Was painting a pine stand this afternoon (trying to salvage a canvas I started two months ago and abandoned) and I grabbed a flat brush on a whim instead of my usual tiny round. And wow. One stroke and it actually looked like pine needles. Not a hundred fussy little lines that all run together. Just... one confident sweep that did the job.

I've been doing landscapes since I picked painting back up and I never even questioned what I was grabbing. Just assumed smaller = more control = better. Turns out I was making everything twice as hard for no reason.

Got me thinking what else I'm doing wrong out of pure habit. Anyone else have one of those "wait, THAT'S how you do it" moments way later than they'd like to admit?