I'd like to ask, is my soluble gloss varnish suitable to be diluted with water? Thanks.

Thank you David. First your Piece is so Beautiful Second your way of varnish your paint is very helpful, but if I have Silicon oil on my painting can I use the same method? Thanks

Great video, thank you 😊! Would you also do tiles this way? Thank you again.

Thank you David 😊 Just checking - for this one did you use the 50% varnish 50% water mixture for every coat?

Thank you for showing this great post. My question is do I need to dilute the gloss before you use it?

Hi David, sorry this is a different subject but I’m planning on pre making some paints and mediums. How long are they good tightly covered, on the shelf?

I’m in the middle of an experiment right now on finishing 4 paintings … They all came out a little bit weird… I was trying to make a bloom but that didn’t work I was working with a straw and I ended up making crevices… I didn’t want to scrape the canvases because what I ended up with what kind of cool so I decided to keep them… If I see all of them with the Minwax then the crevices would remain So I decided to try Marge podge and put a few coats of that on there build up the crevices and then Seal it with the Minwax I’m in the middle of it now I’m on my fourth coat and the paintings are starting to become smooth… I just don’t know how mixing the different sealing material are going to react 🤷‍♀️

OK first I love the T-shirt… For a New Yorker I need that….

Hi, could you tell me how much water you thin the varnish down with please....thank you

Can this be done on normal acrylic paintings?

Do we dilute satin varnish with water? And then apply? Please advise

Where did you get the T Shirt?

Why a circle motion? Why can’t you you just go back and forth like a brush? Learning!😊

David Is there anyway I can save a resin painting from a nice size divot in the corner. I rarely use Risen. But I thought this set of 3 would look really good with resin. So I thought...Now I have to deal with this problem. I checked and double checked before leaving the studio, All three looked great. It is 6 in the morning and I am so disappointed, that there is a divot in one of them.🙄

Do you ever do spray varnish???

Will this work with any material?

Why add water to the Varnish? Wouldn't it make it cloudy or at least less glossy? Good video though.

Can you varnish over resin?

purple dots?🤪😝