A Master’s Technique

Here’s the oil painting of the Xenophobe Pet Bird – done!

I used Van Gogh’s painting technique where he would apply paint to one half of the brush and other paint on the other half of the brush. My approach was to add a lot of linseed oil to the paint so it rains wet on the canvas. I would drag the new color through to the painted surface. What do you think?

Van Gogh mostly used a flat, filbert brush, loading the brush with paint then using short, angular brush strokes. If we look at Road with Cypress and Star (above) you’ll notice the brush strokes all lead the eye upwards and outwards. The brush strokes in the tree carry the eye upwards and the path carries the eye in an outward direction. So, to paint like this, try experimenting with angular directional lines. Go vertically, diagonally and try quick flicks of the brush at right angles. 

Having this technique in mind I used clean short and long strokes together with thin watered down paints.