Know Your Brush: 7 Days of Floral Paintings and Explorations

1. Introduction: Your brush is your main weapon when it comes to painting. It is very important to get to know it so you can use it to its full potential. Hi, everyone. My name is Jenny Flores. I'm a creative coach and artist from the Philippines. I teach painting, calligraphy, and creative entrepreneurship in-person and online. My work as an artist usually revolves around this object of botanicals, bouquets, reeds, and different floral arrangements. Today's class is all about brushes. We're going to do a basic overview of the different types of brushes, starting from bristles, build, and most importantly, shapes. In the next seven days we will spend our time dragging, swirling, and dabbing around filbert, flat, cat's tongue, and dagger brushes. Then we will use all the strokes that we have discovered and paint this five exquisite floral compositions that I'm sure you will love. This class isn't about rules. It's all about exploring and enjoying every stroke that you make so you can use your brushes to their full potential. Whether you're a beginner artist who wants to learn how to paint or an experienced artist who wants to understand about what your brush is capable of, you're very much welcome in this class. I'm so excited to explore with you. Now let's pick up our brushes and let's get started. 2. Our Class Projects: For our class project, we will paint five beautiful floral compositions. On each artwork, we will highlight the different brushstrokes that a single unique brush shape can make. Our first project is this beautiful roses and dahlias composition, which will be done using a couple of round brushes. Our second project is an exploration of filbert brush, and we will paint this beautiful cosmos artwork as our art piece. For our third project, we will drag and swirl our dagger brushes and reduce this David Austin roses artwork using literally just one brush. Then our fourth project is this charming and lively art piece made of daffodils, which is done using a capstone brush alone. In our fifth project, we will experiment with flat brushes to make this delicate and charming, sweet decomposition. Although I'll be covering a variety of brushes in this class, you don't need to own them all to complete the projects. This is about exploring what you already have and getting to know the brushes that you're interested in buying in the future, so no need to feel pressured and buy everything all at once. When you're done with your projects, upload your completed work at the class project section of our class. Upload both the class cover image, which might be your favorite art piece from the artworks that we have created, but also upload the rest of the project so we can see all of your beautiful work and give some feedback about it. I'm looking forward to seeing your outbreaks, so let's begin. 3. Supplies: In this section, I will walk you through the different supplies that I will be using in this class. I will also share with you some alternatives that you may use if you find my supplies unavailable. Let's begin with colors. We have five main projects for this class, which means there will be a lot of colors that will be used. If you want to alter some color combinations for the paintings that we will do, feel free to do so. For this class, I'll specifically use the following colors. Undersea Green, Shadow Green, Green Earth, Olive Green, Yellow Ocher, Raw Umber, Irgazin Yellow, Van **** Brown, Sepia, Petersburg Ochre. Maroon, Mocha, Lunar Blue, Perelene Violet and Shadow Violet. I will be using a couple of brushes in various shapes and sizes for our projects. I'll be covering different brushes in this class, and you are not required to have them all to complete our projects. This is about exploring what we already have and getting to know the brush you would like to buy in the future. Again, no need to feel rushed and buy everything. For this class though, I will be using the following brushes. Silver black velvet round brushes in size 2, 4, 6 and 8. Crystal pointed oval brush in size 3, 4. Crystal filbert brush in size 2. Silver silk 88 cat's tongue brush in size 6. Golden natural dagger striper brush in size 1/4. Golden natural flat brush in size 1. Silver silk 88 chisel blender brush in size 6. For the paper, I will be using a hot press watercolor paper from Arches. This one is in 300 GSM, 7 by 10". In painting using watercolor or any medium, it is important to have some tissue paper in nearby, as well as a cup of water so you can clean your brush easily when changing colors. Last thing that we need is a mixing palette. I use a ceramic palette because it's easier to clean and for me it's cute. But the plastic palette we'll do. Now that you know the supplies that I'll use, let's go to the next topic and discover more about our brushes. 4. Day 1: Natural Bristle Brushes: When I was starting my creative journey, I didn't know much about brushes. When I go to a store, I always get overwhelmed with all the available choices. I even remember asking some artists about what brushes they were using, but the problem was I didn't ask what medium they were using, so I ended up buying the wrong set of brushes for watercolor. Five years later, after all the misadventures, thorough research, and a lot of wasted and damaged brushes, I'm now more knowledgeable and equipped to share with you everything that I know about paint brushes. Before we begin, I want to help you understand the different parts of a brush first. First is the tip, which is the very end of the brush head. Second is the belly, which is the widest part of our brush, where the most color is held. Next is the neck, where the bristles meet the ferrule. Ferrule is what holds the bristles and connects the head of the brush to the handle. Next is the crimp. An epoxy-sealed crimp holds the ferrule to the handle and helps keep moisture out. Lastly, is the handle, which is usually made of wood or plastic. This lesson covers different types of brushes. Specifically, we will dive into the different brush bristles and appropriate medium for them. Bristles are the hairs of our brush. They're actually the main part of any brush and somehow the ones that will determine the price of our brushes. Brush bristles can either be synthetic, natural, or a combination of both. Natural bristles consist of hair that comes directly from animals, mostly from sable, hogs, squirrels, and goats. There are also some brushes that are made of hairs from ox, pony, camel, wolf, and badger. Today, I'll cover a few of these natural hair brushes, show you some examples, and also let you know which of these brushes are appropriate for the medium of your choice. Let's start with sable brushes. Sable brushes are actually made of breed of weasel. The kolinsky sable is named for the area of Kola in Russia where they are usually found. The majority of these brushes are referred to as red sable brushes because the kolinsky in particular has a reddish color. The animal's long tail is used by brush makers to create the finest watercolor brush available in the market. Kolinsky sable brushes are known for their soft hairs, good snap, and pointy tips. I have an example of a kolinsky sable brush here. This one is called the Renaissance brush. As you can see, this brush has a nice big belly that can hold a good amount of color and water so you don't have to reload your brush as often. It also has