Landscape Painting - Brush Technique

Everything I write and teach on this blog is strictly my opinion. I hope that it is evident by the blog's title "M Francis McCarthy" but just for the record. Everything I write here is just my opinion. Other professional artists may have contradictory advice that works for them. I can only speak and teach from my own experience.

I'm no fan of precious, over detailed brush strokes in landscape paintings. There is a landscape painting show currently running in my town by a decent painter. While her color and composition are good, I feel she's only decent because of her tendency to use lots of tiny strokes made with a small round brush. This to me is a sure sign of a beginning or amateur painter.

A Welcome Friend by M Francis McCarthy

I was once guilty of making the same error but after constant reappraisal of the work I was doing I gradually ceased using those tiny brushes. I think it's far better to imply detail with glancing indicative strokes rather than try to impersonate a camera with a dinky little brush. Every stroke needs to have it's own beauty and also serve to build a whole image at the same time

This piece "A Welcome Friend  is a good example of my technique. There are many small strokes. In fact maybe more than I would have preferred. My approach to painting is to always use a slightly larger brush than is comfortable to execute a given passage. This is one way to combat tiny brush syndrome. 

Another way is to paint with your glasses off so you concentrate on the overall more than the specific. Note: if you have great vision you can semi close your eyes so that your vision becomes blurred and periodicity paint that way for the same result.

With a larger brush, the painter is forced to produce bolder, more painterly strokes. This is a good thing. The smallest brush I ever use even for my 5x7s is a #2 flat and more often than not I use that only for certain shadow passages. 

Brush technique is a vast topic and I'm going to touch on it again in a future post. For now though just remember to use the biggest brush you possibly can. Your work will benefit immensely, immediately.