It can be a difficult experience for any artist to start their painting journey, especially going into a packed-out art shop and being completely overwhelmed with choices. One of the most crucial steps for an artist is choosing the right tools; the brushes you buy can make a huge difference in your painting experience. This blog will guide you through selecting your first paintbrushes and help you understand how and what to look for in your tools.
Why does choosing the right paintbrush matter?
Choosing the right paintbrush is essential for getting the intended brush strokes for your painting. This can greatly effect the different textures, marks and shapes you can apply- ultimately determining the quality of your work.
It’s vital to select the right paintbrush based on the type of paint you are using and the style of your painting technique to get the most out of your brush strokes. Understanding the best brushes for each medium will help make your paint sessions easier and more enjoyable, leading to better practice and quicker improvement.
Types of paintbrushes
Understanding the different types of paintbrushes is important for any artist. With a vast range of shapes available, each suitable for different textures and effects, it can be hard to choose the shape you need to paint with. Here’s a basic overview that should be considered by beginners:
Round brushes– As one of the most common brush types among artists, round brushes are incredibly versatile, painting fine details, outlining, broad strokes and even washes. This range makes them a staple for any brush collection.
Flat brushes– These feature a broad shape to help lay down colour blocks with smooth, even strokes. This makes them perfect for bold strokes and filling in areas as well as larger washes and backgrounds.
Filbert brushes– Their flat belly and rounded tip make them suitable for flowing lines, painting rounded edges and colour blending. Gentle use of filberts can help create natural textures, making them popular for human or animal paintings.
Angled brushes– These are more suited towards precision work, especially painting edges and corners. The slanted hair makes it easier to see where you are painting and align this with the artwork than normal flat brushes.
Fan brushes– These brushes spread their hairs out to create a fan shape. Although they are not as suitable for laying paint down, they can create some really unique textures and blend colours together for softer transitions.
Mop brushes– These are more suited towards water-based paints as their short hairs help to create a wide belly, perfect for carrying large amounts of colour. Mop brushes are generally used for laying down large background washes and even colour application
Other brush features to consider
Before spending your hard-earned cash on paintbrushes, there are a few things to consider first:
Hair type and the paint type
The type of hair can have a huge effect on your artwork, from the stroke textures to the amount of colour that can be held. Generally, sable and squirrel hairs are very soft and should be used for watercolour, while hog hair is much stiffer and can be used for oil and acrylic paint. Synthetic hair can vary, with softer fibres being able to hold more colour and are great for watercolour and gouache, while stiffer synthetic hair is perfect for oils and acrylics. You can read all about our brush hair guide here.
Brush size
This can be very confusing, especially as sizes differ between manufacturers and there is no set size. A couple of things to bear in mind are that sizes smaller than 0 are shown as 2/0, 3/0, 4/0 (in other words 00, 000 and 0000). For a beginner, a medium-sized brush may be the best to start with as it will hold plenty of colour, while still being good for finer detail. Have a play around and find the sizes that work best for your style and artwork! Click here for more information about paintbrush sizes
Handle length
Short-handled brushes are more suited towards detailed artwork and keep your hand close to the artwork, whereas longer-handled brushes are usually used for easel painting, keeping you further from the painting and allowing more gestural strokes.
Recommended paintbrushes for beginners:
Here is our mix of brushes suitable for beginners who want to try out some new brushes:
These brushes feature an all-media synthetic hair that is soft enough to carry watercolour, but still firm enough to move heavy oil paint. This resistant hair makes them suitable for being used and abused by beginner artists and also allows you to play around with different types of paint.
Polar brushes are white synthetic watercolour brushes that are great for beginners. They’re more affordable than most other watercolour ranges and the hair colour is perfect for letting beginner artists see the paint colour that is being applied.
These brushes are perfect for starting acrylic painting as they feature a medium stiffness synthetic hair, making the brush great for moving pigment while still being precise for fine detail.
C-Hog brushes are a more affordable version of the higher quality A and B Hog ranges. They use natural hog hairs that are stiff and able to move oil paint, and the natural hairs can give some great textures.
Tips for looking after your brushes
It’s easy to get into bad habits while painting and forget about looking after your brushes. You must understand how to maintain them as damaged brushes will leave unwanted brush strokes and end up costing you a lot more money in replacements. Here are our top tips to help you look after your paintbrushes:
Cleaning
Always clean your brushes as soon as you have finished using them. Gently kneed the hairs either in water for watercolour, gouache and acrylic paints, or solvents with oil paints. This helps to pull the pigments out of the brush heads. You can read our brush cleaning guide here.
Storage
While your brushes are drying, lay them down flat so that the paint doesn’t seep down into the ferrule- this will fray the hairs and ruin your brush. Once they’re completely dry, you can store them upright either in pots, jars or even a mannequin’s head! Make sure that the hairs are in a place where they won’t get caught and damaged
Reshaping
Once you have cleaned the brush and it is still wet, gently pull the hairs back to shape. Once they dry, they will be nicely shaped.
Picking the right paintbrush is a key step for anyone starting out painting. Understanding the different shapes brushes come in, hair types and paint types can have a huge effect on your painting experience. We hope that this journal has given you a nice guide to choosing your brushes, and remember, have a play around and find what works for you.
Johnny Thompson
As marketing lead, Johnny oversees blog editing, social media content and artist collaborations. His background includes paintbrush manufacturing and a degree in Business Management Practice from Leeds Beckett University