a sharp tip that will surely give you a clean and pointy stroke all the time. Aside from watercolor, kolinsky sable brushes can also be used for oil paintings. However, most of the sable brushes should not be used for acrylic as this medium can be a bit harsh for the hair. If you're not sure if your sable brush can be used for a certain medium, you may check the brush details from the manufacturers. Most of them have a user guide like this to help you identify the allowed medium for your brush. It really pays to read stuff like this because brushes are really expensive. A sable brush alone can cost you 200 USD or even more, so I'm sure you don't want to ruin it in a snap. Now that we're done with sables, let's go with squirrel brushes. As the name suggests, squirrel brushes came from the finest quality of Russian squirrel hair. These brushes are really soft, and I'm telling you, it's really soft, and they are much cheaper compared to sable brushes. However, the downside of squirrel hairs are their snap. They lack spring, which makes them difficult to control. I have here a Raphael Petit Gris Pur brush, which, as you can see, has the hairs that are really soft. But take a look at it when I drag it on my paper, it doesn't go back to its original shape. I have to touch it to make it go back, which could be an extra work if you're not used to it. Though it doesn't have a good snap, a squirrel brush has got a nice pointed tip. That's why most people use them as an alternative for sable brushes. This type of brush is also best for thin mediums like watercolor and ink. They're not usually used for thicker mediums like oil and acrylic because they do not hold up well. Next on the natural hair brushes are goat hair brushes. If you are familiar with Hake brushes, they are usually made up of goat hair. Goat hairs can be either white or black depending on the goat itself. They work great for wetting paper when used for paintings. In addition to hake, you can also find goat hairs in quill brushes like this one. This is the Atelier Goat Hair quill line, and these brushes are perfect for oils, acrylics, or watercolors. They are supreme detail brushes that will last a lifetime due to the specially dressed natural hairs. When you say dressed or dressing in brushes, it means the process of cleaning the bristle material. It includes washing, picking, and combing so that the hair length is uniform and no other debris is in the hair. Goat hair brushes, like squirrels, lack snap, but they have a pointed tip as well. Last for the natural hair brushes are hog hair. Hog bristles are taken from the back part and neck part of a pig. This brush has a very snappy hair, and as you can see here, in one of my hog hair brushes, it really goes back to its original shape after every stroke. This brush, in particular, is perfectly balanced in shape, and they feature interlocked 100% chunking white hog hair bristles for maximum color carrying capacity. Hog bristle brushes carry a good amount of paint and are usually used for thicker paint consistencies like oils and acrylics. What I like the most about hog bristle brushes is they get better as they age, like wine. The bristles become softer and more responsive as you use them. As I have mentioned earlier, there are tons of other natural hair brushes available on the market, like ox, sheep, pony, badger, camel, and even wolf. But again, it pays to read the details before buying so you can make sure that whatever you're purchasing is really useful for the medium that you wanted to explore. Also, painting with natural paintbrush is surely a very expensive habit, but it is also worth pursuing. Although most of them are quite high maintenance, these brushes last decades and are very good investment for serious artists. 5. Day 1: Synthetic & Mixed Bristle Brushes: Now that we have a great overview of natural bristle brushes, let's move forward to another bristle type which is synthetic hair. Synthetic bristles are created to mimic the properties of natural hair bristles without requiring the maintenance that a natural hair brush do. Synthetic bristles are more versatile and do not easily get damaged when used for solvents are other painting chemicals. If you are an artist who's looking for a great brushes but do not have much budget displayed on natural vessels then go for synthetic ones. We can use this for so many mediums because they snap back quickly, keep their shape intact, and last use if you take good care of them which is a topic that we will discuss later on. Those synthetic brushes are commonly made of polyester and nylon fibers. There are also others that specifically come from plants and other synthetic materials. Today I will show you a couple of synthetic brushes and we will start with this one. I have here a brush called Silver white. This one is made with high-quality Japanese synthetic filaments. That imitate the natural stable. According to the manufacturer, it's designed for use in watercolor, wash fluid acrylic, inks, and dyes. This is actually one of my go-to synthetic brushes because it has a good snap but still has a great point it there. Next we have another one and as you can see, this one is called the silver sulfatate. I use this mostly on my classes here on Skillshare as well. This one is made of high-quality, multi-diameter Japanese synthetic filaments that imitate the absorbency, spring and feel of inexpensive natural hairs at a fraction of the cost. The last example here is this brush called Rubisapen. Rubisapen fine art brushes be true multi diameters, synthetic filaments that are designed to imitate the exact snap and feel of natural mongoose. These brushes are medium firm, snappy and can carry heavy bodied acrylic or oil paints. Synthetic brushes are not only expensive and low maintenance. These brushes are also cruelty free and that's one of the reasons why a lot of artists love using them. Now that we are done with the natural hair brushes, and we have also discussed the synthetic hair, let's now proceed to the third type of brush bristles which is the mixed hair. One of the first brushes I got as an artist was this silver black velvet brush. I can still remember how proud I was when I got that because I was really excited and I really wanted to get one. All along I thought it was a pure natural hair brush until a friend Broke the news that no it was just a mixed hair. I mean, not just because it's still expensive. Anyway, I learned that this brush is a mixture of natural squirrel hair and durable synthetics. The natural hair gives the black belt with a big belly that holds a good amount of color so you don't have to reload your brush as often. Well, the synthetic cares provide a slide snap that ensures the brush will always go back to its shape and will maintain a pointy tip. Remember my pure squirrel brush, it doesn't go back to its original shape because it's too soft and that's what the black velvet brush result may adding some synthetic hairs on the brush. Black velvet can be used in watercolor, gouache, inks, and dyes. Another mixed hair that I love as the golden natural blend brush. You guys can see this on my social media posts and Skillshare classes most of the time. Golden natural hair brush has a unique blend of natural hair and tapered golden background filaments. This is one of my favorite brushes because it's not too soft and that's also a reason why this one brush alone can be used in a lot of mediums, including watercolor, acrylic, and oil. If you asked me what type of brush should you get? I would say it always depends on your budget, your commitment, and your style. Whether synthetic, natural or mix, they all have their own advantages. A I guess based on the information that I shared with you today, you already have an idea of what type of brush suits you well. Even so if you still have any question or you need advice, the discussion section is always open. I'll be more than happy to help you. I'll see you on our next topic. 