Three Tomatoes - Stage Four

G A Austin

Once your previous layer of paint has completely dried it's time to start filling in your highlight colours. Yippee! It's all starting to come together, trust me!! Now you have to swap back to your hog, back to some more drybrush. With your orangey red already mixed on your palette, if you have some thicker paint left. If not remix some more, DO NOT add water. Now gradually add in a little neat Titanium white until you get a coral/salmon pink colour. This is your first highlight. Now using the drybrush technique (in a circular motion) from earlier fill in your highlight areas and your water droplets. As you come towards your mid tones just lift the pressure off the brush so that it blends away into your mid tones. It shouldn't look like a massive blob! If this is so, you have either put too much paint in the area or you have not blended out your edges. Remember you have to work quickly as acrylics dry quickly. To keep the paint from drying quickly just add a little slow drying gel or retarder to your mixed colour. If your higlight appears patchy, as if there's a halo on it, you've worked the area to much with your brush, relifting your paint back up onto the brush. Allow to dry completely and paint straight over again with the same coral colour. If a mistake is made you just repaint over, simples!!

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