Planes, Trains and Painting Loosely

The secret to painting loosely is to look for plane changes rather than petals. Painting small helped me do this because there wasn't enough space to try and render each petal and still use the same size brush (number 1 usually). It is amazing what few details you need to make a flower look believable. In my workshops we use red boxes to see the planes and then use artificial roses to just add a few strokes. Seeing a geometric form before you look for anything else is the foundation and the secret for changing trains and old patterns of thought. (Sorry for this analogy- guess I'm in a silly mood.) "Roses" is 3 3/4 by 3 inches, oil on board, POR