6. Day 2: Handles and Shapes: Now that we have a good overview of the different types of brushes based on their bristles and purpose. It's time to talk about the handles. I'm sure some of you are also curious why some artists are using long handles, why some are using short handles, and why others prepare the travel version handles. The short ones have a length similar to a pen or a pencil, something like this. They're actually short so the fields are natural when someone is using them. While long-handled brushes are something like this. As you can see, it's so long. Long handled brushes can be as long as a ruler or even more. So, long-handled brushes are often used by artists who uses ethos. They prefer them because they work from a distance and because they usually work on bigger pieces. Now artists who work on sketchbooks or paper pads usually use short-handled brushes for more control and easier close-up work. As for travel brushes like this, they're usually used by artists on the go. They like it because they can keep the bristles save and because they are easier to store. So to sum up, it's really just a matter of personal preference, whether you use a long handle or short handle or treble version brush your work would probably look the same as long as you're used to the width of your brush. Now that we already know the different brushes based on results, purpose, and handles, it's time to finally discuss the shapes. It's so easy to become overwhelmed at the great available options for brush shapes. To be safe, most of us are just sticking to what is karma and wishes from brushes. But I want to help you and educate you more about other styles available because they're really going to change the way you paint. Some will even make your life easier that you'd feel like you're cheating already. But it's true. Some or a lot of brushes out there will really change the way you paint. Some of the unique brush shapes are fan brush, liner, brush, wash brush, grass, filbert brush, deer foot brush, and a lot more. But for today, we will go through a few of the common yet sometimes overlooked brush shapes like flat brush, filbert, dagger, capstone, and the famous round brush. In the next class videos, we will go through these five different brush shapes and explore them in a more personal and meditative way. I will also share with you the other names that some manufacturer called these brushes and introduce you to their subcategories. I know you're excited to start painting, so let's get those brushes swirling. 7. Day 3: Exploring Round Brush: Finally, it's time to use those brushes. But before you start swirling, let me share with you some more information about the most commonly used brush shape, the round brush. If you take a look at the round brush, most of these brushes have a big belly and pointy tip. Of course, depending on the type of bristle used, some round brushes are more pointy than others. Round brushes can be as small as 20/0 and as big as size 20 or even bigger for some Chinese brushes. You can see round brushes in a typical form like this, which has a metal ferrule, or it can be something like this, which is called a quill brush. Quill brushes has a transparent plastic parallel that is used to hold the hair together and tighten with wire. That is it for the round brushes. Now to get to know someone, it is so important to spend time with that person, and that is the same with our art. In the next two minutes, we will spend our time getting to know what our round brushes can do. Jag it, use the tip, the body and create shapes and discovers through combinations on your own. If you have different kinds of round brushes, you can just pick one or two and do the same exploration for those selected brushes. I have here a scratch paper, which is also a hot pressed watercolor paper. I chose to use a scratch so I won't feel good doing just random strokes on it. You can also do the same so you can say paper and be more carefree in your exploration. Are you ready? Because I am. That our two-minute exploration start now. I chose to use a Size 8 round brush for my exploration. But again, you can pick your own size and your own style of round brush. Our two minutes starts now. I'm going to load my brush first with my color, and for my first stroke, I plan to try the thinnest strokes that this brush can create and then I'm slowly adding some pressure on my brush. Again, do not be afraid to drag your brush because your brush will not get damaged when you use it even if you drag it, even if you use a dry brush technique. Your brush will probably get damaged if you do not clean it after use or you did not store it well. But in using it and dragging it, there is no problem. Add a lot of pressure, swipe it, drag it, combine different mixture of strokes, stamp it, and really enjoy and discover the things that your brush can create. The thickness and thinness of the strokes that you can create would really depend on the size and the type of hair of your brush. I'm using a mixed hair that's why it's a little bit pointy compared to a synthetic hair brush. Continue doing it. Explore more. You can overlap the strokes that you have created if you don't have space anymore or you can get the new scratch paper. Also be mindful of the strokes that you are creating. Make sure you're getting to know your brush and you are discovering the strokes and not just dragging your brush without understanding what strokes did you make. Our two minutes is almost done and I hope you were able to create a lot of strokes. We still have a few seconds left. [NOISE] Our exploration phase is officially over. If you want to extend your exploration period, feel free to do so. But if you think you're good to go, let's now start painting with our round brushes. 8. Day 3: Roses & Dahlias Using Round Brush: For a round brush project, we are going to paint this beautiful composition with dahlias and roses. We're only going to use four round brushes in different sizes to paint this. I have here my Size 2, 4, 6, and 8 round brushes from silver black velvet line. For the paper, I'll use the arches hot press paper in Size 7 by 10 inches. For the colors, here are the shades that I will use, Petersburg ocher, maroon, Van **** brown, and green earth. Let's go and paint with our round brushes. Before we begin, I want you to take a good look on the photo of our project first. As you can see, the painting has four main subjects, which are two white roses and two dahlias. We will begin our painting process by painting these main subjects then proceed to the rest of the details. First, let's start with the rose. I will use the smallest brush, which is the Size 2 round brush, and we will paint the center of the rose first. In painting the center of the rose, which is also known as the core, we will just create thin strokes in C-shape. All you need to do is just press your brush, drag it a little and then lift it. Once done with the core, we will switch our brush to a medium-size brush. I'll be using Size 4 here and make bigger C strokes. We switch to a bigger brush so we can easily make bigger strokes. These round brushes have more hairs, hence they can create wider C strokes as compared to a Size 2 brush. I switch to a bigger size again. 