# Is Varnish Necessary



## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

I was told you need to wait at least 4 months before varnishing an oil painting. Seems like many artists sell their paintings before it's been 4 months, so do they just not varnish them? 

I have a friend that would like one of my paintings and I told her that she needs to wait until the summer because I have to varnish it. In acrylic I would varnish it the day after I painted it.


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## Liz (Jan 10, 2015)

I don't varnish my acrylics, I didn't varnish my oils either. Why do you want to use varnish anyway?


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

Hi Liz, I read and heard that varnishing preserves the color and it gives that 'finished' look to the picture. Some use matt varnish, but I like the gloss varnish. I always thought that it must be necessary because I heard it many times from different sources. But now I'm thinking maybe it's not really necessary, maybe I'll only varnish the best ones that I want to keep for a long time.


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

*Yellow ... ooooooo*

I didn't think that varnish would yellow the colors. That's something I don't want. One reason I switched from acrylics to oil because I didn't like the darkening of the colors. I'm really into keeping the colors in the pictures. 

Thanks for your advice. I'll check that spray out.


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

*Oil vs Arcylic*

I'm sold on oils right now. I've been able to paint much nicer pictures with it than I could do in the acrylics. But yes having to wait for months to varnish it can be annoying. I only started with oils about a month ago so far none of mine are varnished. I've managed to sell one of them, and another one was just requested by a friend of mine. So it's kind of tug on my conscience to decide if it's really necessary to varnish them.


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## PattiG (Feb 28, 2015)

Hi Terry! Thanks for the welcome. The first time I varnished it frightened me. Now I'm comfortable with it. The one question I've been trying to find an answer to is what will happen if I add just a touch of color to gloss varnish. I want to get a slight yellow tint over entire painting. Have you ever done this? My painting is in acrylics.


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

Nope never tried that. If you do it be sure to let us know how it goes.


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