STRIPE SHOPKevin's pinstriping workshop
Paint. Play. Find your line.

A steady hand.
An untamed idea.

A place to learn the strokes, chase a design, and make a glorious mess. No grades. No deadlines. Just more things you can do with a brush.

Pick up where you want →

Start here · Acrylic on paper

Today's idea: find the glide.

A short paint experiment, a few curves, then something that belongs to you.

A little focusAs long as it's fun

A session you can bend

1
Get the brush talking

Use one brush and fresh black paint. Compare a small batch thinned with plain water against a separate batch using diluted Flow Aid. Keep the brush and curve size the same.

2
Follow a few curves

Try 5 C curves and 5 S curves. Notice where the stroke feels effortless and where it starts to drag. Reload before forcing a dry brush onward.

3
Let it wander

Turn your favorite curves into three flame or feather shapes. One quiet, one exaggerated, one completely off the rails.

Your starting point

You already have flowing strokes.

From the practice pages you shared: long C and S curves, fine tapered ends, and an interest in building bigger shapes from smaller strokes.

Our next experiments target more repeatable width, softer changes of direction, and cleaner spacing. Paint drag is something to investigate—not a verdict on your hand.

For feedback here in chat

Send a clear page photo plus: which brush, what mix, and what felt good or awkward. For movement feedback, send a short clip of a few actual strokes.

Feedback means strengths plus one or two things to try next. There is no passing score.

Paint corner

Flow Aid: a separate mixing jar

½ teaspoon Flow Aid + 10 teaspoons water
That is 1 part concentrate to 20 parts water. Distilled water is preferred. Label the jar and keep your rinse water separate.

Add the diluted solution gradually to fresh paint on your palette. Load the brush from the paint, rather than treating this jar as the paint itself.

Liquitex limits diluted Flow Aid to 25% of the color/medium mixture and says not to combine it with other additives. Test the arriving retarder in a separate batch according to its own label.

Absorbent paper affects how the mix behaves. The goal is a stroke that glides and stays useful for your design; thinner is not automatically better.

Liquitex's mixing directions ↗

Stripe Shop · Curve playground

Follow a guide, paint beside it, or ignore it. Try both curve directions. Finish with a design of your own.

C curves · make the bend gradualS curves · a soft change of directionYour idea goes here ↓