02 Aug A Beginner’s Guide to Brushwork, Lesson #5

So far, our brushwork series has moved at a comfortable pace, allowing us to practice and improve our brush strokes. Today we are doing brushwork, lesson #5 from the book, Brushwork Elementary Brush-Forms by Marion Hudson. This lesson has us doing all of the previous brush forms in a decorative pattern.

Once again, like in lesson #4, and I’m going to assume in many of the upcoming lessons, the grid paper used in the book seems to be about 1/2″ squares. Our grid paper is 1″ square grid paper, and probably a different size overall. Therefore, unfortunately, the pattern in the book does not translate well onto my 1″ grid paper, so I had to adjust it a little, as you can see below. And like I mentioned in the previous lesson, I don’t think it’s the pattern that is so important but rather practicing all of the brush forms that we have learned so far.

Materials Needed

• The book, Brushwork, Elementary Brush-Forms by Marion Hudson (also available online HERE)
• 1″ absorbent grid paper
• Watercolor paints
• Watercolor Paintbrush, we used Princeton Velvetouch round size 6 or round size 8
• A glass of water (not used for drinking)
• A small plate for mixing paint and water
• A napkin to dry the brush

Happy Handicrafts Video: A Beginner’s Guide to Brushwork Lesson 5

Once I made my graph, I found the painting process so enjoyable. By now, if you are practicing your brush strokes at least twice a week, you should find that the process is getting much simpler and easier.

Remember one of the purposes of handicrafts is to bring beautiful things into our lives. These brushstrokes are great beginnings to painting of nature – flower pedals, leaves, and birds. That thought makes it exciting for me. I cannot wait to see the progress we are all going to make!

.

If you’re just finding us, you can get started with our first brushwork lesson and advance according to your skill. All of our videos are stored on YouTube at Happy Handicrafts. You don’t have to start with brushwork – we have paper sloyd, needle-felting, crochet, and more. Go explore and choose which playlist will be the best for you and your family! We’ll see you there!