GLAZING - It's all in the recipe

This week I focussed on adding on top of the grisaille two or three thin coasts of color.  I used Acrylic paint mixed with Gloss medium, and layer by layer I added details and color.

What I discovered is that, contrary to Oil Pail, the Acrylic mediums make the paint "slippery", for lack of a better word.  I needed to be careful to apply the paint on top of the previous coat without pickup the paint that was already there.  That meant letting it dry between each coat.

Also, I'm ending up with saturated colors that are a little darker than I would have hoped for.  The grisaille must have been a little darker than it should have and I did not notice it until I started using color.  Correcting the tone is now harder.  In some cases I need to go back and lighten my background with Titanium White mixtures, to then be able to apply my layer of glaze mix.

 

The recipe I'm using is 30% paint to 70% medium.  I wish to add the color slowly so I may keep my tone clear, and unless absolutely necessary, I do not use white.

I also started adding closeup details and in this I added very little medium and kept my color purer.  70% color and 30% glaze.  In some cases I did mix in some Titanium White to get the flatness of color and the vibrant whites I wanted.








Photo - Apple 2

If we compare to the photo, I think I'm coming along nicely except for the Background.  I'm realy not sure what I'm going to to.  Here is the original photo I took. 

Any comment or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.