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Actually, Brushwork Starts Before the Brush Touches the Canvas – The Atelier Newsletter
Published about 1 month ago • 4 min read
A Patreon member recently told me something I hear all the time: “I never mix enough paint. I don’t know why…”
At first glance, this sounds like a quantity problem. Not enough paint on the palette, not enough mixtures prepared in advance. But in reality, it almost never is the main problem. Most of the time, the issue isn’t how much paint you mixed on your palette in advance — it’s how the paint is being picked up with the brush..
I thought this would be the perfect occasion to talk about a common misunderstanding about brushwork.
Brushwork Doesn’t Start on the Canvas
Most painters think brushwork begins when the brush touches the canvas. That’s not true : it starts before that crucial moment.
Brushwork actually starts the moment the brush picks up paint on the palette. What brush you chose, how much paint you load, how much of the bristles do you drag into the pile of paint, how many times you press the palette, how firmly you press into the pile, whether you twist, drag, or scoop — all of that determines what will happen on the canvas before you even make the stroke.
William Merritt Chase, Seventeenth century lady - 1895ca
If this step isn’t controlled, the canvas becomes a battlefield of corrections. You think you need more paint, but what you really lack is predictability.
The sad thing is : I can’t give you a set of instructions to teach you how to predict your canvas strokes from the moment you pick up paint of your palette. There is some extremely complex fluid physics at play here, it would be impossible to formulate. Plus, if there were a way to predict this kind of thing, where would the art be?
Rest assured : it’s not something one teaches but it is something one learns, with direct experience and repetition.
So you will learn, no matter what, what can help though is if you have this idea of positive vs negative brush stroke in mind.
Positive vs Negative Brush Stroke
To help you in your learning journey, I came up with a simple idea: Positive vs Negative Brushstrokes.
A Positive Brushstroke is when an area has more paint after the brush touches it than before. Ideally, that’s what you want when laying down a stroke on the canvas. You’re depositing paint, stating something, committing, building and increasing the thickness of the paint layer.
A Negative Brushstroke is the opposite: the area has less paint after the brush touches it. This usually happens on the palette, when you’re picking up paint, refining the load, or cleaning excess off the brush. However, the more creative experienced artists can find ways to use brush strokes negatively on the canvas to expand the range of their brushwork, it’s a rare thing but it happens.
The mistake many beginners make is performing negative brushstrokes on the canvas without realizing it — scrubbing, thinning, overworking — and then wondering why everything feels weak, dry, or underpowered.
We go back to our starting problem : it’s not that you don’t have enough paint mixed, it is that you are depriving your canvas of the paint it needs without knowing it.
The Palette and the Canvas Are No Different
Here’s the key idea: With this notion in mind, there is no fundamental difference between the palette and the canvas.
They’re both surfaces where paint is added, removed, adjusted, and redistributed. The only real difference is intention.
On the palette, negative strokes are your allies. You remove excess, you refine the load, you prepare the brush so that when it touches the canvas, the stroke can be positive, intentional, and controlled.
On the canvas, unless you consciously want to subtract, most of your strokes should add something. If they don’t, it’s not because you didn’t mix enough paint — it’s because the brush wasn’t prepared properly upstream. It probably means that you need to go back to the palette to pick up some more of this juicy paint your canvas is craving.
Why This Changes Everything About Color Control
Once you understand whether a stroke adds or removes paint, color suddenly becomes easier to control.
You stop accidentally draining the surface of its vitality (= pigment).
You stop thinning mixtures unintentionally.
You stop blaming the palette when the real issue is brush loading.
The In-Between is the Fun Part
The final thing to realize with this notion is that between positive and negative, there is a full range of exploration : this is where art lies and this is where style emerges.
How much paint you pick up, with what angle, how a hard you press, how fast, how soft… There’s an infinite spectrum between positive and negative strokes — from thick impasto to whisper-thin scumbles. Exploring that range consciously is how painters develop a personal touch.
If you don’t know whether your stroke is adding or subtracting paint, you’re painting blind. If you know where you want to be between those two extremes, that’s where you start to think like a true painter.
Final Thought
So next time you feel like you “didn’t mix enough,” pause for a second. Look at your brush. Ask yourself what kind of stroke you’re actually making : Positive or Negative and maybe the solution to your problem is finding the right spot in-between.
Because brushwork isn’t just what happens on the canvas. It’s a chain of decisions — and it starts on the palette.
Free Art Newsletter filled with the best oil painting and drawing tips, directly from the Atelier tradition. Timeless techniques to enjoy weekly to grow and inspire.
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