9. Day 4: Exploring Filbert Brush: Filbert brushes are sometimes called oval brush, pointed ovals, or rounded oval brushes. This brush got its name because they say it looked like the same as the knot of a filbert tree. This versatile brush has a feature similar to flat brush but with the hair round it into an oval at the tip. This is one of the best brushes available in the market. I personally love it because it's very useful. As an artist who usually paint flowers, having a brush with a rounded tip saves me time when painting petals. Not only that, it is also best for creating soft shaped leaves. It's really a must have for me. The main brushstroke that a filbert brush can create is a broad yet soft stroke like this. If you use the side, though, it can produce a thin line or a thinner oval stroke like this. To explore more of what this brush can do, we will spend two minutes dragging, swirling, and dabbing this brush just like what we did with the round brush. Again, don't be afraid. Enjoy the process and be mindful of every stroke that you will create. Our two-minute exploration starts now. For my filbert brush exploration, I chose to use this pointed oval brush in size 3/4, but you can pick a smaller brush if you want to fill your paper with more strokes. Let's officially start our exploration period. Of course, load your brush with the color of your choice. As for me, I always use the tip of my brush first when doing an exploration because I want to see the thinnest and the thickest strokes that it can create. Next I will be doing a flat stroke like this. Guys, you don't have to follow exactly what I'm doing. I want you to explore on your own and discover the strokes on your own because it is the best way to learn and get to know your brush. Now, I'm going to use the side. Again, the best thing to do is to use all the parts of your brush so you will see the different strokes that it can create. It is also nice to do twisting like this so you can see the combination of different parts of your brush and see what are the things that it can create on one stroke. Now, this time, I'm trying to create a rose just like how I do it on round brush. But of course, since this is a filbert brush, it can help create the same beauty that a round brush can create. It has its own beauty. I'm here to discover it. I'm trying some leaves as well and then I'll be doing more thin and thick strokes to see how responsive this brush is when I add a little bit of pressure on it. We have less than a minute to explore. I hope your scratch paper is a little bit full by now. We have 10 seconds left. Twist your brush, drag it, swirl it. Time is up. I hope you were able to explore your brush and discover a lot of strokes. If you want to extend your exploration period, feel free to do so. But if you think you're good to go, let's now start painting actual flowers with our filbert brush. 10. Day 4: Cosmos Using Filbert Brush: For our filbert brush project, we are going to paint this beautiful floral composition and we are only going to use two filbert brushes. I have my three port pointed oval brush and my number 2 filbert brush. For the paper, I'll use the Arches hot pressed watercolor paper in size 10 by 7 inches. For the colors, here are the shades that I will be using, undersea green, shadow green, irgazin yellow, maroon, lunar blue, and sepia. Let's go and start painting with our filbert brushes. I want you to take a good look on the finished class project that we have here. If you observe, this composition has two main flowers which are painted using the color maroon, a couple of round fillers painted in lunar blue, and of course some leaves painting using a very nice mixture of greens. As usual, we will begin in painting the main subjects. I will use my tree fort filbert brush for the petals. We just need to do a flat stroke to paint our petals. Press your brush and then drag it down. You may also combine it with some sides strokes to add dimension on your painting. Continue adding the petals until you have created a side view cosmos flower. Once done, you may add another layer of petals with a slightly darker tone on top of the base layer. Again, this is to create depth on our painting. Once done with your first cosmos, paint the second one and place it on the lower right side of your paper. We will do the same strokes for everything starting from the base petals up until the second layer. Once the first flower is dry already, I decided to add another layer so that the texture of our cosmos will be established. As we know, cosmos is a flower with layers and textures, so adding layers on our painting as well would be great. We are done with the base of our flowers. It's time to add the leaves. For the leaves, I mix shadow green, undersea green, and Vandyke brown to arrive in this very nice vintage shade of green. To create a leaf, just press your brush and then slowly twist it while lifting it. You can also use the side of your brush to create thin leaves. It is also nice if you will add dark leaves on the base of your leaves to create depth and interest. You may add a bit of sepia to your color to create this shape. Using the same brush, use the tip of it and drag it down to create the stems of our flowers. As you notice, the thickness of my stem isn't uniform and I did that to give extra detail to our painting. We're painting in a loose style so effects like this every now and then would be nice for overall composition. To make the bottom part of our painting look full, we will add some leaves with stem. I will still use the same brush for this one I will paint the leaves but using the same method. What will be unique in this step though is we will add extra spikes on the leaves. As you can notice, I'm not adding the leaves all in the same way and this is just a style that I prefer to do ever since. If you want the leaves to look uniform, you can still do it. Again, I'm just here to guide you on your painting process and it is still best if you will add your own personal touch on each elements that you paint. Add more big leaves and you guys may use a lighter shade of color. This will create an effect that some of the leaves are at the back part. We're basically done with the base structure of our composition. The next piece, we will add the fillers and other details to complete our project. Let's begin by adding the core over cosmos. Using a small type of filbert brush. I'm using a size 2 here and the color, irgazin yellow. I will dab the tip of my brush to the center of my flower to establish the core. Do this on both flowers. For the next detail, we will add a rounded fillers. Using the color lunar blue, load your size 2 filbert brush with a good amount of color and create flat strokes on your paper. As you notice, even by just stamping the brush, we were able to create a rounded filler and that's the beauty of a filbert brush. Continue adding this strokes, still you have distributed the filler all over your paper. You may also add a little bit of water to your brush to light and the shade that you're using. For the next step, we will add a bit of depth to our floral core. Mix sepia with your irgazin yellow to create a darker shade of yellow and add the second layer on your core. You don't need to add this on all the parts of your core. Just a bit on some sides is enough. We are almost done and to complete the look of our leaves, let's add a darker shade of green and some thin strokes in the middle. This will give our plane-looking leaves some depth. Last detail before we officially put down our brushes. Let's connect the rounded fillers to the main bouquet by creating some small stems. Use the tip of your brush to do this. The strokes have to be very thin, so you need to control the pressure that you're giving to your brush. Finally, we are done. This is one of my favorite projects. I'm excited to see how your work turned out. Don't forget to post it on the project section so I can give you some feedback about it. See you on our next topic. 