When Trekell Pro Team Artist Todd M. Casey painted red roses in a silver cup, he gave himself about 30 minutes and used only one brush: a Trekell #6 Golden Taklon Filbert. The goal was not a perfectly finished painting. It was to experiment, make decisions quickly and discover how many different marks one brush could make.
It is easy to build a brush collection and reach for a different tool every time a painting calls for a new mark. But limiting your options can teach you more about a brush, and about your own habits, than having an entire lineup within reach.
A one-brush sketch puts the focus back on the artist. Instead of switching tools, you have to adjust your angle, pressure, paint load and handling to get the result you want.
Watch Todd’s painting demonstration below.
Start with One Brush
For this quick oil sketch, Todd used one Trekell #6 Golden Taklon Filbert from beginning to end.
A Filbert combines characteristics of a Flat and a Round. Its wider body can carry and apply paint across a broader area, while its rounded edges allow for softer transitions, smaller shapes and more varied marks.
“A Filbert is a cross between a flat and a round brush, so it can give a variety of marks from dots to wide, broad strokes,” Todd says.
The Golden Taklon Filbert is also a soft synthetic brush. Todd notes that visible brushwork requires a different approach with a softer brush. When he wants more texture or a more obvious mark, he loads more paint onto the brush and applies it with a fuller touch.
That becomes part of the challenge. Instead of changing brushes when he wants a different effect, Todd changes how he uses the brush already in his hand.
Take Your Brush for a Test Drive
Todd encourages artists to form their own opinions about their tools. A brush may have a typical use, but that does not mean it has only one use.
“Take everything for a test run and do sketches like this and therefore you’ll have the knowledge of having tried it rather than relying on somebody else’s opinion,” Todd says.
A short sketch is a low-pressure place to experiment. During this painting, Todd scrubs paint into the surface, picks up and places paint, makes broader strokes and finds smaller marks within the same Filbert.
“Yes, I scrub, pick up and place, and all those fun things,” he says. “That’s the fun of different brushes, taking them for a test drive in a sketch makes it so you can see how you control it, and the marks that are made with it.”
Try changing one variable at a time. Use the flat body of the brush, then its rounded edge. Change the pressure. Load more paint. Use less paint. See what happens when you drag, dab, scrub or place a stroke carefully on the surface.
Think in Shapes, Not Details
Working quickly forces you to decide how much information a painting actually needs.
When Todd begins the roses, he does not try to describe every individual petal. He starts by looking for larger relationships of light, dark and color. The flowers need to read as roses, but they do not need to become a collection of carefully rendered petals.
That is one of the most useful lessons of a quick sketch. It asks you to identify the essential information first.
Where are the largest dark shapes? Where are the brightest lights? Which edge defines the form, and which edge can remain loose? How much detail helps the subject read clearly, and when does more detail begin to take away from it?
Make a Mark and Let It Live
One of Todd’s recurring ideas throughout the demonstration is confidence in mark-making. His advice sounds simple, but it takes practice: try to make the mark you need the first time.
That does not mean every stroke must be perfect. Todd makes adjustments throughout the sketch when a color relationship, edge or shape needs to change. But he does not want to continually edit, blend and soften every mark until the energy of the original brushwork disappears.
A quick sketch is an ideal place to practice this way of working.
Put the paint down. Look at what happened. Ask whether the mark is doing its job. If it works, leave it alone. If it does not, correct it with intention rather than endlessly reworking the area.
Balance Texture with Quiet Areas
Using one brush does not mean every part of the painting should have the same texture or level of activity.
“Be loose, experiment, try to see how many marks you can make with one brush,” Todd says.
He also recommends balancing textural and non-textural passages, comparing the process to a chef balancing a dish. A painting becomes more interesting when different kinds of marks are allowed to work together.
A thick, textured stroke can have more impact beside a quiet area of smooth paint. A crisp edge can stand out more when other edges are softened. A loose, scrubbed passage can make a carefully placed mark feel more deliberate.
The limitation of one brush forces you to create that variety through handling rather than through constantly changing tools.
Use Quick Sketches to Experiment
Todd completed this study in about 30 minutes on watercolor sketchbook paper. The temporary nature of a sketch is part of what makes the exercise valuable.
There is less pressure for every experiment to succeed. If a sketch does not work, you can learn from it and make another one. If it contains one mark, color relationship or idea you love, it was worth doing.
During this particular painting, Todd was not only testing a brush. He was also experimenting with alkyd oil paints and considering how their faster drying time might fit into future underpaintings.
A quick sketch can become a testing ground for almost any studio question.
- What happens when you load more paint onto a soft brush?
- Can you make a sharp edge with a rounded Filbert?
- What happens when you scrub paint into the surface instead of placing it?
- Can one brush make both the broadest and smallest marks the painting needs?
- Which marks feel most natural to you?
You do not need to know the answers before you start. Discovering them is the point of the exercise.
Use the Reference as Information
Todd does not treat the reference photograph as a list of instructions that must be copied exactly. He uses it as a source of information, then makes decisions based on what he wants the painting to do.
Throughout the sketch, he adjusts color relationships, shifts areas of the foreground and background and allows some passages to move away from the photograph when a different choice works better in the painting.
This is especially important in a short study. There is not enough time to copy every detail, so you must decide what matters most.
Use the reference to understand the subject. Then give yourself permission to interpret it through your own choices, your own marks and your own interests.
Leave Room for Imperfection
Quick paintings come with imperfections. Todd sees that as part of their value.
When you work in one sitting, you may leave a color slightly shifted, an edge less resolved or a brushstroke that does not match the reference exactly. Those moments can also preserve the spontaneity and human quality of the painting.
Rather than treating every imperfection as a failure, a sketch allows you to notice what happens when you leave room for serendipity.
The goal is not to lower your standards. It is to become more comfortable making decisions, accepting the marks that work and learning from the ones that do not.
Try the One-Brush, 30-Minute Challenge
If you want to try Todd’s exercise for yourself, keep the rules simple.
- Choose one brush and one subject.
- Set a timer for about 30 minutes.
- Use the same brush for the entire painting.
- Try broad strokes, small marks, scrubbing, dragging and placing paint.
- Experiment with pressure, paint load and different parts of the brush.
- Look for a balance between textured and quieter areas.
- Focus on the largest shapes and values before chasing detail.
- Do not judge the sketch immediately. Look at it again the next day.
The result does not need to be a masterpiece. If you discover one mark you love or one new way to use your brush, the exercise has done its job.
The Takeaway
Knowing what a brush is called, or what it is traditionally designed to do, is not the same as knowing what you can do with it.
That knowledge comes from using it. Limiting yourself to one brush removes some of your usual options and encourages you to experiment with angle, pressure, paint load, texture and mark-making instead.
Grab one brush, set a timer and make a sketch. Then make another one.
As Todd points out, even if you repeated the same exercise many times, you would likely get better and better at seeing, simplifying and making confident marks.
Tools Todd Used
- Trekell #6 Golden Taklon Filbert
- Alkyd Oil Paints
- Heavyweight Watercolor Sketchbook Paper
