Hillside Path

Yesterday I was looking for a subject so I could practice applying flat color with a single brushstroke. There is a corner of our hillside yard that is shaded in the afternoon but also gets some rays of sunlight through a wooden fence and vines. The strong contrasts were perfect for my purpose.

Using black Bristol paper, I began with light pastel marks to set the composition and then painted directly onto the paper. I left some of the black paper for the darkest darks. I used gouache, mixing small amounts as I went along.

Normally I use a #10 round brush and a .5″ flat brush for most of my work, ignoring my many other brushes. I was curious if the look of the gouache would change depending on the brush used and methodically varied a #6 round, a #6 flat and a #2 round for this small 7.5″ X 7″ sketch. I see that brush size and type does make a difference and will work to understand these choices.