When I was learning how to paint abstractly in acrylic, the overriding message was about layers. The more the better. Build a history. Create texture. Kill your darlings and keep going. But there’s trouble with layers in acrylic painting too.
I painted using these ideas for several years before I began to feel weighed down by the heavy layers of paint. I wanted to embrace a lightness that I just wasn’t finding. “How do I find lightness in so many layers?” I wrote in my sketchbook. “More transparency? Fewer layers? More muted tones?”
I’m not sure I’ve resolved this question for my own painting, but I’ve had some thoughts while trying to achieve a more spacious look and feel.
The benefits of layers in acrylic painting
It’s clear that acrylic paint is a wonderful medium for applying multiple layers. It has excellent coverage, can be applied in multiple ways, with a variety of tools and effects and limits are few. This versatility and accessibility makes it perfect for beginners, hobby painters, students and professional artists.
Acrylic paint dries fast in its natural state which allows for working fast without losing momentum. A painting might even be finished in one session, even with many layers. The history and process of the painting might be visible to the viewer and the depth, tangible.
Layering as painting process
Layering the paint became part of my process in the beginning. There was plenty of room for experimentation and for mistakes and course correction.
I was taught to revel in the richness of building up colour and texture, so I did.
First I would apply loose background layers with little intention and sometimes not even a clear colour palette. I was taught a lot of play and exploration in the beginning with the understanding that most, if not all of these marks would be covered up along the way.
As the layers build and a composition becomes clear and more intentional, the layers are more carefully considered. Choices are made about colour, value, contrast or design. When I’m deep in the layers I’m starting to see how it might come together. I’ve found parts that I love and parts that I don’t. At this point, I ask questions, respond to what’s already on the canvas and take risks with bold marks.
The last layers are refinements, details and small adjustments. The tools get smaller and I get closer to the canvas. Then pull back to see it all, and repeat until the painting is finished. At least for now.
The joy and pain of layers in acrylic
Working in layers is liberating because it allows for so much to change. I could start with an idea, a limited colour palette, an emotion (or no idea at all) that sets the tone for the painting from the beginning. By the end I could be creating something completely different. This shift is relatively easy to achieve in paint that is fast drying, with great opacity.
It also means I can be non-committal. I can change my mind multiple times, refuse to settle on an idea and drift through my palette as my mood takes me.
There is joy in the freedom of layers but there is also an endless loop of transformation and depth and perhaps no clear end point.
The draw of simplicity
A love of layers might bring a rich history and depth but for me I was looking to remove unnecessary weight from my painting. I was searching for a result that was open, spacious and clear. It didn’t have to be shallow but I wanted it to be light weight.
I needed to create intention earlier in the process.
This approach doesn’t mean the absence of layers, although it could, but a more considered process. Decisions about colour, design and energy needed to be made even before the first marks were put down.
There might be less room for error and transformation but there was more breathing space. The lightness was tangible.
Simplicity and the trouble with deep layers
A painting grounded in its past has a weight that is valuable but is also heavy to view.
Simplicity can give us breathing room, allows expansion, and even in a very static painting it offers us room to move around it, maybe even through it, to see its bones without being buried under its past.
For me simplicity doesn’t have to mean a single layer and it might also be heavy. It also doesn’t have to be absent of history or depth but it should have clarity.
Simplicity does however require a level of intention and skill that is hard to achieve. The benefit of acrylic coverage won’t save my mistakes if I’m trying to keep a painting light in layers.
Can I create lightness within multiple layers?
I believe this is an admirable goal. To have the skill to achieve a many layered painting that appears spacious and weightless would be a worthy achievement for me as a painter.
Is this something I feel able to achieve? Well, I’m not sure about that. Exploring other options is necessary if I want to achieve my light, airy and spacious paintings.
Exploring process and mediums towards lightness
I’m still trying to find a process that allows me to paint towards a simpler, lighter result. I’ve questioned whether it’s possible for me in acrylic paint. I tried acrylic inks and watersoluble media. The number of layers shrank to four or five. I switched to working on paper and saw my style changing in response to these attempts.
I do think it’s possible to create lightness in layers of acrylic paint. It will take skill, practice and patience to do it. I also believe that for me, exploring other art supplies to achieve my goal is a suitable path forward. Perhaps my love affair with acrylic and the process I was taught is at an end?
If you’re a beginner and interested in painting in acrylic layers, you might find this article helpful.
