THE FLAT BRUSH
If you are cooking, you likely have several tools at your disposal: different spoons for different jobs, different knives for different cutting needs. You COULD cook your oatmeal or fry your bacon with a teaspoon, but that's not the most efficient way to do it. Likewise, our cell phones can do some amazing things, but if I don't take the time to learn, I miss out on knowing how to edit a picture, take a video, keep a calendar, or use the GPS.
Any job has specific tools for specific occasions. For artists, one of our most valuable tools is our brushes. We can have an arsenal of wonderful brushes, but if we don't know how to use them correctly, we miss out on making our painting experience more enjoyable.
Sometimes I see a student struggling with an area in a painting that could be resolved more easily using a different brush. So I'd like to take a little time to talk about the uses of a FLAT brush. Flat brushes can be considered "wash" brushes or "brights." "Flat" has longer bristles, and brights are shorter. "Angle" brushes will have hairs that are cut at an angle, often used by watercolorists as "blending" brushes.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
I usually work with a 3/4 inch or 1 inch flat, depending on the size of the painting. If I am doing detail brick or something smaller, I'll use a smaller flat. I like the brush to have some spring to it when it is dry or wet. When it is wet, you should be able to press the fibers through your fingers to make it come to a sharp chiseled edge. You don't want the hairs to separate or have loose hairs.
USING THE FLAT BRUSH
A lot of people keep their flat brushes handy for making large washes in skies and other parts of the painting. They make short work of a smooth or graded wash. But there are other great ways to use it.
#1 PAINTING THE SIDES OF STRAIGHT OBJECTS, SUCH AS BUILDINGS
Just hold the loaded brush against the side of the object and pull the paint out. This is also great for those smaller areas that are square.
#2 PAINTING LONG STRAIGHT LINES, SUCH AS FENCE OR SIDING
Work from the tip with brush almost perpendicular to the paper. Just tapping it down makes a great line. For a fence post, hold the brush on one side of the post and drag it across the width.
#3 TRIANGULAR/CONE SHAPED OBJECTS OR FLOWERS
Hold the brush nearly perpendicular and pivot
#4 TINY DOTS OR OBJECTS
Using just the corner of the brush, you can fill in small shapes or create dots.
#5 DOUBLE LOADING
Load the left side of the brush with one color and the right side with another.
#6 BLENDING/CREATING SOFT EDGES
Using clean water, run the brush alongside a shape you want to soften
while the paint is still wet. The width of the brush provides a larger wet area for
the paint to soften and run into, creating a very gradual move of paint. Notice how the left edge of the brush catches the wet edge of the paint, while the rest of the clean water in the brush creates a wet area for the paint to run into.
#7 PALM LEAVES
Hold the brush nearly perpendicular. Pull the brush straight in a short line, then lift
in the direction of the palm leaf.
#8 GRASSES
Splay the bristles a bit by separating them with your fingers. This will make it behave
much like a fan brush. (dry brush technique)
#9 BRICK (not shown)
Use a smaller flat, depending on the width of your brick. Starting at the top of the brick, paint down
to the bottom of the brick. A "bright" brush is sometimes good for this because it has shorter bristles and retains the shape a bit more.
NOW TO PUT IT INTO PRACTICE: SAN JOSE MISSION
My youngest daughter's father in law took us to see the San Jose mission in San Antonio in 2008. I used one of my photos from that for this reference.
Below is the pattern for the San Jose Mission painting. There are some changes in the final painting: I took out the fence in front; added another pot in front; simplified some of the arches.
#1 Miskit. I only miskited the foreground trees and spattered some where I want to have some red or yellow flowers. Always use a brush designated only for applying masking fluid. Wet it, put soap on it, then dip it in the masking fluid.
Here are the ways we have used the flat brush so far.
#2: The sky
The sky is done wet into wet. I used cerulean, but you can use your favorite blue. The flat brush was used to wet the entire sky, starting with the hard edges of the building and working into the body of the sky. Then with the flat, I applied the paint to the wet paper, starting where I wanted it to be darkest, against the building. You can encourage the paint to flow into the water either by brushing side to side or by tilting the paper on its side.
While it was wet, I pulled out some clouds with a "thirsty" brush (one that has been dampened and then the water pressed out with fingers or on a cloth) and some tissue. Also, while damp, I added some raw sienna to the background trees. (around the arch on the right) I wanted them to be very soft edged and a more muted color so they would look more distant.
I then went back and painted the sky inside the arches, also wet into wet.
#3 Underpainting the mission building
I want a warm undertone for the stonework in the building. I also wanted to suggest texture early on. I used four colors: Lunar Earth, Raw Sienna, Lunar Red Earth, and French ultrmarine, because all of them granulate. Other combinations can include burnt sienna, Indian Red, Ochre, anything warm and granulating.
I wet an area and just put down warm colors all over and let them blend together randomly. I did this to ALL of the building, not paying attention to the inner lines that I will later define. After the paint lost its shine, but was not completely dry, I spattered some clean water into the area. This created a more mottled texture in the walls.
(Because I had miskit on the palms in the front and the little one on the building, I could easily paint right over the walls without trying to work around small shapes.)SO FAR, EVERY STEP HAS BEEN USING A FLAT BRUSH, FROM WETTING THE PAPER TO APPLYING THE PAINT.
Next week: Finishing the mission; underpainting the green bushes;
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