How I Create My Paintings

My method and inspiration.

by Faryal Ahmad

7/3/2026

I've been asked this question a few times now, so I thought it might be useful to put this down.

All my paintings are mixed media. I first lay down layers of acid-free tissue paper using gesso. Once that's down, I go in with a layer of texture paste. This I apply in a few different ways. Some areas I keep smooth, others are rough, and other areas have no texture paste at all. It all matters. They all make a difference. Once everything is dry, (the waiting is the hardest bit), I then go over with gesso. Once that's down I start the actual painting process. I use countless layers of thinly layered acrylic paint, used almost like a watercolour, this gives each piece a sense of radiance coming from within the canvas. And since acrylic dries so quickly it allows me to build up those layers gradually. I will often use a glazing medium too and all my paintings are varnished to help seal in all the colours and the varnish in fact, is an important part in making the colours richer.

Colour, in fact, is my main passion. I grew up loving works by Dali and Turner. Dali's creativity and abstract ideas and Turner's ability to create light and radiance on a canvas.