subject: painting lessons - Paint with the Brush's Other End [print this page] painting lessons - Paint with the Brush's Other End
Most brushes fall into one of two categories: rounds and flats. The liner brush is a relative of a round brush, only the hairs are twice as long. Use a liner brush to make long thin lines. Hold this brush near the end of the handle and flick your wrist to make the line. These brushes are great for drawing sticks, twigs, grass, and any long lines. You do most of your painting with the paint on the hairs of the brush. But the other end of the brush is a great tool too. Following are a couple of tricks for the other end:
Round ends: A brush with a normal round handle end can make polka dots or just a quick dot. Dip the end of the handle in paint, then touch it to paper for a dot. Different size brushes make different size dots.
You can also draw with this end. It may be jagged but that looseness may be pleasant.
Chisel ends: Some brushes have a slanted or chisel end. This type of end is a functional tool for scraping paint. When paint is wet, just before the shine is about to dry, use the chisel end to scrape away paint and leave a light line. You hold the brush nearly parallel to the paper and push off paint with the curved edge of the chisel end.
If you use the sharp edge instead of the curved edge, you'll carve a line in the paper that will fill in with paint and make a dark line. If the paint is too wet, you get the same result.
If you don't have a brush with a chisel end, try using a plastic knife or a credit card to scrape paint. This technique is perfect for quickly creating veins in a leaf or blades of grass in a field. It will look as if you spent hours painting around the lines.
