How to reduce shine when using magazine clippings in collage art

by Liezel
(Cape Town)

Reader Question: Hi, I have always painted in acrylic. I want to try something new this year and would like to do a painting with acrylic paint, oil pastel, gold gilding and collage. My collage consists of newspaper, music paper and magazine cuttings. However I want to know if I use glossy magazine cuttings if I can paint over some of it, or is there an available spray to give it a matte finish? I do not like the glossy effect on my painting.

Or should I use gift wrapping paper instead of the magazines for my collage?

Thank you very much, your tips are always welcome!

Liezel Liebenberg

Hi Liezel,

Your collage plans sound very interesting! If you want to reduce the glossiness of the magazine cuttings in your collages, I would recommend brushing over the cuttings with a light coat of acrylic matte medium, such as Golden Matte Medium.

Be aware that if you apply too many coats of matte medium, it can create a cloudy appearance that is irreversible – but if you do one coat of matte medium over your magazine clippings, it should be fine.

Matte medium is easier to brush over magazine cuttings rather than entire magazine pages, so be sure to cut out your clippings before applying the matte medium. This will reduce the possibility of the page wrinkling. If the magazine cutting is already glued to your surface, that's probably even better.

If you want to paint with acrylics over top of the magazine cuttings, the matte medium will also act as a "primer", allowing acrylic paint to easily stick to the magazine cuttings.

There are matte sprays you can use as well, such as Blair Digi-Finish Protective Coating or Krylon Preserve It Spray, which are both available in a matte finish. These sprays are meant as top coatings for printed digital photos and paper items, so they should work on magazine clippings as well.

Whether you decide to use a matte medium or a matte spray, you should do test applications on spare magazine cuttings to see how they turn out before you apply the matte medium or spray to the clippings you want to use in your collage art.

Hope that helps and best of luck with it!

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