Paint Brushes, Your Tools of the Trade
Brushes, paint brushes, so many paint brushes. Artist paint brushes come in many types, styles, sizes, and hairs and are created to do certain things in certain ways. Let's learn more about our art paint brushes here.
Photo by Karen Bullaro on Unsplash
About Your Brushes, Tools of the Trade
You can pay as low as $1 or $100+ for a single brush and a few dollars for an expensive set of brushes to hundreds for a set. Buy the best you can afford and take care of what you have.
Parts of a paint brush:
- Handle - how you hold it, or where you hold it from
- Crimp - where the metal is crimped, or synched to the handle
- Ferrule - the metal that holds the bristles and attaches the handle, sometimes with glue, cardboard (cheap brushes), or plastic.
- Heel - where the bristles meet the ferrule. Don't dip the paint all the way to the ferrule.
- Belly- is the middle and often the fattest part of the bristles
- Bristles - or hairs, extend into the ferrule with glue, the bristles hold the paint.
- Toe - or tip of the brush is the very end of the brush
About Brushes:
- Natural Hair Bristle Paint Brushes - made from animal hair like hog, sable, badger, squirrel, goat, pony, ox, mink, mongoose, weasel, ferret, wolf, pig, dog, or camel. Best use is for oil-based paints.
- Synthetic Hair Paint Brushes - mimic the functions of natural fibers and made from nylon, polyester or a combo. Best used with water-based paints.
- Short Handles - about 5 to 6 inches, good for watercolor, mixed media, painting at a table
- Long Handles - generally 9 inches in length, great for easel work, oil, acrylic painting.
Common Paint Brush Shape Types and More
Each brush type comes in various sizes for the artists that paint in various sized canvas, murals, and miniatures. Some will do the job better than others,
- Angle/ Slanted Shader - like a Filbert but with an angled cut toe. Very versatile, some detail work, good for creating smooth transitions and soft edges.
- Angular Flat Brush - the bristles are cut at a diagonal angle, good for curved, smooth strokes, corners, lettering, controlled lines, precision work. Also good for geometric shapes and outlines.
- Bright Brush - similar to a flat but shorter hairs.
- Cat's Tongue Brush - a flat but rounded shape with a pointy toe, is a combo of a round and a filbert. Good for detailing and covering small areas.
- Cotton Swab - when a dot of color is needed
- Dagger/Sword Striper Brush - similar to an Angle with long hairs, but slightly curved edge, used for one stroke, like painting long leaves. When turned, a thin line can be created.
- Detail Round Brush - a variation of the round brush with a shorter handle allowing more control to add those intricate tiny details. Great for lettering, highlights, fine details.
- Egbert Brush - a filbert with extra long hair often used for oil painting, thinned paint.
- Fan Brush - the bristles are spread out like a fan, the brush is for blending broad areas of paint, a good specialty brush for effects, texture, foliage, atmospheric, lines, or dots. Use depends on whether its synthetic or natural animal hair. Natural - blending colors. Synthetic - patterns and textures.
- Filbert Brush - flat brushes with a domed, or oval end (or toe). Good coverage, some detail work, very versatile. Best for soft edges, petals, clouds, blending, natural forms.
- Filbert Rake Brushes, or Filbert Grainer - a good texture and pattern making brush for feathers, grass, wood grain, beards, and hairs. Apply with a light hand.
- Flat Brush - for spreading paint quickly and evenly over a surface, has longer hairs that a Bright. It looks almost square, is versatile. Break out the flat brush for background areas, blocking in color, sharp edges, bold strokes.
- Foam Brushes - cheap and tossable. Some people use them for applying gesso or varnish just watch out for air bubbles. Could also be used for texture, streak-free base coats.
- Hake Brush - a Japanese soft, natural hair (usually sheep or goat), wide brush with a split bamboo or wooden handle. Primarily used in water color, for blending, covering large areas, applying gesso or varnish
- Long Liner Brush - elongated thin bristles round brush for fine, intricate lines. Can also be referred to as a Rigger or Sword brush if the tip is angled. Good for hair, tree branches, fabric patterns, edge accents and for calligraphy.
- Mini Liner Brush - a small, fine-tipped brush for detailed thin lines and intricate painting. Often used in miniatures and calligraphy.
- Mop Brush - "fluffy", a larger puffier brush with a rounded edge, for softer paint applications, blending, cloud making.
