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My granddaughter, Maddie, asked me to paint the family dog, Willow. I love commissions, and she is a delight to please, so I agreed. However, when she picked up the dog, all I could see was her cute face peeking out from behind Willow. Naturally, I had to include her in the portrait, right? With this painting, I used two very different techniques: Direct, or wet-on-wet, and Indirect, with glazes. Direct painting has been popular since before the Impressionists. The artist mixes colors on the palette and applies them to the canvas wet-on-wet. That's the way I painted the dog and the background. Indirect is an Old Master technique. First, you do an underpainting value study, like a black-and-white photo. Then you glaze transparent colors over the value study to get the colors you want. You have to wait for each layer to dry, so this method takes longer, but I like the depth and luminosity this technique affords. Maddie is painted using this method. Most new students in my studio learn indirect painting techniques first. Then we can move on to color mixing and direct painting, but I find teaching both methods expands their knowledge. And we all know, Knowledge is Power!