Interesting brushwork is one of the things that makes a painting a “painting” and not a photograph. The way you apply the paint is important. For example, paint your darks using thin paint and your lights using thicker paint (referred to as “impasto”). By keeping the darks thin you prevent light bouncing off ridges of paint and destroying the dark effect when the painting is viewed. One advantage of painting lights thickly is that light bounce off the ridges of the brushstroke when the painting is viewed making the lights brighter.

For example in this painting of Segovia Cathedral in Spain, the dark shadows in the buildings at the side of the street are all painted very thinly, whereas the light hitting the gothic tower is painted with impasto paint (see the closeups below).

In this course unit

In this unit you will learn basic brushwork techniques, and how to use brushwork to give your paintings a more interesting abstract quality when viewed close up. You will learn:

• how to and how not to hold the brush
• how to use the brush to draw accurate thin vertical straight lines
• the difference between control brushstrokes and free brushstrokes and when to use them
• a technique for drawing thin wavy stokes such as tree branches
• how to prevent your painting breaking up into a series of disjointed small shapes
• how to use the carving out technique to paint complex shapes, and create hard edges
• when to use thick and when to use thin paint, and why
• how to use glazes to fix a color that is out of place, or to make your colors more luminous
• the importance of point, line, and mass
• how to enhance the surface of your painting with thick and thin passages
• how you can emphasize elements of your composition using contrast
• how working large to small helps you build a solid abstract foundation for your work

Total number of assignments: 7

Total number of pages: 26