Expressive Acrylic Painting with Patti Mollica - Lesson 3, Three Pears Demo 

Matching values in oil paint

In her book how to paint fast loose and bold, it has A LOT of information about different palettes she uses. There’s modern ones and mineral ones. Ya she squeezes out all the tubes into a plastic stay wet palette with segments. She used like 24 colors on it, all golden hard body paint but she used golden open before. Probably not for this. She does the artwork on the golden paint set boxes.

Most professional acrylic painters do not use water to thin their paints. Water is used to dampen the brush or clean the brush. There are special mediums for acrylic paints so that the paint does not break down. The acrylic paint comes in various thicknesses including a more liquid paint. It appears that Patti is not thinning her paint at all, but rather painting directly without mixing any medium into it. As well, she is keeping her colors very clean...not over mixing colors together. Each color represents another plane, (or surface area). The bright intense color comes from using high quality paint, not student grade. The higher the quality, the more pigment is used in the paint. This keeps it from getting milky when it dries. She really does an excellent job! NettieKStudio

I am an oil painter so, perhaps, I will attempt to give your question an answer. In oil, as in acrylic, it is important to keep your colors really clean for this kind of painting. The more you mix your paints, the more lifeless and dull the paints become. Patti is using a 1 inch brush with a chiseled edge . When she changes directions on the pear, she changes colors and tonal values. She does not blend or over mix the colors. This same method can be done with oils. As you add layers in oil, apply a thicker layer of paint. A thick paint will stick to a thin paint. Or... wait until the bottom layers dry for a few days to do the final light layers. I hope that helps! NettieKStudio.