Paint and Brush - first steps

Hello everyone,

With today's post I would like to bring your attention on one of the themes, that I consider very important, if you would like to advance in painting figures.

I had this conversation with few people already, every time I got questions : How to blend? How to use this or that technique? How to glaze?...etc

The knowledge you need before trying to achieve any of these techniques is – How to use brush and paint correctly.

What am I trying to say with this!?

Let me start with paints, although knowing how to correctly use a brush is more important.

I will start with paints, Acrylics, as today mostly, we can find them with many different characteristics. And with this said we can assume that all of these paints have their own characteristics that have their differences in use.

Depending on painting technique you will use there will be paints with density that will suit more to your needs. Depending on the density and technique you will use more or less water as a medium. And for different paints you will use different formulas (paint30%-water70% or paint 60%-water40%).

Why I mention all of this!? It is something that everyone knows.

Well, my experience giving advice shows that you must know the medium you work with in order to learn how to use it in best way. Many artists do this by feeling, at first, I didn't think about this steps. But after teaching people, I learned much myself. Every step is important if you are new to this.

There are many factors that need to be explained, and a lot of practice awaits those who want to gain some skill, or master some techniques.

There are many tricks and tips how to achieve something easy and fun. But from technical side without understanding and practice there is no easy gain.

This leads me to most important advice from today's post. Brush. Brush is the medium we use to control paints, to interpret brushstrokes, to glaze, to blend.

Painting brush, as any other tool, require knowledge on using. Focus on brush movement. What can you learn from it. There is many different brush styles, What are their differences?

Brushstroke.

Brushstrokes are steps of painting, with brushstrokes you interpret and with brushstrokes you do storytelling.

Think about how to use characteristics of the brush + characteristics of the paints.

not using brush potencial

Using brush potencial

Think of this brush atribute!?

When you pull the brush, the most color remains at the end of the move...

When you pull the brush, the most color remains at the end of the move

Any of the techniques you choose or any of the paints you decide to use, most important is to practice and learn from tools and mediums you will control. Use your knowledge and use the attributes of brush and paint, soon you will get a natural feeling and advance in painting.

I wanted to share this with all of you, because most questions are based on achieving techniques that are learned in class or seen in some of our tutorials. Or with simple perception on references.

*Anegdote!

Marko and I had one student on private coaching in our studio, who set up a short deadline on painting a bust, as a begginer. First we practised and experimented with brushstrokes and paint use, on paper.

At some moment, even for our student, all of this seemed as a waste of time. Exercises and repeating. Every time he made a mistake, we would repair it and work more to find a solution...

Boring right!? (Make it fun.)

But, after he took bust in his hands and started with painting, using all of the knowledge gained from exercises he did before, he noticed the big improvement of his skills. As well as confidence he didn't had before.

Paints. Brushstrokes. References.

Understanding and practice.

By explaining this, I can't help but remember a scene from “Karate Kid" movie, from 2010 stuck in my mind, when Mr Han is teaching a kid as a everyday lesson to put his jacket on, take it down, drop, take it up, hang it to hat stand, repeating the process... Turning out that this simple routine will be useful to him as a core of his kung-fu strength and technique.

Be strong. Firm. Remember. - Practice. Learn. Use tools & mediums

Let me summarise,

Everyone who wants to make progress in miniature painting and strengthen the awareness, should get to know and understand mediums, and tools, and of course practice.

Every time we held a class, we brought something interesting and fun to our students, new perspective, in order to get their attention and have them practice and blend theory into practice.

This is only the core of painting steps. But with strengthening this core you will be able to advance further more effectively.

If you like this article, let me know in comments.

What brushes do you use, do you have different brushes for different techniques? Can you relate to this text?

Get to know your Paint & Brush

Thank you for reading!