Achieving Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal and Curved Strokes in Painting

An artist needs to understand that there are different kinds of brushstrokes available for use when painting. This is essential in achieving different textures and real life effects within a painting.

When you use different brush strokes, you should expect to achieve different results, and this helps you alternate between heavy and light pressure strokes when painting.

Here are the basic brush strokes that you can use in painting.

Smooth brush strokes: Smooth brush strokes can be either vertical horizontal or angular. You can use them to portray solid or hard surfaces with straight lines like buildings and floors. What you need to do here is to load a round brush with thin consistency oil paint, and then glide then brush across the surface while maintaining an even line to the end of the stroke.

Vertical Strokes: You can achieve vertical brush strokes by dabbing the painting surface in vertical strokes as the name suggests. You use upward and or downward brush motions to depict surfaces like grass or fringe details.

Curved Strokes: Curved or semicircular strokes are great for organic objects and painting the sky. You can use a flat brush and dab the paint using semicircular movements. If you want to achieve a more textured appearance, you should use more paint. On the other hand, to get the smoother appearance, simply use less paint.

Diagonal strokes: You can achieve parallel diagonal strokes by using a flat brush. You get the lines by stroking the brush diagonally with the brush tip. The strokes form straight lines, arcs, diagonal lines and are great for expressing animal fur. To get realistic effects, give the strokes variable lengths.

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Trying different strokes

There are many ways that you can try different strokes to make a canvas painting fanciful. The best way to try out the different methods like glazing is to try them out with an old painting. If this is not your first time painting, you probably have a canvas that turned out poorly and you are wondering what to do with it. Here are tips and tricks that you can use to make an old unwanted piece of art into something decent again.

Assess the overall painting: If the image or painting requires correction, you can begin the project immediately and make the required changes in the images and drawings along the way. Using a discarded project as a learning tool on different stokes is also a great way to make use of a useless piece of canvas.

Add color to the areas requiring correction: You can begin the painting by adding color to the areas that require changes or requiring an additional layer of paint. In the painting you may begin with the area of color that is easy adjustable to make room for any mistakes, for example, a background in a still life painting.

Find a position in the painting to practice brush strokes: Within the painting, you should find an appropriate position in which you can practice horizontal and vertical brush strokes. When you are painting elements that lie flat on the ground (like roads or water), horizontal brush strokes give the best effect.

They make the surface look more flat and help create a parallel horizon line. You may use other brushstrokes if you do not have a flat object in the painting. For example, you can use diagonal strokes to enhance the appearance of leaves and flowers and improve their aesthetic texture.

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