I don't know how many times I have finished a painting than thought Hmmm this looks so good will I wreck it if I varnish it? To ad more pressure to that it's a commission and they are paying you for it only to have ruined it by varnishing it!. Here's a quick fixable hack I like to do. I use a paintable sealer first. So at the end of the painting hit it with the (Paintable) sealer this will make the dull colours pop and a lot of the times give the finish you were after. Sometimes you don't even need to coat it with a varnish after this process. Now this will give it a satin or closer to a matte finish but seals it and you still have the ability to tweak if you need to. I like to varnish as the last process only as here in Australia flys and bugs and dust leave their nasty presence known and leave residue especially after 10 years of collecting dust on your collectors wall. They only need to Firstly lightly dust off then without soap or any other cleaner use a slightly warm, damp towel and clean off any residue that has accumulated over time. Hope this helps Legend! talk soon! Heff.

I got a really nice email this morning from someone who painted along with one of my tutorials. It reminded me of something I believe pretty strongly — especially for beginners and returning artists. You don’t learn painting by thinking about it. You learn by having a brush in your hand. Something else happens too… time disappears. You stop thinking about everything else and you’re just there, making marks, mixing colour, figuring things out. Before you know it 3 hours has passed by. Artists call it “the zone”. It doesn’t always show up — but when it does, it’s magic. If you’ve been putting painting off lately, this is your nudge. Even 20 minutes counts. Cheers, Ben (Heff)