The 5 Basic Brush Strokes for Painting

Painting and writing are a lot a like. Writing is made up of different sentence structures as to painting is made up of brush stroke techniques. There are five basic brush strokes: participle, absolute, appositive, adjectives shifted out of order, and action verbs.

Participle

In the article, Painting with Five Basic Brush Strokes, it states that a participle is ing verb tagged on the beginning or end of the sentence. Particples are what make the wrtiing more exciting, it evokes it. A participle can also end with the suffix -ed. Adding several participles can help paint more detailed pictures. Example- I like that shining star. Example with -ed – she has learned.

Absolute

Absolutes are sentence parts that describe the rest of the sentence in which they appear. They are almost complete sentences. To test them, you can make any absolute a sentence by adding was or were. Just like participles, absolutes also add detail to sentences. Absolutes are also usually attached to -ing. Example – His hands raw, he reached a flat place at the top. I used a sentence opener and we know that it is an absolute because you can fit “were” between hands and raw, “his hands were raw”.

Appositives

Appositives are noun phrases that identify adjacent nouns or pronouns. They can occur as sentence openers, subject-verb splits, or sentence closers. It can also be defined as a noun that adds a second image to a preceding noun. It expands the details in a readers imagination. It adds detail to a noun, and spices up the story. Example – One of four brothers, Craig was a moody, playful child. That was used as a sentence opener. I gave more detail on Craig.

Adjectives Shifted Out of Order

Adjectives shifted out of order amplify the details of an image. When authors want to stack an image with three adjectives, they avoid a three-in-a-row string by using a technique called adjectives shifted out of order. They leave on adjective in its original place and shift the two others after the noun.It creates a spotlight and intensifies the image. Example- The woman, old and wrinkled, smiled upon her newborn great grandson with pride.

Action Verbs

An action verb is like replacing still photos with motion pictures. Adding an action verb to a sentence can bring an inanimate object to life. There are being verbs and action verb. An action verb is like saying the gravel road curled around the left side of the barn. Curled is the action. A being verb in a sentence- the gravel road was on the left side of the barn. By replacing being verbs with action verbs, the writer is able to sharpen images.