The process I use for collages starts out with a detailed sketch. In this painting I used pencil and charcoal.

After I finished the drawing, I put down the first layer of paint directly on watercolor paper. For this painting I painted the figure dark on light, and for the upper background light on dark. I left the bottom portion alone because I wanted to try a new solid metallic surfacer. The body is primarily watercolor and the background is acrylic.

I then applied a layer of crinkled tissue paper with a thin glue mixture over the entire piece. When it dried, I painted over the top of the tissue with the next layer of paint. In this case the mid-range color portions of the figure and more work on the background to get a kind of alligator effect. I also needed to re-paint parts of the under painting. After it dried, I put another layer of tissue over parts of that layer and I again painted over the top of the new tissue. In this case the darker sections on the figure and the white acrylic over most of the background, just leaving a shadow from the under painting.

The process I used is sort of like glazing between each layer of a painting, except using translucent paper.

The final step was to treat the work with an acid-free spray (because of all the tissue paper), and then a fixative.