I used some of Golden's Gold Mica Flake on the leaves. This gel medium is flakes of real mica, several millimeters in diameter, bound together with transparent acrylic medium. You can apply it with a palette knife, and it is good for a rich gold texture, sort of like gold leaf.

I used it in a still life painting last year. It's not the sort of thing I use in all my paintings, but it's a neat effect when I want to try something different. The mica flake comes in other colors and sizes as well. Here's the mica flake medium close up:

For the trunk, I used Heavy Gel Medium in gloss. This medium comes in matte and satin finishes as well. It's good for putting in texture but it does make it harder to cover mistakes, since you can't paint over as easily. Here's the closeup:

At the moment, Golden offers these mediums individually in 4oz jars, but I've heard that they will soon be available in tubes, like the paint. I find the jars a little big for traveling with, so I buy the 6 jar sampler set, which has 2oz of medium in each jar.

Tags: supplies, paint, advice