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When we first start painting, we’re so concerned with “getting it right” that we paint as tightly as we can. The result is usually a disaster – hard, over-delineated, and brittle. As we grow, we want to become more “painterly”. But how?

In my studies I copied masterworks by Nikolai Fechin and other expressive, loose painters and came to the conclusion that a major key was the treatment of edges.

Master artist, Carolyn Anderson talks about leaving “passageways” for the viewer’s eye to travel throughout the painting. In other words don’t “wall off” each area with a hard, sharp edge. The problem is that each brush mark or pastel stroke automatically creates a sharp edge. So how, and what, and when do we soften them?

If we know what we want to see, there are many routes to get there!

The most important thing I learned was to squint at the subject. With my eyes wide open all edges seem pretty sharp. As I close my eyes the last edge that remains visually sharp is my sharpest edge. I compare all other edges to that sharpest edge and identify the hierarchy. In a deep squint some edges appear “firm” some are “soft” and a great many are completely lost. So now I have a roadmap.

How to actually soften them? There may be an infinite variety of ways; here are a few:

1. Use a loaded brush with un-thinned (no medium) paint. Hold it parallel to the canvas.  Make a light stroke so the paint slides off the brush in chunks…creating a broken stroke.
2. Paint across the edge with a soft brush to break up the stroke.
3. Rub it with your finger or a palette knife to blend the two edges together.
4. Scratch across the edge with the back of a brush handle.
5. Blot it with a paper towel.
6. Run across areas with an ink brayer (a small rubber roller).
7. Drag a squeegee across the painting.

In this demo from one of my workshops, I use several of the techniques I just mentioned.  See if you can figure out which ones I used in each area.

I will cover these techniques at my upcoming workshop at the Palette and Chisel in Chicago. Here's a link https://reg126.imperisoft.com/PaletteAndChisel/ProgramDetail/3336313036/Registration.aspx