1 Different brush effects

Depending on what type of brush you use and how hard you press, oil paint can look very different from one stroke to the next. In addition, adding thinner or medium to the paint, as well as changing the angle of the brush, will alter the texture and impact of the mark.

Note the variety of paint strokes and paint surfaces in paintings by Herbert James Draper (left) and Jules Bastien-Lepage (right). Paint applied thickly with a bristle brush – a ‘short’ paint stroke. Note its specularity. Paint applied thickly with a...