Artist and Turquoise Iris Journal curator, Deb Kraska, finds inspiration in the textures, colors, and small details of the natural world. In her mixed media work, layers do more than build a surface. They help tell the story of a place, a season, and the feeling behind it.
In this tutorial, Deb explores how to layer paint for rich autumn texture using earthy colors, dimensional mediums, natural impressions, and a process of adding, covering, and revealing. Rather than simply painting the familiar colors of fall, she invites us to look closer at the season and translate what we find into texture, depth, and meaningful marks.
Layering paint for rich autumn texture is less about finding the perfect shade of orange and more about creating a surface that feels as interesting as autumn itself.
Think about what you see when you walk outside in the fall. There is rarely just one thing happening. Leaves overlap one another. Grasses are drying and bending. Bark is rough and weathered. Bits of green remain underneath changing colors. The ground is scattered with evidence of what came before.
That is exactly what makes autumn such beautiful inspiration for mixed media art.
Texture has become an important part of my own painting process. In my Lake Washed series, I use sand and Dixie Belle Mud to build surfaces inspired by water, shorelines, and the treasures we find along the water. I love that the texture does not just help me paint what a place looks like. It helps me communicate what that place feels like.
As I began thinking about creating an autumn painting, I wondered what would happen if I approached fall in the same way.
Instead of asking, “How do I paint autumn?” I started asking, “What does autumn feel like?”
That question opens up so many more possibilities.
Let Nature Inspire the Texture
When we think about autumn art, it is easy to immediately think of pumpkins, colorful trees, and individual leaves. But you do not have to paint recognizable fall objects to create something that feels like autumn.
Look closer.
Think about peeling bark, brittle leaves, dried grasses, rough seed pods, exposed soil, weathered wood, and the layers of leaves collecting on the ground.
Those textures can become the inspiration for the surface of your painting.
For my textured paintings, I use Dixie Belle Mud. It is a thick medium that I can spread across portions of my canvas to create raised areas, ridges, and dimension before I begin building my paint layers.
Instead of applying the Mud evenly, I prefer irregular areas. I might drag a palette knife through it, create ridges, or leave some sections heavier than others. I also make sure to leave portions of the canvas relatively smooth.
That contrast is important.
If everything is textured, nothing really feels textured.
For an autumn painting, I also love the idea of letting nature create some of the marks. Press a leaf into the wet Mud and gently remove it. Drag a piece of dried grass through the surface. Press bark or another interesting natural object into it and then remove it, leaving only the impression behind.
You could also experiment with small amounts of torn tissue paper, handmade paper, gauze, or individual jute fibers.
The object does not necessarily need to remain in the artwork. Sometimes the mark it leaves behind is much more interesting.
Start With the Layers No One Will See
One of the hardest things about creating layers is accepting that you are going to cover some of them.
I think that is also where the magic happens.
I use both Dixie Belle Chalk Mineral Paint and Terra Clay Paint in my artwork. Although many people may know these paints from furniture and home projects, I love experimenting with them on canvas and incorporating them into my mixed media process.
The different paints give me another opportunity to play with how the surface looks and feels as I build the painting.
For an autumn piece, I like the idea of beginning with colors that are deeper and moodier than what I expect to see in the finished painting.
Do not worry about making this first layer pretty.
In fact, it may be better if it is not.
Let colors overlap. Leave brush marks. Use your fingers. Scrape into the paint. Allow one color to show through another.
These first layers become the history of the painting.
When you add texture and additional paint over them, little pieces of those early colors continue to peek through.
That is what begins to create depth.
Choosing Rich Autumn Colors
Fall gives us an incredible color palette, but an autumn painting does not need to be filled with bright orange, red, and yellow.
Some of the most beautiful fall colors are the quiet ones.
Look for warm browns, rust, terracotta, ochre, olive, moss, deep green, warm cream, and charcoal tones.
Dixie Belle has so many earthy colors in both Chalk Mineral Paint and Terra Clay Paint that work beautifully for this type of layering. Terra Clay Paint is especially fun to experiment with when you want a more earthy, organic feeling in your work.
You do not have to limit yourself to traditional autumn colors either.
Consider one unexpected color.
A muted plum or deep wine can be beautiful tucked among rust, olive, ochre, and brown. It gives the painting richness without immediately announcing itself.
And do not forget green.
There is still so much green in nature as the seasons begin to change. Keeping touches of moss, olive, or evergreen among the warmer colors can make the entire palette feel more natural.
I like to think of the brighter autumn colors as accents rather than the entire story. When rust, gold, or warm orange appears against quieter earthy layers, it has so much more impact.
Layering Paint for Rich Autumn Texture
Once the textured surface is dry, the real layering begins.
This is where I try not to think about covering the canvas. Instead, I think about building it.
I may begin with Chalk Mineral Paint in some areas and work Terra Clay Paint into others. I am not looking for one perfectly smooth, consistent surface.
The variations are part of what makes mixed media interesting.
Add some paint thinly so the colors underneath remain visible. In other places, use more opaque paint.
Work darker colors into the crevices created by the Mud and then remove or soften some of that color from the raised areas.
Suddenly every ridge becomes more visible.
Next, lightly drag a warmer or lighter color across the highest parts of the texture. A warm cream, soft ochre, muted rust, or earthy gold can catch those raised surfaces beautifully.
Then do something that can feel a little uncomfortable.
Cover part of it again.
Add another layer of color. Scrape through it. Wipe some away. Add marks with oil pastel, paint, or another favorite drawing medium. Then soften some of those marks with another layer of paint.
I think of the process as add, cover, reveal, and repeat.
You are not trying to preserve every beautiful thing you create along the way. You are allowing traces of those moments to become part of the finished piece.
