Sgraffito...a technique used in painting

Sgraffito is a new technique that I am using in my painting. It is Italian for "scraping on your piece of art". The first time I used this technique was in the painting entitled, "Little Black Dress". The color that I wanted to show through was the red...a nice contrast with the black in the painting. The first color I added was the orange red to cover the canvas...then I applied the color of citron which gave the background an old-world look. Then I used the technique to make the orange red show through in different areas. You can see it better when you hold it up to the light. This technique can also be used with matte or gloss medium.

                                                               "Little Black Dress"