After some tweeking and adjusting the painting is completed.

Have fun trying this technique and remember trial and error are the best teachers.

Step 8 - Building up the darks and lights

Start by adding more layers of Blue, Purple and Green. Layer these colors over your yellow and red tones to give them some dimension and impact.


Continue to layer your color with the goal of dramatic light and shadow. Don't forget to adjust your white areas to punch up the whiteness of those areas.

With Fluid acrylic washes each layer will intensify the color even the whites

Step 7 - Adding the blue tones

The next step is to start to push the shadows around a bit. In order to do that you need to start adding blue tones. Blue is the foundation of a shadow. Centuries ago the Renaissance Painters discovered by creating an underpainting of cobalt blue (shadows) and white (light) they were able to execute more realistic shadows in the top layers of the paint. The dampening down effect of blue is similar to the way atmosphere effects areas where light is diffused.

In this case I am using a mixture of medium and Prussian Blue fluid acrylic to form my shadows. Notice how it is reacting with the previous colour layers.

Step 6 - Scribbling

Now the fun begins ( at least for me ) I have the coolest tool that allows me to fill it up with liquid acrylic paint and with a small amount of pressure draw on my canvas. This is important to me as I want my work to show my gesture lines. I want to accentuate some of the qualities in the pose that I encourage you to look at, but notice I don't draw on every line. My mentor and good friend Elaine Bigelow once told me "Sandra you don't have to tell them everything, just enough to get the point across" I am using Dioxidine Purple and Cadmium Red Medium to draw these lines.

Step 5 - Adding Red Tones & Alcohol

After the previous layer of colour has dried completely, prepare a 4:1 ratio mixture of medium and Quinacridone Magenta and cover any areas that have not been painted except areas you want to keep white in the foreground. Watch for the reaction of the red and yellow; red and violet and where all three have combined. This is your key to feeling out what you need to do next to get the oranges, purples and neutral tones you are looking for in the painting. Where you put it and how is up to the composition and you the artist.

As I work on small sections I drizzle rubbing alcohol from a dropper or spritz it on with a spray bottle leave it for a moment and dab or rub at the areas sprayed to lift off the paint. Alcohol is a marvelous tool to create textures in the paint surface but practice this before tackling a large composition, it is tricky and fickle. Alcohol can also be used to remove paint from areas that are covered by mistake be careful rubbing to vigorously may remove too much of the layers underneath.

Step 4 Adding Mid tones

Next you will need to look for a violet tone to work in between the forms to find the areas you will want to push back from the foreground. Here I am using Golden Fluid acrylic Quinacridone Violet in a mixture of 4 parts fluid medium to one part paint.

Working with fluid acrylic is a little different than Heavy Bodied paint as the pigment is concentrated and a very little goes a long way.

The goal here is not to start to completely cover the white of the canvas but rather to start the process of layers to build intensity of colour. Notice how the colour reacts to areas that you cover that already have yellow. This reaction is how depth of colour is formed.

Step 3 Adding the light

Using Dairylide Yellow (Golden Open colour) I brush the surface of the canvas in areas that I want the light to glow through. This will react to other colours that I will add to pop the areas out. The mixture will be one part paint to 3 parts medium. The colour should be transparent without loosing its brilliance. The medium I use is liquid matte and gloss, you could use a semi gloss medium as well but I like to control the shiny finish to the paint.After the layer of yellow has dried I then go in with a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of matte medium and Titanium White to punch up the areas untouched by the yellow.

Depending on the whiteness of my canvas I may brush one layer of Titanium White mixture over the entire canvas first being careful that it doesn't cover up the drawing.