ArtBistro

How To >> Browse Articles >> 2-Dimensional Art Materials

All You Need to Know About Brushes

Of all the items that can fill an artist’s paint box, brushes will have more impact on the quality of results than any other art supply. As the brush is, quite literally, where paint meets canvas, selecting the right brush for the task at hand is critical to realizing artistic intent.

What makes a brush good for one’s own particular painting sometimes is the same for all painters- the brush should be well-made, with a properly shaped tuft fixed in a seam-free ferrule, crimped twice to the handle; the hairs should have intact flags on the ends (the splits at the ends of the hairs or bristles that distribute paint evenly and leave an attractive texture on the paint film. However, for a specific painting, the selection of brushes needs to be appropriate to the task at hand.

The first, obvious choice is the general type of brush. The type of hair should be well-paired with the medium. For oils, the bulk of brushes should be natural hog bristle, or a synthetic substitute. Bristle has sufficient stiffness to retain snap even when fully loaded with heavy paint. Oil painters also may wish to include some small rounds with soft hair for detailed work. For acrylics, however, synthetics are the best choice due to their resistance to water. The range in quality for synthetic brushes is quite broad, so look for similar properties to those used when choosing bristle brushes- shape, natural-looking flags, good crimping of seamless ferrule to handle.

Watercolorists require altogether different types of brushes, for a medium more responsive than any other to the brush. The very best brushes for watercolor are Kolinsky Sable; a genuine Kolinsky brush combines durability, sensitivity and a gradual, regular distribution of paint like no substitute. Every watercolor kit should contain at least one Kolinsky brush. However, if the cost of an entire Kolinsky brush set is prohibitive, a broad range of substitutes are available.

Red Sable is a natural hair, from other animal sources (usually weasel) that performs acceptably well where absolute responsiveness is not an issue (broadly wetting the paper, dropping in color). Sabeline is a dyed animal hair (sometimes ox or squirrel) intended to look like Kolinsky. Sablette, depending on manufacturer is either entirely synthetic, or blended synthetic and natural hair, intended to give the benefits of both types of hair in the same brush. Sablette is good for long painting sessions where an entirely natural brush would become waterlogged and lose snap.

Nylon and Taklon are common synthetic sable substitutes. Both hold their shapes well, but not all synthetic hairs taper properly or distribute paint smoothly. The best synthetics for watercolor will have a subtle roughening or “cuticle” imposed on the surface to hold paint more like real hair. Ox and squirrel brushes are economical choices for large brushes to wet the paper and broadly spread paint. Camel hair is a generic term for mixed natural hair of non-specific source, best left for craft applications only.

Beyond the basic type of brush, the artist should have a variety of sizes and styles that allow all possible types of markmaking and paint manipulation. Choose sizes of brush in scale with the dimensions of the painting, considering these questions: Will it be possible to achieve the desired coverage in a quick application? Will visible brushstrokes be descriptive of the forms on the picture? Can I load enough paint in the brush not to need to reload too frequently? Can I make the marks I need, from detailed to broad?

The main types of brushes in the contemporary studio are: flat (long hairs slightly tapered, flat edge; good for broad coverage); bright (a short-haired flat good for driving paint into the weave of the canvas); round (a pointed brush, for detail and continuous lines); and filbert (a flat brush with a domed edge; good coverage, making some detail work possible). Watercolorists generally use short handled small, medium and round brushes, and a variety of wider flats for most tasks, but can also use riggers (extra-long-haired rounds for long, continuous lines), cat’s tongues (short-handled filberts), mops (squirrel hair brushes for broad wetting, stippling and diffusing) and a number of others, including Asian styles like Hake and Sumi brushes. Oil and acrylic painters sometimes use egberts (extra long-haired filberts), sash brushes (short-handled, thick rounds) and flat gesso brushes.

Beginners especially need the best brushes they can afford, because a good brush is much easier to control. Keeping multiples of a favorite style helps keep colors from polluting one another (keep a separate brush just for yellow and white) and reduces wear on any single brush. In general, one cannot have too many brushes, nor can they be of too good quality. The effect on your paintings will confirm this statement 100 per cent.

All about Dip Pens

Shop for Brushes

---