- Mottler Brushes - large, flat brushes with long or short handles and fibers. Often used in faux finishing techniques, murals, washes, decorative work, priming, and varnishing.
- Paddle Brush - a wide, flat artist brush with short, firm bristles and a short handle
- Quill Brush - primarily used for watercolor painting, has a long, tapered shape.
- Rigger Brush - round brush with long hairs for fine lines, or lettering
- Round Brush - both the handle and the bristles are rounded, pointed or rounded tip, long closely arranged bristles for detailed painting, line work, controlled strokes and highlights. Works best with thinner paint.
- Script Brush - very elongated Rounds
- Spotter Brush - round brush with only a few bristles
- Stencil Brush - round brush with a flat top, usually fairly stiff bristles so that the hairs don't go under a stencil.
- Stippler Brush or Deer-Foot Stippler - short, stubby rounds that are stiff to create texture like in foliage or speckles.
- Sumi Brush - another traditional East Asian brush, for ink wash and calligraphy.
- Supreme Script - good for filigree, tendrils, scrollwork, linework, borders, and highlights.
- Wash Brush - potentially the largest of the brushes in your arsenal, a wide, flat, soft-bristled brush to apply large, even washes of color, backgrounds, water, gesso or varnish.
- Note that a specific wash brush if used for gesso or varnishing should only be used when for that specific task.
- Whale's Tail Brush - is a flat brush with the bristles cut out "V" shape. Good for one-stroke effects, tulip shapes, palm trees, plaids, ribbons, and petals.
- Water Brushes - a combo of a brush and a fountain pen, a water brush has a brush head and a plastic water reservoir handle. These are great for watercolor travel kits.
Small - under size 4, best for the fine detailed work
Medium - size 4 to 6, best for smaller sections
Large - size 6 and up, great for covering large areas with paint
There are also travel size brushes available which come very handy.
For a beginner artist, only 5-7 paint brushes need to be in your arsenal. The artist should include a mixture of Rounds like a #4 or #6 for detailing, and Flats (1/2 or 1 inch Flat for washes), a Filbert for blending and a Bright for heavy color.
- If you paint in several media, you'll need separate sets of paint brushes for each. Do not intermix.
Photo by Shayna Douglas on Unsplash
Brush Care
We just cannot walk away from our paint brush info without talking about caring for brushes so that they are usable for years to come.
- We must not let any paint dry on the bristles.
- Try to not immerse the brush up to the ferrule in any paint.
- We must clean them with water frequently and immediately after its use for acrylics and watercolors, gouache, and some inks. Although water will reactivate the paint in watercolor and gouache, they still need their TLC.
- Clean between colors
- Mild soap and water, gently.
- For our oil paint brushes, we clean them with solvent.
- Remove excess paint with a paper towel or soft rag
- Brush cleaning container for specific use with oil paint brush cleaning that help a lot.
- After cleaning with solvent, brushes can then be cleaned with soap and water
- Do not leave any brush in water or solvent for extended periods of time
- It can warp the wood handle, its finish, and loosen the entire brush, wrecking it.
- We must not store "wet" brushes vertically to dry with bristles UP.
- Store paint brushes flat to dry. Reshape the head as needed.
- Resting brushes on its head will wreck the brushes shape.
- Only store dry brushes facing up to protect and maintain their shape.
Fun Facts About Paint Brushes
- The purported most expensive paint brushes are said to be the Winsor & Newton Series 7, the Kolinsky sable brushes. They are made for the hair of the Siberian weasel and are renowned for their quality and craftmanship.
- Hog bristle brushes hold a lot of paint and because they are so durable, making them popular for oil painting.
- The earliest known paint brushes date back to the Paleolithic era and they were made from twigs and animal hair.
- The sizes of brushes can vary by the brand as there isn't really a uniform size numbering system in place. Basically, the larger the number, the larger the brush. And the general rule of thumb is paint large areas with a large brush and smaller areas, a small brush.
Ruined a brush? Try these restoration ideas before tossing it
Surprising Facts About Brushes
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Author: Donna Liguria is the Blogmaster for Donna's Cave Paintings and the PWAS Artistry Spin Blog and an artist member of the Prince William Art Society (PWAS) in Woodbridge, VA. Donna specializes in acrylic paintings of landscapes, seascapes, historic locations, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com and her Donna's Esty site to shop her art.
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