How to Choose Brushes for Acrylic and Oil Paint

 

By Jim Hingst

 

Everyone has his or her favorite paint brushes, suited to their artistic style and selected to meet their individual needs. The objective of this article is to help you select the right brushes to help you apply paint to best express yourself.

 

In selecting brushes, include a variety of sizes. Large flat and filbert brushes allow you to quickly coat a large area, which is helpful when toning the canvas. Many artists use large and medium brushes to make expressive visual statements. Medium size filbert and round blunt tip brushes are great for initially sketching your composition.  Small brush sizes are best for rendering fine detail.

 

In selecting brushes, the general rule of thumb is natural hair brushes are preferred for oil-based paint, while synthetic brushes are better for acrylic paint. Synthetic brush hairs, which are usually either nylon or polyester, are more durable and hold up better when used with caustic acrylics. On the other hand, natural hair is usually softer.

 

In the sign industry, squirrel hair from animals from colder regions, such as Russia, is often used for quills. This softer hair holds paint well. Other natural hair, such as hog bristle, is stiffer and tolerates rough use.

 

Holding the brush hair to the handle is the ferrule. Refer to the picture below. For fine art brushes, ferrules are usually made of metals, such as aluminum, brass and nickel.

 

Flat Brushes.

The hairs of flat brushes come to square ends. Available in a variety of shapes, flat bushes are used for a variety of different applications. One of the most common uses for flat brushes are filling in large areas, such as toning the substrate, filling in backgrounds, glazing or varnishing. Some of the common types of flat brushes include flat, filbert, bright and wash brushes.

 

 

Flat brushes allow you to paint wide, straight lines, which is ideal when you are depicting buildings and manmade design elements.  With their long brush hair, flats are similar to a sign maker’s quill. By laying the entire belly of the brush on the substrate you can achieve excellent control, when you need to produce a sharp edge.

 

Several other bushes are similar to the standard flat brush. These  include:

A.  Bright

B.  Wash Brush

C.  Angled Brush

D. Filbert

 

Filbert Brushes.

Filbert brushes, which feature a flat tip with round ends, are possibly the most versitile of brushes, because you can use them to create of variety of marks. Used on its side, a filbert can deposit a thin linear stroke of paint. By comparison, the flat edge of the filbert leaves a broad paint splotch. Filbert brushes are useful for blocking in shapes, for filling in large spaces and for blending.

 

                                                                               

Bright Brushes.

 

 The tip of a bright brush is flat and square. Its shape is nearly identical to that of a flat brush. The difference is that the brush hairs of a bright are much shorter than those of a flat.

 

Bright brushes, which are similar to flat brushes but with shorter bristles, are ideal for scumbling. In the painting shown above, a copy of Mary Cassatt’s Girl Arranging Her Hair, a lighter color is scrubbed onto the surface, leaving bits of paint over a darker color.

A bright brush is also effective in dabbing on paint to simulate the texture of wool in the picture shown above. This painting is a copy of Vermeer’s “Girl with a Flute”. The technique of dabbing on paint was commonly used by Impressionist painters.

 

Wash Brush.

 

Another type of flat brush is a wash brush, which is larger than other flat brushes. After your canvas is gessoed or substrate is primed, a wash brush (shown below) is used to coat a large surface quickly. Artist will paint the background with a single color to tone a white canvas with a solid neutral color. Wash brushes with soft bristles are also good for applying glazes to large spaces.

Round Brushes.

 

Round brushes are available with two types of tips or toes: Round Pointed Tip and Round Blunt Tip. The various types of round brushes all come with a round ferrule. Round Pointed Tip brushes come to a sharp point, which makes it great for painting detail. A script liner is another type of round brush, commonly used in the sign painting field.

 

Round Pointed Tip.

 

If you want to paint very fine detail (such as the individual hairs on an animal illustration), you might invest in Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes. These round pointed tip brushes, which are made from Kolinsky sable hairs, are expensive. However, if you care for them properly, they will last a long time.

 

For detail work, you should include the following sizes in your collection: 3/0, 2/0, 0, and 1. Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes come with short handles.

Many artists believe that the hair from the Kolinsky Sable, a Siberian weasel, makes the highest quality paint brushes. The unique characteristic of Kolinsky brushes is that the ends of the hair do not fray and the brush retains a sharp point, essential for fine detail work. These brushes are expensive, with the largest sizes costing a couple of hundreds of dollars.

The above photograph shows a detail of a feathery red hat painted with Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes. Golden Open Series acrylic paints were used in this painting.

 

Natural hair brushes are also produced from other animals. Sable hair brushes, produced from the hair of other types of weasel or martens, are not so costly. Although these brushes are high quality, the hair is not so durable as those of Kolinsky sable brushes.