11. Day 5: Exploring Dagger Brush: We are done with the round brush as well as the filbert brush. Now let's go and try something not usual for some of you. A dagger brush. You may have heard of this brush before or may have seen one of it. Dagger brushes are sometimes called striper, sword or knife brushes. Though some manufacturers have a distinguished difference between each of these brushes, they all have the same general form. Long hairs with a triangular shape. Dagger brushes feral is flat like a normal flat brush, but one side of the hair is much longer than the other side. Most artists find this brush difficult to deal with because it can generate so many different brushstrokes. Use the tip of it and create long length, stamp it and create triangular shape, twist it and create rose petals. It's so true that it's a little bit confusing to paint with this brush. But true practice and exploration, you can get to know this wonderful and very useful brush and use it to its full potential. In the next two minutes, we are going to explore our dagger brushes, just like what we did with around and filbert brushes. Pick up your brush because our timer starts now. For this exploration, I will use this dagger brush in size 1,4. Let's start. Again, I start by using the tip of my brush to see how this brush reacts on light and hard pressure. Since this has a different amount of hair on each side, creating a stroke going to the left creates thicker mark compared to a stroke going to the right. If you use the body of your brush, you can also create thicker stroke like this. So it's a full big stroke like a square or a block. Using solely the tip creates very thin line like this. It is as thin as a detail brush. Now what's unique in this brush is this type of stroke, which is something like a leaf. It is best to combine the different areas of your brush to see what type of stroke they can create, because exploring the different areas of this brush gives you a lot of advantage, especially if you master it. You can easily create a rose petal using the stroke discreet c-strokes like this. Again, it's easy to create c-strokes like what we're doing for our rose petals using this brush because the shape of it is already in c. It's also nice to create small that's like this because it has thin tip and check marks like this. This is what I use when I'm creating the core for my dahlias. As you can see, it looks like dahlia petals because again, it's shape is like that. We are done with our exploration phase. Again, if you want to extend you're very much free to do so. But if you're satisfied already, let's move forward to painting flowers with our dagger brush. 12. Day 5: Austin Roses Using Dagger Brush: For our dagger brush project, we are going to paint a composition consisting of two David Austin roses. If you're not familiar with David Austin roses, this is what it looks like. I'll be using one brush for this artwork. Just one brush. I have here my Golden Natural dagger striper brush in size 1/4 and this is the only brush that I will twist and swirl all throughout this session. I will use the same paper which is Arches hot press watercolor paper in seven by 10 inches. For the colors, I will use Perylene violet, undersea green, shadow violet, shadow green and sepia. Let's begin painting. We will start by painting our main subjects, which are the two David Austin roses. We will maximize the shape of our brush as we create the core of our flower and of course, the petals around it. To begin the process, let's load our brush with the color of our choice. Mine is Perylene Violet from Daniel Smith. To create the core of David Austin, all we need to do is press our brush like this. As we notice on the actual David Austin rose, the core is somehow leaning to one direction like an LEC of a fan. That's what we're aiming here as well. To fill the spaces in between these strokes, we will add small thin strokes using the tip of our dagger brush. To build a fluffy-looking core, we will continue to add more flat strokes and thin strokes until we have reached the size of the core that we want. Just keep on combining the flat dagger strokes and some thin lines using the tip of your brush. Now that we are done with the core, I hope yours are looking fluffy as well. It's time to create the petals. For the petals, we will do some C strokes and surround our core with it until we have reached the perfect size of our Austin rose. Just press, then drag, then lift. You may also add few thin strokes in between to represent some small petals. We are finally done with our first Austin rose. It's time to paint the next one. This time, our flower will be facing a little bit upward, so we need to create a dimension. To do that we need to make the strokes for the upper part of our core longer compared to the one at the bottom part, and combining the same strokes here, dagger, flat and thin strokes. It's time to add the petals. I'm doing C strokes again, so press, drag, then lift your brush. What's going to be different here is that we will add more petals at the bottom part compared to the upper portion. Again, this is for us to create an illusion that the flower is facing upward to the left. We are done with the main subjects. It's time to add the rest of the details to complete our painting. First, let's start with the leaves. As I have mentioned in the past projects, when I paint leaves, I really don't want it to look uniform. For our dagger brush leaves, I'll just be pressing my brush slightly brushing the color to the paper and then lifting it. However you do it, your leaves will always look like leaves as long as you're lifting your brush after dragging it. Add these leaves in some areas of your main flowers. We will add more later on when we still find big empty spaces. But for now, I'm okay with these. It's time to add some smaller ones. I'll add one here. Let's make this stem then stamp our brush to make the small leaves. I'll add another one here. To make our simple composition a little bit fancy, we will add another type of leaf. I'll use the tip of my brush and create thin lines like this to create a leaf similar to pine needles. How are you guys doing? I hope you're getting to know your dagger brush even more as we paint our botanical elements. It's time to add the fillers. For this artwork, our fillers will be just simple pompom flowers in purple. I'll use the tip of my dagger brush to create the petals and we'll create very thin strokes like this. Super easy. You may refer to the finished painting on the project and resources section to see the placing of these fillers, but feel free to place it on areas that you prefer. Our composition is technically done. However, as I step back and take a good look on my work, I find some areas that are still a bit spacious. I'll be adding some layers of leaves and a bit more greenery on some areas. If your work looks full and done already, you don't have to do this step anymore. I'm finally done. I hope you are too. As usual, let's upload our works on the project section so we can give feedback to each other's work. See you on our next topic. 