How do you paint light to dark or dark to light?

The direction of painting from light to dark or dark to light depends primarily on the medium used.

Painting Techniques: Light to Dark vs. Dark to Light

The choice between painting light to dark or dark to light is influenced by the properties of your chosen painting medium. Here’s a breakdown:

Generally, with acrylics and oils, you paint from dark to light. This is similar to how you would paint with oils, building up layers from lowlights to highlights.
This approach allows you to create depth and dimension in your artwork.
Light colors are applied last. This means the areas you want to appear brightest are painted after darker shades have been established.
By applying lighter shades last, you avoid having the darker colors mixing or covering the lighter tones, which can cause the lighter areas to look muddy.

Watercolor uses a light-to-dark approach.
This technique involves applying lighter washes first and gradually layering darker shades.
Watercolors are transparent, so this method allows light to penetrate through the layers and create luminous effects.
This technique works best due to the translucent nature of the paints, and allows you to build a more complex and layered painting.

If you dilute acrylics heavily with water, they can be used similarly to watercolors, applying the light-to-dark technique.
This method allows for the same transparent, luminous effects as watercolor, but using the properties of acrylic paint.
By using this technique with acrylics you can get the benefits of both mediums.

Medium	Painting Direction	Rationale
Acrylics (Standard Use)	Dark to Light	Build depth, light colors on top for brightness.
Oil	Dark to Light	Similar to Acrylics, layers, depth
Watercolor	Light to Dark	Transparent layers build luminosity, prevents mixing
Diluted Acrylics	Light to Dark	Mimics watercolor; achieve transparency and luminosity with acrylic properties