Here is the first step:
I painted a background using white acrylic paint and then on top of that I added some Acrylic Gesso to emboss or emphasize the areas that I want to raise from the canvas.
For now it will look dull. But as soon as we start adding color to it, it all becomes a different story! More to follow as I progress...
Second Step:
Here I have used a mixture of Titanium White, Blue Lake and Phthalo Blue to do the sky section and added Burnt Sienna at the bottem section to ad a brown texture for the ground area. Looks must better now, doesn't it?
Third Step:
Now I start painting the hearts. I mix some red, black and white in different shades and paint them in a way that they reflect a light source from the left with a dark side to the right. You first do the darker side and then then the lighter side. Once I apply some paint, I use a dry brush immediately afterwards to do the blending with by quickly but lightly brushing over the edge of the wet paint towards the side that I want it to become lighter.
After I painted all the hearts I added a mixture of yellow, blue and brown to create the tree colors. Then I started with the butterfly. I first use a mixture of white, blue, and red to create the first layer of color. After that dried I started adding areas of white to put some emphases on them and then yellow to really let the butterfly stand out.
And finally I added some black outlines to all the hearts and the butterfly to bring them out a little more against the background. And here is the final version:
