Pocket Point – Slide that brush!

Every now and then I see painters furiously stabbing away at a painting like a sewing machine. Badabadabadaba.. on and on. Other times, the work is a little slower, but it still is a stamping motion, smash down, lift up, repeat.

There are a several reasons why this isn’t best for the painting, or the painter – especially with beginners.

Patterns in a painting look contrived, and people respond negatively to this. So when a brush hits and lifts over and over, it creates a pattern. Every bit of paint has the same look.

People like to see what an artist did with the brush, and it looks best when a brush stroke… actually has a stroke. That means the brush needs to slide along at least a little bit. And it also looks best when the strokes naturally move around other paint and objects.

Always start with something positive about the artist. You could say, “that’s a great color you mixed!” or, “Your big shapes are so accurate”.

Remember that a student probably has never heard that stabbing the brush repeatedly isn’t the best method. They may even think that arists with an expressive and loose style, work very fast; a popular misconception.

So begin with something like, “I noticed that you’re stamping your brush. There’s no wrong way to do anything, but it is much easier and usually much better looking for your painting, if you slow way down, and slide your brush a bit on each stroke.” Then let them respond. You can tell them to think about Van Gogh, and how everyone admires his work. Even Monet moved his brush, using a scumbling technique, not dabbing.

It’s not necessary to do a demo, but if you want to, just show several strokes and slide a lot on some, and a little on others. Show how to make small dabs, but with very short strokes, not by stamping the brush.

Patterns in the paint, either by brush direction or by stamping, look contrived. To prevent brush technique patterns, there are 2 things to know.

First, a brush should almost always move at least a little bit when it touches a painted surface. This is called a stroke of the brush. Even pointillism, which is a series of dots, benefits most when the brush moves in a circular motion to create the dot, instead of a stab or dab. Strokes rule.

The second, is that strokes look best when they’re all a little unique. And even better when they are going around things in a natural and painterly way. If it looks like a painter was deliberately making the strokes always follow a rule of some sort, then it doesn’t look like the artist was doing what comes naturally, but trying to add a gimmick to it.