How to Load your Brush to Apply Thicker Paint

Do you find yourself not getting enough paint onto your surface? You’re not alone—this is super common for students! Here are a few easy tweaks that make all the difference:

🎨 Start with enough paint.
Make sure you're squeezing out plenty of paint from the tube right at the start. If you don’t have enough paint out, you can’t load enough onto your brush—and you’ll find yourself scraping instead of painting.

🖌️ Mix with a more vertical brush.
When mixing your paints, try holding your brush more vertically (almost like you’re stirring a pot), rather than horizontally. This helps keep the paint near the tip of your brush and out of the bristles, where it just gets lost.

🫳 Load up that brush!
When you go to grab paint, don’t be shy—grab a generous amount! Again, keep your brush more vertical as you scoop up the paint.

🖼️ Offload like a pro.
When it’s time to apply the paint to your surface, change your angle. Hold your brush more parallel to the canvas or panel. This lets the paint come off the brush more easily—instead of dragging and digging, which can actually lift paint off your surface.

🖼️ More paint = more confidence = more painterly brushstrokes!
Give these tips a try and see the difference in your paintings!