13. Day 6: Exploring Cat's Tongue Brush: Oh no, this one is not made of cat's tongue. No cats were harmed in making this brush. This brush is so-called because of its shape. As you can see, it has a black body and a pointy tip. This brush is also called oval wash brush by some manufacturers. When I started my painting journey, I didn't have much information about this type of brush, but when I started using it, oh my, it's like having multiple brushes in a form of one. A pointed tip that is similar to a detail brush a flat belly like a flat brush, a floppy and white side that can mimic the strokes of brown brush and more. The thinness and width of the stroke that you can create mainly depends on the type of hair that you will get and the size of brush itself. For the next two minutes, we will explore this brush and discover more of what it can do. Our timer starts now. For this exploration phase, I have here my cat's tongue brush in size 6. This is a synthetic brush, so it may not be as pointy as cat's tongue sable brush, but as you can see, it can still create thin lines. Again, I'm testing the pressure of this brush, I'm testing if it can create thin lines and thicker lines if I add a little medium and a lot of pressure. This is the flat stroke, another flat stroke, as you can see, it's a little big. Let's try the side one. This is the side stroke. It's in medium-size and I think that this brush is nice because it didn't carry a good amount of color and water. As you can see, I don't have to reload it as often. Here comes the good part. This is one of the best strokes that this brush can create. It's like a leaf. All you need to do is stamp your brush and drag it. As you can see, I was able to create leaves by just doing that. Guys, you don't have to copy everything that I'm doing here. I want you to explore on your own. But you can also try doing the same procedure that I'm making if you're feeling lost or if you don't know what stroke you should create. But I suggest that you try the different sides of your brush and if you already tried all of the sides, try combining two or three sides of your brush to see what are the combinations strokes that they can create. We have less than a minute. Be fast, but at the same time, be mindful of all the strokes that you're creating. What's important here is you get to discover all the strokes and if not all, most of the strokes that your brush can do. [NOISE] Brush down for now. If you want to continue, just do so. But if you are good already, let's proceed to painting a composition with our cat's tongue brush. 14. Day 6: Daffodils Using Cat's Tongue Brush: For our cat's tongue painting project, we will paint some daffodils. If you're not familiar with daffodils, this is what they look like. I chose this flower because cat's tongue brush can be useful in creating different strokes that is essential for this flower. For this project, I will use the Silver Silk 88 cat's tongue brush in size 6 alone. I will use the same paper as our previous project, which is the Arches hot pressed watercolor paper in size 7 by 10. Lastly, for the colors, I will use Petersburg ocher, yellow ocher, raw umber, sepia, olive green, and undersea green. Let's get started. Time to paint again. You guys know the drill. We will begin with the subject. We have here two daffodils. Then after that, we will do the main leaves, then the fillers. Let's begin with the daffodils. Since I'm using a size 6 cat's tongue brush, I have to do two strokes to create one daffodil petal. If your brush is big enough to create a petal with just one flat stroke, that would be perfect. Let's press our brush then lift it and give it a partner. I'll be making five of these daffodil petals, so here. Now that I'm done, I'll add thin lines on the petals using a little bit more concentrated mixture of Petersburg ocher. As you can see here on the actual photo of the daffodils, the petals got some texture. That's what we're trying to achieve here, thin lines using the tip of your brush. Once done with the base of your daffodil, let's go to the second one. Our second flower will be facing downward, but at this point, we don't need to change anything yet. We will add dimension later on. For this flower, we'll just do the same base petals as our first daffodil. We are done with the bases of our daffodils. We will let this layer dry up first. For now, let's proceed with the big leaves. In creating long leaves, all you need to do is use this side of your brush, press it and then drag a little longer, then lift. So easy. As usual, you may add a little bit of thin lines to add some extra detail on your leaves. Spread the big leaves on different areas of your painting to fill it up. After painting your main leaves, it's time to add our fillers. For the fillers, I chose to add some small yellow flowers to complement our daffodils. In creating this, we will just stamp our brush on our paper, combining flat and side strokes. Spread the fillers in different parts of your painting, especially on areas with big spaces. Add thin lines to connect the fillers to the main bouquets. I'm using green to connect it to my main bouquet. This is also the perfect time to add some small leaves to the composition. Do it now. The base of our painting is basically done. It's time to add the last few details before we put our brushes down. Let's start with our daffodils. Daffodils has extra yellow tube in the middle. Since our first daffodil is in aerial view, we don't need to do any dimensional effect here. All we need to do is paint yellow color like this, so I'm using yellow ocher for this one, then we will add a watery shade of the same color in the middle. For the second daffodil though, we need to show some dimension as this one is facing down. To do that, use the side of your brush and create an A-shaped tube like this. Then to give more dimension, we will get a darker mixture of yellow ocher and establish the tip of the tube. I'll also be lifting a bit of color in the middle to create highlight inside the tube. Lastly, there are some texture. We will let this layer dry again before we continue. For now, let's go back to the fillers. To make our painting extra, we will create thin lines on our fillers like this. I'm using raw umber here, but yellow ocher would also be good. We will also add a bit of raw umber at the tip of our daffodil tubes. I'll be creating short thin strokes like this and also do it on the second daffodil. But make sure that the base layer of your daffodil is 100 percent dry already before doing this step. For our final detail, we will add the last few strokes for our daffodil's fillers and we will also add a few leaves for some areas that are still empty. On this part, I want you to add your personal touch on your work. You may add extra filler in different shape or maybe some leaves in different shades of green or maybe add another type of flower. It's your call. I'm done here and I hope you are done too. I'm excited to see how you added your personal touch here, so please upload your work on the class project section. I'll see you on our next topic. 