Type of Brushes

Get to know the type of brushes and their uses

As the process of art creation, one of the most important things of the creators or artists for creating the pieces of art is a PAINT BRUSH.

The paint brushes are like a magic wand – that connect the feelings and thoughts of the artist across the canvas. Some canvas needs to be detailed-oriented due to the limited space or how detailed you want to get while some of them have the larger sizes of canvas.

Also, each type of color needs to be well-selected in order to suit their properties and usages as well as the selection of the paint brushes.

Today! We, MERAKI, are here to talk about the ways to categorized 4 main properties of the artist paint brushes

1. Types of bristles

2. Shapes of bristles

3. Sizes of brushes

4. Details on canvas

Ready? Let’s get started!

1. Types of bristles

The bristles can be divided into 2 main types which are: 1. Natural bristle 2. Synthetic bristle

Then, which paint brush should you use?

• Watercolor Brush

For the watercolor painting, “water” is the most important things, so the selection of the brushes should be more focusing on the water-holding and paint-holding abilities, plus their resiliency and spring. Hence, the natural hair brushes are commonly used

For example:

Rabbit hair brush – high elasticity, good water and paint holding capacity, commonly used in fine-details canvas as well as using with the shellac and lacquer, and also providing the evenness of the paint.

• Acrylic and Oil Brush

For the acrylic and oil painting, the bristle should be strong and bold enough for holding the color.

For example:

Hog Bristle Brush – strong, have a flagged end, springy, and it can hold the amount of paint across the canvas’s surface.

• Synthetic bristle brush

Alternative type of brush that was created by technology that is similar to the natural bristle and is less expensive.

However, while choosing a brush is important, there are many factors that need to be taken into account as well. Many times, it's not always a good idea to use a natural bristle brush. At the same time, synthetic bristle brushes are not as effective as natural bristle brushes. Painting technique is also an important factor as well.

• Shapes of bristles

Shape of bristles can be divided into 2 main types which are:

1. Round Tip Brush – it can be further divided into round tip brush, pointed round brush, liner brush, and mop brush which each type has different usage methods and techniques for drawing. For example, the liner brush is often used to draw lines or to focus on detail.

2. Flat Tip Brush – it can be divided into flat brush, wash brush, angular brush, dagger, filbert, filbert fake brush, fan rake brush and fan brush. According to this, each type of brush can be differentiated by their lengths and widths

• Sizes of brushes

When choosing a brush size, it can be considered from the size of the canvas, for example, using larger brush when there is a larger canvas and using small brush for the detailed work. When sorting the size of the brush from small to large, it will be from 0, 1, 2, 3 onward. Depending on the brand and diameter, the numbering indicates the diameter of the brush, such as ½ means the brush with the half-inch diameter.

• Details on canvas

As mentioned earlier, the selection of brushes should be based on the type of work and the drawing technique since each type of brush has its own unique function.

For example:

1. Coloring that does not focus on details (on wide canvas), the water-holding and soft bristle brush can be used.

2. Coloring that required the use of line techniques, the slender or pointed tip brushes are suitable for this line techniques.

We hope that this article will be helpful for all aspiring artists out there who are still struggling with which brush should be used. Please look forward to our next article.

Reference

Tik, yuvaporn. (n.d.). Brushes introduction. อ่านเอา : นิยายออนไลน์ มีให้อ่านที่อ่านเอา. Retrieved June 24, 2022, from https://anowl.co/anowlrod/anowl-craft/brushes-introduction/