The Right Brush for the Job
I am always amazed when a new student comes to class or when I go out to teach a seminar, that when I begin talking about brushes, the students have brought the cheapest brushes they could find. There must be some significant meaning behind this but I have not quite figured it out yet. People feel they can produce masterpieces with sticks!! You must have the proper tools for any craft to achieve good results.
Having said this, I would like to explain the brushes I use. Now, this is not to say this is what every oil painter uses. We all differ but I would hazard a guess that most use high quality and high density brushes. I generally use a flat, or a bright. These words describe the length, width and thickness of the bristle. This is usually labeled on the handle of the brush. A bright is shorter and thicker than a flat but flats work just fine. Also, for general painting I will use a badger or a mongoose hair brush. Now here is where I do differ from a lot of oil painters because they will most often use hog bristle. I have moved away from that type of brush because I prefer a smoother finished product but if students bring those to class I let them use them. Then I have them try mine and 99% of them switch.
For my portraiture, I use a synthetic sable as my portraits are very smooth. Also, something I had to consider was the amount of painting I do and the number of brushes I wear out. I go through alot of brushes, therefore I use the best brush for the price and I find synthetic sables are fabulous. We need several different sizes from large to small as paintings differ and we must strive to use the size of brush equal to the size of area to paint. For example, don’t use an little #4 flat to cover a huge background; get out the big bad boy and get it done. Also, the bigger the brush for the area, the fewer brush strokes with be used and seen. A couple of Liner brushes should be included and they are thin long haired brushes used for branches of trees, squiggly lines or very tiny areas. When these start to fray open, it is time to buy new ones. These are not expensive brushes and therefore easy to part with for new ones.
Finally, I would suggest if you are new to oil painting, contact the teacher for a list of brushes needed before you go out and buy all the wrong items. I see this all the time and know it is frustrating for you the new painter and for the teacher who really justs wants you to achieve success!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment