Are you using your brush to its full potential?

🖌️Following my last video, “5-Step Process to Paint Loosely and Expressively”, some of you asked if I could go into more detail about how I hold and use my brushes. That’s a great question—because using a brush, especially a quill brush designed for watercolor, isn’t as intuitive as it seems. In fact, it's a learned skill to create consistent washes and expressive strokes with it.

In this video, I’ll walk you through some of the most common mistakes I see my students make when using their brushes—and how to fix them. Once those are corrected, I’ll also share a few practical exercises and motion techniques to help you diversify your brushwork and bring more expression to your paintings.

Also, an exciting announcement:
I’ll be teaching an online course on the 5-step process of painting loosely and expressively, through my Patreon paid membership! This will be a couple-month long process where we break down each step of the process—from simplifying your subject and planning composition, to applying color, tonal range, and finishing with expressive, painterly brushwork.

For each class, you’ll get home assignments designed to help you apply the techniques to your own subjects. Towards the end of each month, I’ll host a live Q&A session to help you troubleshoot and reflect based on your progress.

Sign up to join the program live at
👉   / inaxiwatercolor  

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:40 Mistake 1 - Not enough mixing
03:40 Mistake 2 - Holding the brush too close to the tip
04:56 Exercise - paint real shapes
06:27 Mistake 3 - Not enough diversity in brush marks
07:41 Exercise - 6 alternative ways of using the brush
09:19 Other brush types and how to use them
10:47 Patreon course announcement

Brushes used in this video (The following links are sponsored by Blick Art Materials through which I may earn a small commission for each order placed, at no extra cost to you. Earnings help sustain this channel).
Quill:
🖌️Escoda Último Synthetic Squirrel Brush - Mop, Size 18 https://tinyurl.com/52tx5p5f
Synthetic round:
🖌️Escoda Prado Tame Synthetic Brush, Round, Size 8 https://tinyurl.com/yk8az552
🖌️Escoda Prado Tame Synthetic Brush, Round, Size 12 https://tinyurl.com/2b4wwdmt
Flathead:
🖌️Isabey Siberian Blue Squirrel Flat, Size 18 https://tinyurl.com/mrybkx48
🖌️Princeton Aqua Elite Series 4850 Synthetic Brush- Stroke, Size 1/4" https://tinyurl.com/2pavtbwv

--
More about me:
Ina Xi is an award-winning painter and art educator based in the Pacific Northwest, whose work explores the themes of nostalgia, cultural diversity and collective human experiences.
Website: https://www.inaxiwatercolor.com
Instagram:   / inabear  
Facebook:   / inaxiwatercolor  

📮Subscribe to my email newsletter for painting tips, discounts and first preview of new artworks https://www.inaxiwatercolor.com/pages...
--
Music from #Uppbeat
https://uppbeat.io/t/hey-pluto/city-l...
License code: 6ERBLJ3NRV2YH6BF