Loading the Paintbrush

• With one stroke painting you must follow the correct technique for loading a paintbrush. All you need is two or three colors of paint, a plastic palette and a wide or fan-shaped paintbrush. Choose your paint colors and place a dab of each color side by side on the palette. They should be close to one another but not touching. Drag the paintbrush through the paint. Make a couple of paint strokes on a piece of scrap paper. Then repeat the process. Your paintbrush is now loaded and ready to paint.
  
  

Move your Work

• With traditional painting, the paintbrush is moved over a motionless surface. This is not always the case with one stroke painting. To practice this technique, turn the surface you are painting in a sideways motion and at the same time press down with the loaded paintbrush. This way you can create smoothly curved lines in variegated colors.
  
  

Moving the Paintbrush

• The ways in which you manipulate your paintbrush generally determine how well your design is executed. With each stroke your design will take shape and the colors can shade themselves. For example, you can make a leaf by applying shades of green and yellow to your brush and then making two facing c-shaped strokes. To create a tree trunk, make a long wiggly line in shades of brown. The result is a realistic brown tree trunk.
  
  

Mix Colors

• You can mix hundreds of colors as you paint. To use the one stroke blending technique, place small mounds of the colors you wish to mix beside each other on your palette. For example, if you want to make orange, place red next to yellow or if you wish to blend shades of purple, place purple and white together. Load your brush and make your paint strokes. You will immediately see your colors blending and mixing.