I have a guide going over 70+ big and small painting techniques and tips one can use. But do we REALLY need that many?

Well, short answer is nah, not really.

Often, we use a technique or a combination of them without knowing the proper name.

And I strongly believe being happy with your final painting is more important than memorizing all 70+ names of all techniques I prepared for you.

And some techniques are not even for our style of painting anyway…

And some techniques were born just out of pure experimenting…so if we would always just stick to the books we would never create something new!

However… There are some techniques that are borderline skills and can improve dramatically your painting overall.

One of the most crucial techniques, especially with acrylics is layering.

When you just starting it is crucial for you to paint with acrylics in layers.

You actually probably instinctively doing so.

This basic technique simply means that we go about painting only in thin layer and we let each one fully dry before we move on.

In practice? Let’s study this small painting:

​

say we are painting a wildflower landscape.

Before I explain, how many layers you can count?

…

We first painting sky, probably using a blending technique as well here - first layer. Let it dry.

Then we paint trees that are very far away, on horizon. No details, just a block of color. Second layer. Let it dry.

Third layer - the tree line that is closer, slightly bigger, still on the horizon, lighter in color. Let it dry.

4th layer - details for trees with darker color. Let it dry.

5th - details for trees with highlighting color (probably warm yellow-green). Let it dry.

Next layer - layer of dark color for low bushes. Let it dry.

7th layer - Lighter details for bushes. Let it dry.

8th - background color for the field itself (again likely will use blending technique). Let it dry.

9th layer - dark stems for grass and future wildflowers. Let it dry.

Next stop - a bit lighter stems. Let it dry.

11th layer - even lighter stems. Let it dry.

12th layer - white and yellow blobs for future flowers (not detailed). Let it dry.

Next layer and maybe a final one - accents for flowers.

Wow, 13 layers! when I lay it out like this it seems like a lot of work!

But when we painting we don’t notice it!

In your next painting, try being more aware of layers and count, how many did you have?

See you next week!