Impasto and Layering Techniques
Impasto is a painting technique that reveals brush or palette knife strokes. This is usually accomplished by using thick, undiluted paint or by adding thickening agents and aggregates to the paint. Thickening agents (gel mediums) are available for both oils and acrylic paints and come in a variety of viscosities: soft, medium, heavy and extra heavy. These agents have various levels of stiffness for creating textures.

Paint and Heavy Gel	Aggregates, Gel and Paint	Paint and Glazing Liquid

Aggregates are materials added directly to the paint to create physical texture. Any material that doesn't react with paint is a possible aggregate: sand, sawdust, metal shavings, etc.. I use thickening agents in all of my larger works and occasionally use aggregates to achieve sculptural effects and additional textures. Sometimes I use glazing liquids help to slow the drying of the paint and give a buttery effect.

My paintings are typically created in multiple sessions of layering. For highly textured paintings, a sub-layer of impasto medium may be created first. This layer consists of thickening agents and paint as shown above. Next, background elements are painted. Then I create layers of images and objects to gradually build the final painting.

First Layer of Leaves	First Layer of Flowers	Completed Painting

Below are some close-ups to give you an idea of the unique results achieved by combining both impasto techniques and layering.