15. Day 7: Exploring Flat Brush: Basically any brush with a flat top can be justifiably called a flat brush. But after years of development, manufacturers decided to call the other flat top brush another name. Let's have a little quiz so we can check if you see the differences between these brushes. Can you guess what's the name of this brush? It's the black velvet flat brush. This one, this one is called crystal wide wash brush. Next, this is the silver white bright brush. Another one. This is called silver silk 88 chisel blender. Next and last. This is the [FOREIGN] Hake brush. Are you confused? I was too. Actually, it's still okay to call these brushes a flat brush because again, they're flat brushes. But to explain their differences, here's a quick guide for you. Bright brushes are a bit much the same as flat brushes with shorter bristles. They are useful for short controlled strokes. Chisel, blender, and bright brushes are just the same. It just depends on the manufacturer how they want to call it. Wash brushes, on the other hand, are flat top brushes that are used to wet papers. Hake brushes are wash brushes that have wooden handle and wired ferrule. That's the explanation. For this lesson, I will be focusing on a flat brush and a chisel brush. For the next two minutes, we will explore these brush type and discover more of what our brushes can do. Our two minutes starts now. To be honest, I want to explore both of these brushes, but I'll just set settle with a size 6 small brush because I want to create a lot of strokes. This is the flat stroke that this brush can create. As you can see, it's so controlled and very nice, crisp. As you can see it looks like a rectangle. It doesn't have any round the edges. This is the thin strokes that this brush can create. I actually love this brush so much because it has short hairs. It's easier for me to control it and it's so easy for me to create strokes that are clean because again, it has shorter hair. Longer hairs tend to be softer, so it's harder to control. Again, stamp your brush, drag it, create long lines if you want to because it will test how much water and color your brush can carry. Also try to create different shapes or different types of botanical elements, like flowers or leaves. Or if you are into landscape painting, try also creating mountains or stairs or ocean. Discover it in a way that it will be beneficial to you and in the style and in the subject that you're always creating. We're almost done so try to combine different sides of their brush to see what strokes they can create. This is actually the last brush shape that we will explore in our class. But if you have other brush shapes that you want to try on, like triangle brush, deer foot, grass filbert, feel free to create your own exploration about these brushes. We are done with our exploration phase. Again, if you want to extend, you're very much welcome to do so. But if you're satisfied already, let's move forward to painting flowers with our flat brush. 16. Day 7: Sweet Peas using Flat Brush: For our flat brush painting project, we are going to paint this beautiful sweet pea composition. If you are not familiar with sweet peas, this is what they look like in real life. For this project, we are going to use a flat brush and a chisel brush. For paper, again, just say the arches hot press watercolor paper and size 7 by 10. For the colors we only have yellow ocher, mocha, shadow green, and under sea green. Let's go and start painting. For the beginning stage of our painting, I will use the big brush, which is this flat brush in size 1. Then I'll eventually switch to the smaller chisel brush when I start adding details, I really wanted to achieve or somehow translate into watercolor, this beautiful combination of old rows and vintage yellow. I'll be mixing yellow ocher with a bit of mocha for the base of my sweet pea. Then at the tip of my flat brush, I'll load the concentrated mixture of mocha. For my first stroke, I will just wiggle my brush on my paper. As you notice, there's a nice pink there for my sweet pea and a vintage yellow buddy. I love how it turned out. Let's do it again. Keep on doing the same wiggly flat stroke until you have completed the base of your composition. If you want to create your own, placing a flower is the best thing to do is get an actual photo of a bunch of sweet pea in the Internet and copy the placing of that photo on your painting and that way, you are sure that no flower will be placed in an awkward location. On this space, you cannot add another layer of petals on top of your first layer, because as you notice, the layer is still very wet. What you can do though is add extra petals beside the first stroke like this. I'm sure by this time you can really see the importance of getting used to twisting your brush. I hope you are doing well in your painting and if your petals are looking weird, that's normal. Just let it be. We're done with a base layer, we will let this layer dry first, and while we wait, let's proceed to the stem. I will use the chisel brush and using its flat there, I will create an imperfect stem. You have to add some mini stems on some sites to connect other petals. This is the perfect, then add a little bit of leaves as well. Let's do it here now. To make leaves, just twist your brush a little or stamp it on your paper. Again here, you don't really need to paint a leaf that is looking like a leaf. Generally, when you paint loose, whatever is in your paper that is called the Green will be taken by your audience as a leaf. You don't really need to paint it as is. As you see all the strokes that I made here are just combination of twisty and dragging off my brush. Just be careful. My base layer are dry already and it's the perfect time to add another sweet pea petals. I'm going to do this same wiggly strokes, but I will avoid to fully cover my base layer. I know some of you might be afraid to layer, but as long as your base layer is dry, no need to worry, just keep on wiggling those brushes. Also to avoid awkward strokes, make sure to refer to your reference photo are finished painting. It's time for drying again. We will focus on adding texture later on, but since it's still wet, we got to leave it alone first, while waiting, I'll focus on adding a darker layer of stem and leaves. I mixed undersea green with shadow green to create darker mixture of green, and I'll be adding thinner strokes to one side of my stem to create dimension. If you notice here on the reference photo, sweet pea petals got a little bit of texture too. It may not be very visible to all parts of the flower, but some parts have very obvious texture. To translate that, I will stamp my brush to my petals. Just pick a very light mixture of your color and stamp it carefully on some parts following the direction of the petals. If it's leaning to the right side, lean your stamp to the right side also. As my final detail, I will add some petals at the bottom of some flowers, and I'll do that using my chisel blender brush. Just again, wiggle your brush. We are done. Congratulations for completing our last project. You know the drill, upload this on the class project section. Don't go yet because I have a bonus lecture waiting for you. I'll see you on that video. 