How do we hold our brush when we paint? I remember years ago at a workshop watching an artist use his brush. He was going around the room touching up student's paintings. He held his arm out full length and his hand was at the end of the brush with it full length. He could make strokes of paint that brought their paintings to life. I remember the student paintings looking great to me but after his few strokes of paint they looked awesome. Years before that I was taught you should move your hand further back on the brush if you are painting too tight. Sometimes we can paint holding the brush like a baton and other times hold it like we are holding a fork and other times like we are holding a pencil. It is all in how we express it.