Brushes

Watercolor Brushes

How to Choose a Watercolor Brush

Your brushes are your second most important tool in watercolor painting, next to your paper. But since your watercolor brush lasts hundreds of paintings and your paper only lasts one painting, it's worth investing in a good brush that suits your painting style.

While you can paint good paintings with a bad brush, it's much harder to paint well. So don't bother with bad brushes. They usually don't last long and are frustrating while they're around. On the other hand, the most expensive brush is not necessarily the best brush for you.


Handle

  • The handle should be made of solid hardwood, such as beech.
  • Plastic is a bad sign.
  • It should feel good in your hand. It shouldn't be weighted unevenly where it flops or you have to hold it at the ferrule. You want it to feel like an extension of your hand. You're going to be holding it for hours!
  • Not all brushes are comfortable for all artists.
  • Your hand size, shape and how you paint changes how you want your brush to feel.

Ferrule

  • The ferrule is the metal part of the brush.
  • It should be smooth, with no gaps for water to leech in and rot the handle. Seamless is best.
  • It should be double or triple clamped evenly. This makes for a solid seal.
  • Most Asian brushes are attached directly to their handle with no ferrule.

Heel

  • Brush hairs are clamped in the heel. You don't want to see gobs of glue here. That means it hasn't been well made.

Hair or Tuft

  • The hair should lie sleek, with no stray hairs flying out.
  • The type of hair changes the brush completely. The shape, stiffness and water retention of the hair type makes the brush. Types of hair and properties are explained below.
  • You only see about half the hair. The other half is in the ferrule for a firm hold. The tight clamp of the ferrule holds the hair in the brush, not glue, which would break down with the rough treatment we artists give brushes.
  • The hair on a good brush is shaped into place, not trimmed. Brush making is very much a fine craft, with years of experience used in making the best brushes.

Belly

  • The belly of the brush holds your water reservoir.
  • How much water stays in the brush changes the type of stroke and how long you can paint for. How it distributes the water changes how the stroke looks. Is it going to let all the water go at once or in a steady stream?

Tip

  • The part you actually paint with!
  • This is the only part that touches the paper. It must come to the type of point / edge you want.
  • Stray hairs here are a ruined brush since the tip is no longer delicate enough for a fine line.


For example, this nylon brush with a few hairs bent at the tip. Just this tiny bit is enough to ruin the brush for fine lines.

Different Brush Hairs

Different brush hairs lead to vastly different effects.

Let's start off with the fact that cold climates lead to longer haired animals whose hairs are best for watercolor brushes. That's why so many excellent brush hairs are sourced from Siberia.

Terms:

Snap refers to filling a brush with water and flicking the water off sharply. The brush should snap to a sharp point if it's supposed to have a sharp point.

Spring means how flexible the brush is at different strokes.

Can you paint a zigzag and have the brush move with your hand smoothly? Or does it obstinately remain in the shape it started at?

Different brush hairs have different amounts of spring and snap.


Heavy Medium Brushes

When Choosing Brushes You Should Consider:

Size - The rule of thumb about brush size is that big brushes should be used for large areas and loose brushwork, and small brushes should be used for small areas and details.

Material – Synthetic or natural? Soft or stiff? Find out what kind of bristles fit best your painting style.

Shape – Each shape delivers different stroke styles, and a different effect. Learning which shape to use to get the wanted effect is very important, and requires some experimenting. Have fun with it.

Make Sure You Take Good Care of Your Brushes:

You need to understand that brushes are not an easy thing to choose or to collect. A person might select and spend a great deal of money on brushes that aren't right for their particular intentions, but once you find a series or combination of brushes that suit you, it is difficult to stray from them.

From an artist’s point of view, ruined brushes just don’t do the job. Their efficiency as working tools can be critically harmed if you don’t clean and store them properly.

Bent bristles, dry paint, loose ferrule, and other nuisances can be avoided by spending some precious moments at the end of each painting session making sure brushes are completely clean and stored correctly.


  • How to clean your brushes

  • Remove as much excess wet paint from the brush as possible, either by rinsing, or wiping with a rag or other absorbent material.

  • Massage the paint out of the bristles with warm running water. If the paint started to dry already, use a stiff brush to loosen and remove any paint build-up.

  • Wash in soapy water. Massage the brush thoroughly in warm, not hot, soapy water and gently knead the bristles. I like to “brush” circles on the palm of my hand, making sure the soapy water penetrates inside the bristles.

  • Rinse and Dry. Rinse and then shake the remaining water out of the bristles and store the brush flat, make sure not to bend the bristles. The storage area should be cool and dry, away from any sources of heat.

  • How to store them

  • Always lay them flat to dry, so the water does not infiltrate the ferrule, making it loose or causing mold.

  • Reshape the bristles with your fingers, and make sure that there is enough space for them, so nothing is touching or pushing them into weirs shapes while resting.

  • From an economic point of view, brushes are quite an investment in terms of money, and unless you want your wallet to pay the consequences, you really got to protect your investment taking proper care of your paint brushes.

  • The convenience of brush sets

  • Brushes can be very expensive. To save some money, you may purchase a paint brush set.

  • Brush sets come conveniently assorted in sizes and shapes. Many sets are a lower quality, but they can still be a great choice for beginner painters, and allow you to get used to the different types and sizes of brushes without investing a lot of money into it.

  • Once you know what type of brush you like to work with, you can expand your brush collection and invest in higher quality, more expensive brushes of your choice.

Paint Brush Sets

Types of Brushes and Brush Shapes

Cleaning Acrylic Brushes

Cleaning Oil Painting Brushes