What is loose watercolor painting?
What is a loose painting style?
There are many different approaches to art and many ways to classify these approaches. One classification system uses the labels tight and loose. Tight art is careful, detailed, representational, and highly rendered. It is a rule-based approach to painting. By contrast, loose art is carefree, spontaneous, and expressive and uses more abstraction. There are no rules in the loose approach; there are only choices. Photo-realism is an example of a tight style, while impressionism and expressionism are examples of loose approaches. The loose style is sometimes called a painterly style. The loose approach to making art is more concerned with emotion and capturing the subject's essence and puts less emphasis on technique.
I've heard people say that a loose style is a more advanced painting style. I disagree. I think the tight and loose approaches are polar opposites. They are entirely different ways of painting. Some personalities are more attracted to a loose style, while others find the tight style more appealing. Both approaches are valid, but I prefer the loose style. Below are three examples of my loose landscape style.
I have a short demo video and a pdf booklet of example landscapes (for inspiration). Both are available on my Patreon shop.
The video below expands on these ideas of painting in a loose style.