The main purpose for matte medium with acrylic paint is to reduce the sheen. Of course, with artists being artists, many additional uses for matte medium have also been discovered.
Golden makes three types of matte medium.
- Matte Medium
- Fluid Matte Medium
- Super-loaded Matte Medium
This article deals with the first one, Matte Medium.
It was designed to be use with heavy body acrylic paint. The Fluid Matte Medium is a better fit for you if you mostly use Fluid Acrylics. Super-loaded is designed for those who need to reduce sheen or gloss only.
Matte Medium also extends your paint and increases it transparency.
Hey, this is confusing!
OK, so Matte Medium makes your paint color seem thinner, or less opaque AND it reduces gloss.
This is a strange concept for experienced painters, since normally the transparent acrylic colors appear to be shinier when dry than some of the more opaque color. I like to think about it in terms of how Nickel Azo Yellow dries with more shininess than Cadmium Yellow.
If you are a watercolor painter, you will innately understand about transparent, matte color.
A Word about Sheen for Painters
Have you ever finished your painting, hung it up in your sitting room, only to be “bugged” by a certain section reflecting light at night or as you walk by it? For instance, in a portrait, only the lips are reflecting light as you walk by it? It seems to be kissing you and it looks weird?
This is because if you use color from the tube, some of them dry with a slightly different sheen than other colors. For my work, this is usually not distracting, but on some of my paintings it bugs the hell out of me.
To correct this problem, choose a sheen (gloss, matte, or semi-gloss) and go over the entire painting with a thin coat of the medium in the sheen of your choice.
Doing this will often give your painting a more finished look. I see it at juried shows a lot. Straight on the painting looks fine, but off to the side it looks like a jumble of different sheens. Blues look dull and flat, or yellows look too shiny.
Using Matte Medium as Clear Gesso
An old studio trick for artists who want more tooth to a surface but don’t want to cover up their pencil drawings — use matte medium as clear gesso.
Have you tried erasing graphite pencil on a white gessoed canvas? Doesn’t work well.
Soulution: Coat your canvas with GAC100, a good preservation habit anyway – see article. Draw until your heart is content, erase all you want. Then when satisfied carefully coat the drawing with matte medium. You then have the familiar tooth of gesso, but you can still see your drawing underneath.
Negative Side Effects of Matte Medium
Watch out when applying numerous layers of matte medium one another. Although one layer will dry clear, as you add additional layers, a milky or white haze will appear and change the appear or vibrancy of your color.
Some artists use gloss medium through out the painting process, saving matte medium until the end, as a way to reduce sheen across the finished painting.
Alternative Uses for Acrylic Matte Medium
Collage Adhesive – use matte medium instead of gel gloss for collage and decopage work. Matte medium dries dull. It won’t give you the plastic feeling that gel gloss does.
Photographing your finished work – glossy paintings are difficult to photograph. The reflections show up in the camera as white areas.
I like my finished paintings to be extra glossy. But to photograph them, I use matt medium as a intermediate, permanent varnish to knock the shine off. Mix it 2:1 with water. After I have the photos that I want, I put the shine back on with gloss medium.
It’s extra step and more time consuming, but I sell on the internet, so good photos of my work means everything to me.
Scanning paintings for reproductions - Matte medium is also perfect if you plan to scan a small work into your computer. Illustrators or commercial artists avoid shine by using acrylic gauche or matte acrylic color, making reproduction easier.
If you don’t own a complete line of matte acrylics or acrylic gouache, using matte medium before scanning produces an even, dull sheen. Your note-cards, small prints, or postcards will appear more professional.
Image transfers – artist can also use matte medium for image transfers.
Add Texture – yes, matte medium can be used to add some texture to your paintings. In my opinion, there are about a zillion better ways to add texture since most acrylic paint manufacturers now have an array of texture enhancing mediums and gels.
Ready to try some Matte Medium?
Let me know how you like it in our comments below.