 

Other types of animal hair used for paint brushes include squirrel hair, goat hair and what is called camel hair. Camel hair is not made from the hair of a camel. Instead, this is a combination of different types of animal hair, such as squirrel hair, goat hair and pony hair. In the sign maker industry, camel hair is sometimes used for pinstriping brushes.

  

Round Blunt Tip.

 

These brushes, featuring a blunt tip, are useful for scumbling. Sizes that you should add to your paint set are: 0, 1, 2, and 6.

For scumbling, natural hair hog bristle brushes withstand aggressive use. These are not your only choice, and may not be your best choice for use with acrylics. Synthetic hair brushes, such as Winsor & Newton Artisan brushes, are a great alternative when using water-based paints. These synthetics are not as stiff, but they are sturdy enough to hold their shape. More importantly, because water does not affect the synthetic hairs, these brushes are ideal for use with acrylic paint, which stays wet all the time.

 

Script Liner Brush.

 

A script liner brush is another type of round brush. Used for painting fine detail, liner brushes feature long, thin brush hair. See the photo below. These brushes are ideal for outlining, producing very thin lines and signing your artwork.

 

For working with lettering enamels and urethane paints, Kafka script liners feature a combination of natural and synthetic hairs. Good additions to your brush box include the following sizes: 5/0, 2/0, 0, 1, and 2.

Script liners are ideal for outlining and painting fine detail.

 

 

Fan Brush.

As the name implies, the hairs of a fan brush splay out from the ferrule in the shape of a fan. If you are planning to paint landscapes, fan brushes are a helpful addition to your brush collection. Artists use these brushes to replicate the appearance of grass and shrubs. Fan brushes (shown below) can also be effective in blending two values of color.

Stippling Brush.

 

A stippling brush is a type of round brush, consisting of short stiff bristles (shown below). In some cases, the tip of the brush can be angled. This specialty brush allows you to apply dots of paint to create gradations of value from shadow to light. Stippling brushes also let you create transitions from one color to another analogous color. For example, you produce a color shift from red to orange to yellow. Using the stippling technique, you can also model a form and add subtle shadows.   

A stippling brush is handled in a similar manner to scumbling. In charging the brush with paint, you should hold it perpendicular to your palette. You only want paint on the tips of the brush bristles. Offload any excess of paint on the hairs, on paper toweling. With very little paint on the brush, lightly tap or dab it on the substrate, leaving dots of paint.

 

 

Cleaning Your Paint Brushes.

 

Whether you are a sign painter or an artist, whether you use oil based or acrylic paints, how you clean your brushes is similar. When you are finished painting, squeeze out the excess paint between a folded paper towel. Do not pull at the bristles of the brush or you could pull out some of the hair.

 

If you are using oil-based paint, such as lettering enamel, swish the hairs of the brush in mineral spirits. Squeeze any residual paint from the brush hairs between paper toweling. When the brush is satisfactorily clean, dip the head of the brush in a commercial grade brush oil. Before using the brush again, wash out the oil with solvent.

 

Some brands of brush oil can get gummy. If you need to, remove the oil with lacquer thinner, then rinse the head of the brush immediately in mineral spirits. Before using the brush, dry any of the residual mineral spirits by rolling the brush handle rapidly between your two hands. Be aware that any remaining solvent will spray from the head of the brush.

 

If you are using acrylic paint, after you squeeze out the excess paint in a paper towel, swish the brush head in denatured alcohol. Wipe the head of the brush clean of the paint residue. Then wash the brush hair with soap and water until it is thoroughly clean.

 

 

Storing Your Paint Brushes.

 

After you clean your paint brushes, store them so the hair doesn’t get bent out of shape. In the sign industry, many old sign painters store their brushes in brush boxes, which is handy if they travel back and forth from their shop to job sites.

In the shop, many simply lay the brushes flat in a cookie baking tray. If you are a studio artist, you can use a clean glass jar for your long handle brushes and an old mug for your short handle ones, as shown below.

 

   Other Painting Articles

Why Paint Wrinkles
Why Enamels can Dry Slowly
Why Paints and Pigments Degrade
Paint Pigment Basics
Safely Working with Pigment Powders
Physical Properties of Paints and Pigments
Troubleshooting and Preventing Paint Problems
How to Clean Brushes Used for Water-Based Paints
Blending Colors
Painting with a Limited Palette
Making Oil Paint
Oiling Out a Canvas for Oil Painting
Flesh Tone Paint Recipe
Why Yellow Ocher and Naples Yellow are Important in Painting Fleshtones
White Lead Oil Paint
Best White Paint for Oil Painting
Damar Varnish Recipe
Fat Over Lean Rule
Paint Chemistry Terminology

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About Jim Hingst: Sign business authority on vehicle wraps, vinyl graphics, screen printing, marketing, sales, gold leaf, woodcarving and painting. 

After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 190 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 500 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.  Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon. 

Slides of Jim's Artwork

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