Many of the most pleasing paintings make use of a variety of ways to apply the paint. By varying the thickness of the paint, artists can produce variations in tone and colour. This occurs because the layer beneath the fresh paint, has a more or less effect on the finished piece depending on the thickness of the new layer being applied. The benefit of using paint in this way is that the artist can limit the number of colours on their palette whilst still retaining the impression of a broad range of colours and tone. This use of a limited palette can give the finished painting a more harmonious feel.
Another way of using thin and thick layers of paint is to create the illusion of depth. If a background is rendered as a wash and the foreground as a thick impasto, it’ll throw the foreground elements forward within the composition.
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Remember, pet portraits are for life, not just for Christmas!