How Can I Keep My Paintings Loose?

Grab the biggest brush that you have and don't grab a smaller brush!

That's the easiest and most straightforward answer. Just keep the big brush in your hand and honestly, force yourself not to use smaller brushes. Maybe at the very end take out a small brush and give yourself a limited number of brush strokes with it. That is one of my practices.

Just keep the big brush in your hand and honestly, force yourself not to use smaller brushes.

I also step back and squint and look at the big picture, because the big picture matters more than the little details. A lot of times, we're working on small details, and they don't help. Remember that they don't make as big of a difference as the bigger shapes and the more prominent structures in the painting. And so, you don't always need as many small, small details as you might think. So, go with the big brush.



Jed Dorsey