materials • My favorite tools: Birch Panel 24″x18″ Tri-Art Finest Quality Gesso (fav is clear, but here I used White) Tri-Art Finest Quality Dry Media Ground Tri-Art Finest Quality Liquid Acrylics (for this piece I used Carbon Black, Transparent Pyrrolle Red Medium & Indian Yellow) General’s Charcoal Pencil 6B General’s White Pastel Pencil White Vinyl & kneadable Eraser General’s Soft Lead Pencil Sharpener Unison Soft Pastels Bristle Brushes in a variety of sizes (for blending)
blocking in • (prep – applied gesso, allowed it to dry, then sketched in Phoenix) blocking in with Carbon Black acrylic. For any linework or details that was missed/messed up when blocking in the negative space, I went in with Titanium White after and refined it.
colour glaze • Adding glazes of transparent acrylic colour (acrylic + water). I’m really care-free at this stage, as I will be refining it later with drawing. When you use transparent glazes, you can go right over the black areas without any worries 🙂 NOTE :: This piece was approx 10% painting and 90% drawing, however NOTE this process works for 90% painting too, and just a few accents of pastel here and there. Depending on what you want, you can be more precise at this stage, I just knew what I wanted for this piece at the start and that I was going to cover most of the paint up with pastel!!!
colour glaze complete • completed glazes. Knowing that any inconsistencies will be resolved in the process, I still went in with Carbon Black acrylic where I wanted to establish a clearer vision of the overall shape and design at this stage (trying to avoid details as they come later!).
dry media ground layer • Time to add a layer dry media ground. I use a ‘colour shaper’ rubber brush tool for application, it’s fantastic for applying this medium!
dry media ground complete • A thin layer of Dry Media Ground is all that is needed. It may look white going on, but don’t freak out – it dries translucent (clear with a slight frost as it’s very matte). Allow to fully dry before drawing (approx 3-4 hours, overnight is best).
When the ground is dry, it’s time for pastel! Draw it on where you like. For blending and softening use a dry bristle brush (I have a collection of brushes just for blending pastel…I never wash them!) 😛
erasing & removing areas. tip with kneadable eraser – press it into the surface and LIFT (repeat) for maximum effexctiveness. No matter the surface – it will not damage paper this way, and on a birch board, it gets into the grooves better than rubbing it side to side.
erasing lines that were covered too much by the pastel, allowing some of the paint underneath to show through is part of the magic!
A balance of pastel details and refining of design, and allowing some paint to show through.
Refining edges and dark areas with charcoal, smudging with a brush gives a soft effect and eliminates the lines, maximizing the illusion of depth.
charcoal pencil details
White Vinyl eraser tip – cut large eraser into small triangles to achieve finer lines and details with a variety of small points and edges.
Charcoal pencil (or pastel pencils) are perfect for delicate linework, whereas round soft pastels are too large.
kneadable eraser reveal! lifting out pastel where it’s not needed (or where it got too messy).
darkening up some areas with charcoal for contrast. Again, use a brush to soften the strokes if you like.
I LOVE soft pastel! final details will not be brushed out, rather allowed to ‘sit’ on top of the surface to allow for max colour density and texture.
I LOVE charcoal the most though! and brushes have become one of my favorite drawing tools. Final stages of going over any areas that need to be DARKER! {I love lots of things, such as dramatic contrast! 🙂
working all over maintains unity and allows for better problem solving when one can see all the pieces coming together… much better than starting from a corner and progressing out!
tail complete, many layers of paint and pastel and charcoal!
Phoenix – mixed media *FINAL* (edited for clarity, contrast and colour balance)
Learn more about this process in Craftsy’s online class – PAINTING WILDLIFE: ACRYLIC MIXED MEDIA
Sharlena Wood 
I am still not sure about why you put on the medium after the acrylic painting dries. I have not use this yet. I have used all the other mediums. I especially like the charcoal powder. But I am still scared to death applying it.
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