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.

Is there something you would like to see more of? Please hit reply to this email and let us know what you would like to learn and we will do our best to find the video clips to help you learn.

Happy Painting!

Laurie and Dawn

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