Artist's Palette

Inside Out

A traditional way to approach a subject in most mediums is to paint the background first, then move towards the foreground.

We see some oil painters put on a thin layer to start, using broad strokes and building up the background and eventually moving into the foreground – building form and using thicker paint.

We see some watercolourists and acrylic painters start from the top of the page and paint to the bottom,the large background shapes first, moving to the smaller foreground shapes; again starting with thin washes and finishing with thicker detail work.

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