Coal Miner's Spring is an acrylic painting on a 30" by 40" canvas. Liquitex acrylics were used throughout the piece; and a pre-stretched canvas was used.During a pastel drawing class, I was informed that many oil painters begin a piece by placing the complimentary color on the canvas first. This is used as a base coat upon which the "natural" colors are placed. I love using this technique in pastel paintings as it seems to result in richer, more interesting colors through the final painting. My
allergies prevent me from doing any oil painting so I decided to give this technique a try with acrylic.Sketch and Comlimnetary Colors:
The first step was to do a pencil sketch on the canvas. A fairly 
detailed sketch was done. After the sketch, the complimentary colors were placed in large blocks on the canvas with interesting results.
"Natural Colors":
The "natural" colors were then placed over the initial layers. Care was taken not to completely cover the compliments so visual "blending" would occur. I feel that this technique worked well although the colors did not actually blend as they do with pastel and oil.
Below is a close-up of a section that shows the complimentary colors "peeking" through the natural colors. This makes the painting much more tintersting visually.