17. Brush Care: Investment, that's how we should treat our brushes. Whether you have a natural hair, synthetic, or mixed, taking care of your brush is very important as this is one of our main tools in creating a beautiful piece of art. In this bonus class, I will share with you the proper ways to clean, dry, and store your brush so you can be sure that they will last longer and give you the absolute best painting experience with every stroke. First is cleaning. Cleaning your brush after every use is a must. Letting paint dry in brush can cause the bristles to get damaged and eventually lose their shape. There are tons of ways to clean your brush depending on the medium you use. But for today, I'll share with you the ones that I use for both gouache and watercolor. First is water. Of course, if you feel lazy after painting session, cleaning your brush with running water while massaging it will take off paint from the brush. When massaging, focus on the neck or that last part before the ferrule. This is where the paint usually sticks, and if you're done, repeat the process if necessary. Second is soap. If you're feeling more determined, you can use mild soap to clean your brushes. I personally use my liquid hand soap to quickly clean my brush. After a quick rinse with water, add a little amount of mild soap to your hand and use this to massage your brush. Again, focus on the neck or that last part before the ferrule, this is where the paint usually sticks. Repeat if necessary. Third is brush, soap, and water. There soaps specifically made for brushes and they are called brush cleaners. Well, so these brush cleaners work on oils, acrylics, watercolors, varnishes, and most synthetic finishes. They also claim to restore most hardened brushes to new conditions. To use this, all you need to do is rinse your brush with warm water, swirl the brush around the brush cleaner. Don't be afraid. Push the brush against the soap so that the color will take off. The cleanser feels like a bar of soap and it's hard but leathers up when it gets wet. Rinse the brush in warm water again. After this rinse, you immediately feel the difference in the bristles. They become a lot softer, and you can also easily reshape them to their normal point. Repeat if needed. Forth option is silicon cleaner. I guess among all the cleaners available, this one is my favorite. I have two versions of these cleaners, the suction and the cup. If you take a look at this silicon cleaner, it has texture like these, and these are actually what cleanse the brush. What I usually do is rinse my brush with water first, then I add a little soap to the silicon cleaner. After that, I swirl and rub my brush against the texture, and as you can see, the paint really come off. After this, I rinse my brush with water and voila, fresh and clean brush. Those are the methods that I use to clean my brush. The next thing is, how do we dry our brush after cleaning? The best practice is to lay your brush flat with a tissue or rag under it. This way, the excess water and even excess colors will go down to the tissue as your brush dries up. Never ever dry your brush like this because the water will go down to the ferrule and damage the epoxy barrier that holds your brush together. Another way to dry your brush is by getting a brush drier like this or storing it with a brush holder like this. In this manner, the water will surely go down to the tip and not to the ferrule. After drying, we still need to store our brush properly so we can maintain its shape and properly use it on our next painting session. Make sure brushes are perfectly dry before storing them. Also, always store brushes in a dry environment. If brushes are in a moist environment, they are susceptible to mildew and corrosion. There are tons of cases and holders available in the market for you to store your brush. But I personally use these three. First is a brush holder like this. When using a brush holder, make sure that the brush hair is on top and not at the bottom. It should be facing like this. You can also use a brush drawer like this and lay flat your brush in it. Just be sure that there are enough space for your brush when you use a drawer. Another way to store your brush is to store it in a brush case. When choosing a brush case, always remember that it must be wearable. The best type of brush case are canvas or leather. Just remember, do not store your brush on areas that stay moist unless you want molds to welcome you on your next painting session. Before I end this topic, I also want to remind you not to leave your brushes on your water cup while painting, like this. Leaving brushes in fluid for extended periods of time can damage the brush. Fluids sieves into the ferrule, that slides to the epoxy barrier. Then the fluid will eventually go to the handle and damage to whole brush. Again, brushes are expensive so we must take good care of them. 18. Processing The Lessons: I have mentioned this a lot of times already. To get to know someone you have to spend time with that person. That's the same when it comes to your art. The lessons that I've shared with you in this class are just introductions of what your brushes can do. As you spend more time jogging, spilling, and dabbing them. You'll discover so much more and possibly develop your own painting style through them. But that's for another lesson. For now, I really encourage you to continue painting. If you find yourself struggling with one or two brushes, don't let frustration get in the way. Continue trying and experimenting with that brush, until you find your group and get used to it. On the other hand, if you decide that this brush isn't something that you want to work with in the future. Feel free to skip it and focus on getting to know what you feel would be helpful with your painting style. If you have any questions or if you struggle with any of your brushes, or maybe want some advice about the brush that you're planning to get. Feel free to leave your question on the discussion tab. I'd be honored to help you and guide you. Thank you, and I'll see you on our next video. 19. Final Thoughts: Finally, we are done with the class. Thank you so much for joining me and well done for finishing the lessons. I hope you learned and enjoyed as much as I did and I hope you get to know your brush better through this class. I am very excited to see the projects that you have created so please take some photos of your paintings and upload them into the project section of our class. I would love to give some personal feedback on your work. If you found this class helpful, I hope you can leave a review in the review section. Let me know if this class met your expectation, what you enjoy the most and what can be improved. All of your suggestion would be very valuable to me as I make my future classes. Also, don't forget to follow me here on Skillshare, so you get notified about my upcoming classes and giveaways. You can also follow me on Instagram to get instant updates about my latest works and events. Lastly, feel free to share your project on Instagram and Instagram stories and tag me @jennyfloresart and Skillshares Instagram @skillshare. I will surely share your work with my community. I hope you loved this class and learned something new. Thank you so much for joining and I'll see you on the next one.Bye.