The Danish Painter

5 Proven Ways To Loosen Up Your Painting Style

Including PRO TIPS
A lot of painters are looking for ways to loosen up their painting style and
move away from a tight and detailed approach to painting.

Below are 5 ways you can use to transform your art and become more free
and expressive in your artmaking. The term “Loose” can mean different
things to different people but here are the TOP 5 tried and proven ways to
loosen up including my professional tip at the end of each step.

1.Larger Tools

One of the easiest ways to loosen up and have an impact on your style is if
you change your painting tools. If you paint using brushes then you could
try using a brush that’s much much larger than the one you usually use.
Same goes if you use painting knives.

Using larger brushes makes us unable to make/add a lot of detail and that
automatically means that we will end up painting looser and more
expressive.

PRO TIP: I use large brushes from the hardware store/paint store. They come
in a great variety of shapes and sizes and they are much cheaper than
brushes from the art store.

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2. Limited Palette

Using a limited palette = using a limited number of colors. Using a limited

palette can do wonders for your style and the way you paint. We tend to
think that having lots of options is a great thing. But in my experience setting
up limitations when we paint can make our art take a giant leap. Too many
choices can cause distraction and overwhelm us.

PRO TIP: Challenge yourself to use no more than 3-4 colors + Titanium White
and Black.

3. Layers of Paint

Depending on your painting style, layering is a great way to add some texture
and achieve a loose and abstract quality to your art. Building up layers of
paint will give the painting surface (canvas or paper) a sense of depth that
can’t be achieved in any other way.

PRO TIP: Build up several layers and let some of the underlying layers show
through. Scrape into the top layer of paint while it is still wet.

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4. Using Mixed Media

Try expanding your visual language by using mixed media in your acrylic
paintings. Acrylic colors used to be something we only got in paint tubes. But
these days there are so many new products on the market for example
acrylic markers, acrylic inks and sprays. Each type has its own advantages
and unique way of expression. Find one that appeals to you and start testing
and adding it to your work in small amounts/areas and see what happens.

PRO TIP: Acrylic inks are excellent for adding that spark of pure color and
great for spattering and glazing.

5. Lights and Darks

Pay special attention to the lights and darks in your paintings. These are also
called value contrasts. Do you have both lights and darks in your work? or
are all the values the same?

When we mix and apply paint and layers what happens quite often is that
most of our colors become similar in value and everything is sort of a middle
value. When your values are working there is no need to rely on unnecessary
detail to add interest to your painting. So remember having some of those
light lights and dark darks.

PRO TIP: Use the camera on your smartphone and change the settings to
black and white. Take a photo of your artwork. Now the values are much
clearer and easier to discern.

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Which of these 5 ways will you try out first?

Trying out a new way of painting can feel uncomfortable at first. But I
promise you that if you stick to it and try several times you will start to get a
feel for it. And with practice it will become second nature.

It’s a bit similar to learning a new language. First we learn single words and
practice pronunciation.

Then we learn to use the words in a sentence. And of course we aren’t

perfectly fluent at first. We have to practice. And practice some more.

After a while it will feel more natural and easier. Very similar to learning new
painting techniques.

So give yourself permission to try and to experiment. You can do this!

Recommended Resources

My FREE online painting videos on YouTube:

https://youtube.com/c/TheDanishPainter

My online painting courses: www.danishpainter.com