How To Resin A Painting Without Breaking A Sweat

How to coat a painting with resinWant to give your artwork a glossy finish all while magnifying the details? Perfect. Then you’re going to love epoxy resin. Here are the steps of how to resin a painting.

Step 1: Prepare your resin

For a project like this, you’ll need a doming resin. These resins mix thick, allowing them to evenly coat surfaces and give a smooth, shiny finish.

For giving a clear coat to your projects, you’ll love the Resin Obsession crystal doming resin. It gives a glass-like finish to photographs, paintings, tiles and tumblers.

💡 Pro tip: You can use it in jewelry blanks too. It works beautifully to make photo resin pendants.

Step 2: Elevate the painting

You need to lift your artwork off your surface by at least an inch because resin will drip over the side.

And while we’re talking about resin dripping, you’ll want to cover your table with plastic or a silicone mat. That way, you’ll be able to clean up your mess easily.

Step 3: Level the surface

Because you want your resin to be even, you need to make sure the painting surface is level. Use a level from the hardware store. There are even smartphone apps you can use.

Step 4: Decide how much resin you need

You want enough resin to coat the surface without wasting any. Input your height and width into our resin calculator and it tells you how much resin you need.

⭐️ BONUS: For the super resin nerdy types, this article gives you 3 options to figure out how much resin you need.

Step 5: Measure and mix the resin

Follow your resin kit‘s directions. In the case of the crystal doming resin, it mixes one part A to one part B by volume.

⭐️ BONUS: If you’ve never done this before, here’s how to mix resin.

Step 6: Cover the surface of the painting

Once the resin is fully mixed, you want to cover the surface of your painting. Use your resin stirring stick to push the resin over your painting’s surface.

⭐️ BONUS: Here’s how to know when your resin is mixed.

Step 7:  Pop bubbles

After the resin is over your painting surface, go over it with a heat gun to pop bubbles. Once the bubbles are gone, cover the painting with a cover. Let your resin cure for at least 24 hours.

⭐️ BONUS: Learn how to use a heat gun with resin.

Once done, your painting will have a glossy finish over the top. The clear resin also magnifies your art’s details. You can hang it as is or put it in a frame.

Here’s a demo of how to resin a painting:


Want to get started with resin but worried about making a mistake?

I get it. It’s a lot to sort through. How can you possibly read it all? It’s why I wrote the book Resin Fundamentals. Read the ebook that teaches you what you need to know in only a couple of hours. Buy it now, and it’s yours to read in minutes.

Unpublished Blog Posts of Resin Obsession, LLC © 2022 Resin Obsession, LLC

Like this post? You may be interested in  The Simple Steps To Casting Resin In Silicone Molds

8 thoughts on “How To Resin A Painting Without Breaking A Sweat

  1. @Charlotee, you can try a long lighter. Move the flame quickly as to avoid yellowing the resin. Also be careful not to let the flame touch the resin.

  2. After the small amount of resin leftover in the plastic measuring cup that you use to mix the resin sets, does it peal off after it sets or do you clean the cup right after pouring the resin on your project? If you clean the cup right away do you use water?

    1. When using large amounts of resin indoors, I always do it at the end of the day when I can leave the room overnight. I also have windows open (weather permitting) for fresh air or I have a fan circulating in the room. I also wear a respirator for fumes while pouring the resin.

  3. Hi looking for help on resin acrylic paintings ,when my painting is cured, there are dimples under the resin ,I have tried sanding and recoating but they are still there,I cleaned the canvas and wooden boards first with a baby wipe to make sure there was no grease etc .

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