Corey Guerra Design, LLC

06/04/2026

Look at the difference one more glaze makes. 🍋

The first image is the initial glaze on the lemons — transparent yellow with just a touch of burnt sienna. It’s there, but it’s sitting flat.

The second image is after a second pass of the same mixture.

Suddenly the lemons have weight. The color deepens, the form reads better, and the light starts to feel real. That’s glazing — thin layers of transparent paint that stack optically, like looking through tinted glass. Each pass enriches without muddying.

Here’s something worth knowing about yellow:

Cool yellows (like Hansa yellow or lemon yellow) lean toward green. They’re crisp, almost acid. Great for highlights and fresher light.

Warm yellows (like cadmium yellow medium or yellow ochre) pull toward orange. They feel sunny, heavy, ripe.

Right now these lemons are glazed with a cool transparent yellow — which reads as that bright, slightly green-toned citrus color.

Once they’re fully dry, I’ll come back with a burnt sienna glaze to push the shadows and midtones warmer. That warm-over-cool layering is what gives the fruit its sense of roundness and ripeness.

After all the glazing is done across the whole painting, the final pass is reinforcing highlights and deepening shadows — snapping the contrast back into place.

Slow process. Worth every layer.

06/02/2026

The moment color enters the picture — literally.

These two shots show the same painting: the completed grisaille underneath, and the first glaze layer on top. Same composition, same light, same value structure. The only thing that changed is a thin, transparent film of color pulled across the surface.

That’s the whole point of indirect painting. You build your values first — every shadow, every highlight, every edge decision — in neutral tones, so that when color finally arrives, it doesn’t have to do any of that heavy lifting. The grisaille is the skeleton. The glaze is the skin.

For this layer I mixed a cool, muted green-blue — close to what you’d expect from an enameled Dutch oven — thinned way down with medium and floated it across the pot. The lemons got a warm yellow pass. Everything stayed transparent enough that the value structure underneath reads right through it.

Notice how the whites of the cloth and the tabletop didn’t need much at all. That neutrality in the grisaille is doing the work.

This is why I always say: get your values right before you ever open a color tube. If the grisaille is solid, the glazing stage almost feels like cheating.

More layers to come. 🎨

06/01/2026

🎨 New book: Architecture of Light: Indirect Oil Painting in the Old Master Tradition

Discover the layered techniques the Old Masters used to create luminous, glowing paintings—from underpainting and bistre layers to glazing and final highlights.

Whether you're just starting out or refining your craft, this book walks you through the indirect method step by step, so you can build depth and radiance into your own work.

Each chapter builds upon the last and offers the "why" behind the "how" in easy-to-read language.

Now available for $36 on Amazon 👇
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2ZNL6ZL

05/31/2026

🎉 Big news from the studio!

The proof for my oil painting book arrived today, and I’m holding it in my hands for the very first time. This is the final approval stage before it goes live — and if everything looks good, it’ll be available for purchase on Amazon soon!

This book has been a long time in the making. It walks through my grisaille indirect oil painting process — the layering, the light-building, everything — in a way I hope feels approachable whether you’re just starting out or looking to deepen your practice.

I’ll share more details once everything is official and the listing is live. Stay tuned — and thank you for all the encouragement along the way. 🖌️

05/30/2026

The grisaille is almost there. 🎨

(Photos are in reverse order.)

This is the stage I love and dread in equal measure — everything’s in grayscale, every value locked in before a single drop of color touches the canvas.

The lidded pot, the folds in the cloth, the lemons catching that soft light…it’s all about getting the lights and darks right first. Color is the easy part. Value is the foundation.

Next steps:
→ Let it dry
→ Final refinements (a few edges and highlights still need love)
→ Then the fun begins — glazing

That’s when this quiet little gray world finally wakes up in color.
Stay tuned. 👀

05/11/2026

Varnish troubleshooting — before & after 🖼️

Swipe to see what a bad Gamvar application looks like vs. a corrected one. That streaky, uneven sheen in the first photo? Two culprits: varnish that had gotten too viscous with age, and a brush that was way past its prime.

