Don't squint at your painting, squint at the life scene. How do you judge the softness or hardness of an edge looking at a real life scene? Squint a bit. A Palette knife is a useful tool for making very hard edges. A Flat brush is designed to help make a hard edge. Sometimes, a few very well placed hard edges in a sky or at the boundaries of trees and other objects can help.Ī filbert brush is designed to help make a soft edge. A few hard edges elsewhere, placed in areas that will help you lead the eye around the painting is also a good practice. A few well placed hard edges is generally better than a lot in the focal area). Normally, hard edges in the focal area will help a painting. Conversely, a painting with mostly hard edges is not very interesting either. Of course, a painting that that has soft edges all over is not very interesting. It loosens up a painting and makes it visually dynamic and interesting. The eye has a tendency to fill in the lost edge and allows you to work colors from one form into neighboring forms of equal value. It may re-appear when values contrast more. A lost edge can be describes as a visible edge that becomes indistinguishable and lost when this edge enters an area of equal values. Lost edges can greatly enhance a painting if done correctly. There are three broad classifications of edges. That's one of the main differences between a picture and a painting.Įdge manipulation in a painting is a valuable tool and can help you lead the viewer's eye around the painting, taking them to the focal point, making certain areas more important, making other areas less important and preventing the eye from wondering out of the painting. Also, you will generally want to decide what you want the viewer to focus on and not allow their eye focus on whatever they want. Why? Because the eye looking at a painting won't automatically create the edges like it would in real life. You'll have to construct the softness or hardness of edges with your brush, fingers, palette knife or any effective means. In a painting, you will want to keep in mind "what type of edge do I need" for every stroke you place on the canvas (There's several things you should keep in mind, the type of edge you need is only one of them).