Step #2

Over the top of my undercoat, I'm going to put a second coat that consists of a lot of random dots of color. I'm using a #6 Shader to put down mixed dots of white, black, burnt sienna, raw sienna, raw umber and yellow ochre. I don't clean my brush between colors, I just wipe the excess out a little when I get too much paint up toward the ferrule of my brush.

The upper left corner of the painting has been brushed over with a 2 in. varnish brush. The reason for this is to blur the paint. Another layer of dots like this one will be put on when this layer dries to make sure I have completely covered the background with color.

What I'm putting in here is a bed of leaves that I'm going to put trees in front of later.

This is the painting after it has been completely brushed over, blending the paint spots together. Anything you put in front of a blurred background is going to stand out and appear to be closer in the painting.