Gamvar is forgiving, but it does have conditions.

Here’s what to check if your varnish layer looks uneven:

Your varnish — Gamvar should flow smoothly and level out as it dries. If it’s dragging, pulling, or sitting thick in some areas and thin in others, the viscosity is off. Old varnish can thicken over time even in a sealed bottle. Fresh varnish is cheap insurance.

Your brush — Gamblin makes a dedicated Gamvar brush for a reason. A worn or contaminated brush leaves drag marks and uneven coverage that no amount of technique corrects. If you’ve had yours for a while, replace it.

Your application — Work in thin, even passes in one direction. Don’t go back over areas that have started to tack up.

The good news: you don’t have to remove a bad layer before reapplying. The solvent in Gamvar reactivates the previous layer, so a fresh coat bonds with and corrects what’s underneath. Let the first layer cure fully, then apply your corrected coat over it.

In this case I replaced both the varnish and the brush, and the second application went on exactly as it should — smooth, even, and consistent across the whole surface.
Small supply maintenance issue, big visual difference on the finished piece.

Check your materials before you blame your technique. 🎨

05/10/2026

05/06/2026

Varnishing your painting isn’t optional—it’s the final step in the process.

An unvarnished oil painting is not a finished oil painting. Full stop.

Without a varnish layer, your paint surface is exposed to UV light, dust, airborne grease, and humidity fluctuations. Over time, oil films oxidize and yellow. Colors shift. Darks flatten. And without a removable barrier coat, any future conservator who tries to clean the surface is working directly on your paint — with no safety net.

That’s the definition of non-archival: the work cannot be safely maintained over time.

The reason many painters skip varnishing is a real one — traditional resin varnishes (damar, mastic, even some synthetic formulas) require a painting to be fully cured, which for oils can mean waiting six months to a year or more. Applying a film-forming varnish over insufficiently dried paint traps solvents, causes cracking, and locks in uneven sheen.

This is where Gamvar changes everything.

Why Gamvar works when other varnishes don’t:
Gamvar (by Gamblin) is formulated with Regalrez 1094, a low-molecular-weight hydrocarbon resin dissolved in Gamsol — a mild, odorless mineral spirit. Because Gamsol evaporates slowly and gently, and because Regalrez is non-penetrating, Gamvar sits on top of the paint film rather than bonding into it. This means it can safely be applied as soon as the surface is touch-dry — typically, 6–12 months is still ideal for thickly painted work, but for lean, thin passages, touch-dry is enough. It won’t trap residual solvents the way traditional varnishes do.

Gamvar is also removable with Gamsol, making it fully conservation-grade. Future cleaning won’t touch your paint. That’s what archival actually means.

So: no excuses. Varnish your paintings. Your future self — and future conservators — will thank you.

05/04/2026

Progress check-in!

The first image is the latest iteration. You will notice some subtle change between the first and second photo. I have glazed the table again, deepening the color as well as reinforcing shadow, highlights and details. Once dried, I will varnish the painting and it will be ready to sell.

I will posted images of the varnishing with explanation and materials. Also I will explain while varnishing a painting is necessary.

04/24/2026

The grisaille method is one of the most effective ways to build a strong, believable painting. Instead of jumping straight into color, the entire image is first developed in black, white, and a full range of greys. This allows you to focus purely on value, light, and form without the distraction of color decisions.

In the piece shown here, the pear’s form is constructed through careful control of light and shadow. Every transition, from the soft highlight on the front to the deep core shadow, is established before any color is introduced. This is what gives the painting its sense of volume and realism. If the values work in grayscale, the painting will hold together when color is eventually layered on top through glazing.

Grisaille is rooted in classical painting traditions and is still one of the best ways to train your eye. It teaches patience, observation, and discipline. More importantly, it reinforces that painting is not about color first; it is about light.