Bill continues on with his Still Life by adding grape leaves. As I watched this video, I realized that even though Bill paints with such power, he uses a very soft touch much of the time. Bill knows which part of the grape cluster he wants to show and he strategically places the grape leaves in a way that features the grapes he wants to keep while covering up the ones he wants to eliminate. This is a very important lesson. Once you understand that you can cover things up as you go, it gives you the freedom to paint!

Key Points To Consider:

• Bill is still painting into wet paint.
• He takes his time while loading the Fan Brush. He makes sure that the brush is thoroughly loaded and the color is uniform.
• Notice how little the bristles of the Fan Brush bend.
• We’ve slowed the video down so you can see his strokes but Bill does this quite quickly. Quicker is probably better once you know how to do the stroke.
• As he pulls away from the edge of the leaf he begins to lift away from the canvas.
• The Fan Brush is a perfect brush for this job. The lines give the illusion that the veins or (ribs) of the leaf shows. That is what Bill called it.
• When he decided to overlap a leaf by placing one in front of the others, he went to a dark area of the canvas so the stroke would show up. Always remember you alternate between dark and light.
• At the very end, he adds yellow and white to his brush and just touches the outside edge of the leaf to highlight.

Happy Painting!

Laurie and Dawn

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