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.

Step 2 - Transfer sketch to the Canvas

This can be done several ways freehand, tracing or with a light projector. I always do my transfer by hand this is because I want to preserve the spontaneous feel to the drawing. Some of this is slightly lost with drawing it for a second time but the gestural lines are what I like to leave in and repeat to a degree when I reach the scribbling with paint step later on.

At this point you need to make sure you are happy with the overall design as it is on the canvas and make any changes you need to before you hit "Step 3"

In this case I changed my mind about the actual time shown on the clock and made it just before 6:15 this way the arrows on the hands pointed into the painting and not out of the painting

Step 3 - Clear coat the lines

With a liquid matte medium brush gently over your pencil lines to make them permanent. Graphite and charcoal will dissolve into the paint but with a light coat of medium you will keep your pencil marks there until you are ready to loose them. If you are concerned about the marks showing through, which I am not, you should use a 4H pencil so that the marks can be overpowered by your paint easily.

The shadow like marks you see around some of the drawings is from using a 6B pencil in those areas and rubbing the medium into the graphite until it starts to dissolve out and leaves a shadow which I will use later.

Step by Step - Creating the Painting "Waiting for the 6:15 train"

Step One - The sketch

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If you are working on an idea that has come to you for a painting you should never underestimate the power of the rough sketch. This is where you do your thinking. The less your idea can be found in reality the more important the rough sketches. If you can take a photo that will help with the form but just practicing drawing the shapes will warm up your right brain to "see" what you will make happen on the canvas.

If your idea is a conceptual one you will need to work out your complete design before you start to paint. This doesn't mean you can't or won't deviate from that drawing but it prevents reworking areas that didn't follow the design to it's best advantage.

If you can add color to your sketch at least some of the dominate colors in order that you can see where your dramatic light will come from and your shadows will be.

The following posts will be a series of posts on the step by step documentation of the painting I am currently working on which I call:

"Waiting for the 6:15 Train" This painting is my observation of the way technology has changed and isolated the way we connect with each other.