You know in my early years as an self-trained artist I was known for photorealism - basically painting photographically.  Later I went to university and the teachers said: "do you want to be a camera?" - I realised that I was wasting my time and wanted to paint the way "Arthur" painted. The problem was that I was now sucked in toe "detail" - as a way of trying to loosen my brushstrokes I tried painting on  sytrofoam because it is virtually impossible to paint too detailed on there.  It worked and  really helped loosen brushwork. 

I will definitely enter the "my costed" thing  - always nice to see you stop by my good friend @thedark horse