Less is more

Practice brush control through radical economy

Jan 09, 2026

∙ Paid

Last week we explored wet-in-wet, letting water and pigment find their own way and developing our intuition for the right timing.

This week, we’re looking at another foundational skill: brush control and saying more with less.

Even as I’ve progressed well beyond the beginner stage I am prone to overworking my paintings. When that wonderful fresh first wash turns muddy and trying to fix shapes just makes them worse.

What if every single stroke had to count?

That's the idea behind limited stroke painting. This is one of those perennial exercises you can do anytime you’re stuck, or just want to “have a play” with your paints.

Exercises

The idea is simple: complete a recognisable image in as few brushstrokes as possible. Once your brush lifts, that's one stroke done.

For each of the below examples, choose only one brush. But you can use multiple colours.

5 stroke ideas

Flowers: Start with the petals, and paint more than one with each brushstroke. Then a a single stroke for the stem and straight into a leaf or two. If you have a brush stroke left, add some dark into the centre.

Trees: start with the trunk. You can go up and down and paint branches all as one stroke, as long as you don’t lift your brush! Then with the side of the brush paint the foliage as big shapes.

Pinetrees can actually be painted in a single stroke.