Big Brush Desert by Brian E Warner

From the Artist: What else can I call it other than "Big Brush Desert"? It took a bit longer than 20 minutes but not long, about an hour. It was painted completely with a two-inch brush, the largest I have, more a house painting brush than an artist's device, but I admit to using the corners of the brush for bushes and clouds. I felt a great desire to use smaller brushes and put in some detail, but managed to restrain myself. Maybe someday I'll do a really large painting with a really big brush, but not with the high-priced oils I now use.

From the Painting Guide: I love the contrast of the bright clear sky against the dunes; it gives me a feeling of the vast, wide-open blue skies found only in hot climates. The dunes are not of a color I've encountered in real life (too yellow), which makes it seem like a fantasy landscape.

Things to consider:

• Composition: The eye is easily drawn into this painting from the bottom righthand corner, towards the bushes on the left, then back to the right towards the cacti and then up into the clouds in the sky. The dune on the left is a bit bothersome; it feels like it's hiding something behind it. Given the direction of light suggested by the dunes and cacti at the back is from above the viewer's left shoulder, the front of the foreground dunes should be lit.
• Student paints: Price of materials is an inhibiting concern for most artists. For sheer experimentation consider using some student-grade paints and a recycled canvas (experiments don't need to last 100 years). Then if the results are displeasing, you can simply paint over it and start again. And if they are pleasing, you can do something similar with 'good' materials. It's important to be able to sketch with paint as readily as with a stick of charcoal and a sheet of newsprint.
• Brushes and time limits: Using the corners of the big brush for part of the painting isn't 'cheating', but if it had used it for the whole painting it would've destroy the point of the exercise, which is to force a change from the brush normally used and the type of marks it produces. As to the suggested 20-minute limit, everyone works at their own pace and what is a long time for one person is hardly anything for another. Working to a shortish time limit helps to prevent a small section being focused on to the detriment of the whole painting.