tips for brush control

[strybe]

Hi all!!!
New to the forums really, been painting for about 9 months and i\'m pleased with results so far.
my main problem is brush control, in two ways, a) keeping a steady hand and b) actually controlling the tip of the brush for placement and straight lines.
I\'m mainly trying to achaieve slightly above tabletop quality. My main problem is I live in a tiny flat/apartment and don\'t really have much workspace, any tips at all???
Thank you!!!

 

[mabnkat]

What i do to get a steady hand is i hold the model in my left hand... brush in right and push my elbos into my hips.... or if you at a desk you could use a gel keyboard rest.

Hope this helps:beer:

 

[freakinacage]

i rest my hands on my knee. the main thing is practice though. just keep doing it and your body will learn

 

[darklord]

i rest on the desk edge, with only from the wrist up free to move generally

 

[Wren]

If you can, learn to steady your arms against your chest for general painting. Resting them on a table will work, but if you paint that way a lot you risk potential stress injuries from the pressure of the table against your elbow and that sort of thing. Also if you brace against yourself then it\'s less bothersome if pets or people nudge the table. ;->

For particularly fine work (eyes, freehand) place both elbows on the table and cup your off-hand around your painting hand. Also don\'t hold your breath. Rather, paint the stroke as you exhale. This is the same way sharpshooters shoot and when your body is steadiest.

Where possible, worry about only one side of the stroke at a time. What I mean is, when I\'m doing eyes, I paint the whites and then the dot for the pupil. If the dot isn\'t clean, I clean up around the edges. Then I paint the eyelid rims, but I only worry about where the lines are in relation to the whites. If the rest of the line is all over and the mini looks like a raccoon, that\'s okay, because then I come in and paint the skin just up to the line around the eyes and clean it up. Or on stripes as on this present, I paint one side worrying about the outside edge, then flip and paint the other side and the middle of the line takes care of itself.

I\'ve heard working on black/darklining (the dark line that defines the separation between a sleeve and an arm) is an excellent, if boring and annoying, way to practice brush control. Just painting in general and thinking about your strokes will help. I\'m still working on brush control, I\'ve relied a lot on adjusting paint consistency rather than practicing using different pressure on the brush to achieve different effects, which I\'m noticing that other painters do more.

Lastly, don\'t overlook the brush in all this. You didn\'t mention what you\'re using, but if you\'re using a synthetic with a frayed or bent tip it\'s going to be a lot harder to achieve precise results than if you\'re using a good sable brush with a fine tip. Search for \'sable\' or \'brush\' on this forum area and you should find plenty of threads with advice for brushes to try.

 

[green stuff]

Message original : freakinacage
the main thing is practice though.

This can never be said enough !

Also, if you\'re trying to do freehand (I assume this from your attempt at doing \"straight lines\"), try to decompose what you\'re doing into simple movements and always try to keep a light hand. If a mistake is made, it\'ll be easier to fix than if you applied heavily your brush .

 

[strybe]

thanks for the replies guys, My main thing with brush control is working on faces and small details. excellent tips from all and i\'m working on some of them now.
and thanks for going into detail wren!!!

for my detail work i\'m using a 10/0 rotmarder-kolinsky, natural bristles.
once i\'m done with the mini, i\'ll post it for comments.

 

[Gilvan Blight]

My personal trick is to use one hand to support the other... lets see how to describe this.

If you are holding the mini with your left hand, your palm is upwards and the mini is being held by two or three fingers. The other hand comes up and the base of the palm of that hand hits and rests on the base of the palm of the other hand. Together they form a kind of cup. Elbows of both arms rest againt the top of my belly (if not as chunky as I you will have to find somewhere else to rest them).

Hmm.. does that make sense? Lets see if I can get a picture....

Well that almost worked. I had to rest the camera on a box and shoot with my nose but maybe you can see what\'s going on. The Liquid paper would be the mini and the pen would be the brush (I\'m at work in an empty office, no one else to take pics, and no minis or brushes here).

The whole point is the one hand supports the other. I have found this works wonder for shaky hands.

 

[darklord]

i cant get the image of you trying to take a picture with your snoz!!

 

[strybe]

i like the picture and i am actually a bit of a chunky monkey, so that tip will probably help!! lol.

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Originally posted by darklord
i cant get the image of you trying to take a picture with your snoz!!

It wasn\'t easy. I wrote the post about 5 times trying to find a way to describe it, nothing seemed to work, and I a camera sitting right in front of me so taking a pic. just made sense. The problem was figuring out how to take a pic. of both my hands with a digital camera that doesn\'t have a timer function. There probably was a better way, but this worked

Glad you liked the pic. and hope it does help.