When drawing and painting the artist must keep an open mind and want to explore options that have never been tried by them before. Their comfort zone might be compromised, but that is a very good thing. It opens your mind and allows new ideas.

Painting a figure is no different than painting a still life or landscape. The artist observes the individual shapes of any subject, the figure like the landscape, are made up of curves and angles, areas of light and dark, and shapes of different colors. Look at your subject with squinted eyes to cut down on the detail, observe the large flat areas and draw or paint them. Of course it helps to go to a life drawing class or two.

Airbrush can be used with acrylic paints and many illustrators us them and love the results.

Some techniques that can be used with acrylics are a sponge, which could simulate the texture and illusion of gravel. This is not a new idea but the mood you could achieve out of the sponge is wonderful and great fun. Add colors to the sponge, by loading the sponge with more than one color and apply to the canvas, this make depth and shapes. After using the sponge take a palette knife and smooth out some of the areas so you create some movement, you can even splatter the palette knife onto the colored canvas for a new effect. These techniques can produce a thick textured painterly quality to you artwork.