Brushing up on brush strokes
How to paint expressively!
In this video I chat to you about using expressive brush strokes in your paintings. Whether you use an actual paint brush or even dry media like pastel, charcoal or graphite, the strokes we use to lay down paint or pigment, has a significant impact on the overall piece. It creates atmosphere, depth and expression in a painting.
Think about the works of Vincent van Gogh, for example. He could take a very simple scene and turn it into an expressive piece of art, just in the way he was applying paint to canvas.
Now, creating expressive, looser paintings, doesn’t necessarily mean painting quickly. Instead, for this exercise, we are actually going to slow down, and think about every single brush stroke. And by doing that the brush strokes will tell the story and be the highlight of the show!
I challenged myself for this demonstration, and decided to use Gouache. Gouache is like an opaque watercolor, and is notorious for it’s
re-activating nature. That means that layering with Gouache is not as easy as with most other mediums, because you can potentially lift previous layers when applying another layer!
These are the colours that I used: Titanium white, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, vermillion, crimson red lake, and ultramarine blue.
I used synthetic taklon flat brushes and 100% cotton canvas paper.
For this tutorial I chose a simple shape in the form of an apple. It’s a shape we all know, so we don’t need to spend too much time thinking about detail, but rather focus on shape and value.
I start by lightly sketching my apple onto the paper. I also put in some shapes for the hi-light and the cast shadow.
I carefully study all the different colours I can see in the apple, and start by applying some of the yellows.
I think about every single brush stroke and am deliberate in my application. But having said that, I’m not allowing myself to overthink the process either; concentrating only on shapes and values.
You'll notice that I’m not blending the colours on the paper. I’m just picking up paint and using a brush stroke to lay it down.
I keep my brush strokes directional; meaning that I’m following the shape and curve of the apple.
To save time, I tried to stick to the larger one of my brushes. It also helped me to stay focused on painting more expressively and loosening up my style.
Don’t worry too much when you paint over the outlines of the apple; that will be corrected once you put the background in.
I’m building up the layers, mixing a new colour with almost every brush stroke. Even if it’s just a tiny bit. When picking up paint, I literally put a color on each corner of the brush, and sometimes even a third color. This is an intuitive way of painting. Trust your instinct and go with the flow. It will add to the expressiveness of your painting!
As the painting progressed, I started picking up paint and simply pressing it onto the surface, so as not to disturb the underlayers of the Gouache.
I didn’t like the look of the cast shadow at first. So, because it is Gouache, I used a clean brush with clean water, and lifted it off. I then mixed a green from the colours on my palette, which is a complimentary to red on the colour wheel, and that worked much better for the cast shadow!
As tempting as it is, don’t use plain white for the hilight areas. Instead mix white with some of the colors you already used in the apple. It will look more natural, add unity and a feel of harmony to your painting.
Backgrounds are intimidating for most artists! But I really liked to use this brush stroke technique to render the background. Again I used the colours still on my palette. (or old dinner plate in this case ;) )
I mixed lighter shades to put against the shadow side of the apple, and darker shades on the light side. This creates contrast and will make your apple come forward and look round or 3-dimensional.
Notice how I use a criss-cross wrist motion for applying the paint. I suppose there are so many ways in which to achieve this effect, but just find what works best for you!
I really enjoyed this exercise and could have fiddled for ages. But as I put my brush down, I was very surprised to see that this painting took me less than an hour to complete!
I really hope you find this video helpful in your daily art endeavours!
And as always, remember to follow your art...♥