1. Best Kind Of Paint Brushes For Acrylic Paint
2. Acrylic Paint And Brushes

Grumbacher Goldenedge Acrylic Paint Brush. Grumbacher is one of the most famous brands when. Watercolor brushes. Watercolorists use soft, short-handled brushes in many of the same shapes that oil and acrylic painters use, with two notable additions: the wash and the mop brush.

All types of paint brushes are featured here as well as a brief description of their main purpose.

Thanks to Heinz Jordan & Company™ as well as Loew Cornell™ for supplying images of their fine line of art paint brushes.

We've also created a section for proper care and maintenanceof your brushes. We hope you'll find the information useful.

Flats are the types of paint brushes you’ll use the most often in your painting projects. You’ll use them for basecoating, floating, strokework, blending, washes and varnishing.

As you can see, they’re very versatile.

A filbert is a flat brush but it has a chiseled rounded edge instead of a straight one. Sort of like a cat’s tongue. When you look at the brush from the chiseled edge, the hairs should form an even oval edge.

As a tool for basecoating, these types of paint brushes can't be beat! The shape of the hairs eliminates ridges. It can be used for side-loading similarly to a flat brush to create shades and highlights.

It's also used for blending. And because it can hold a fair amount of water, it’s also great for applying washes of color. And lastly, because of its shape it’s perfectly suited for doing leaves, flower petals and bird feathers.

Take a look at my video tutorial on how to use a Filbert.

Also a part of the Flat family of brushes, the hairs here are much shorter. These types of paint brushes won’t hold enough paint for doing flowing strokes. They are very good though for blending paint, cleaning up messy edges and for other special techniques.

A brush by any other name..... This one is also a Flat but it has an angular chisel or brush tip. This means it will hold less paint and water, so you can’t get good continuous flow.

On the very positive side, this is THE brush for doing tight shading and highlighting. And it is especially coveted by artists who love to paint roses and flowers because they can get into all those little nooks and crannies. So, if you’re painting a realistic rose, consider trying this brush. But for long floats or strokework... not the right choice... best to use a flat.

These types of paint brushes come in many sizes; The smallest being a 20/0 and climbing all the way up to size #10. Mostly they are used for strokework and watercolor. This one is invaluable as a teaching tool for perfecting brush control.

Learning to use this brush for traditional strokework will provide a very strong foundation for all your painting efforts. Strokework is beautiful so mastering it is worth the time and practice.

These are part of the Round family of brushes. They range in size from 18/0 to #8. Another feature of liners is that they come in different lengths and thickness. This means that selecting the right liner can be challenging. The longer the hairs, the more paint and water the brush can carry.

The best advice is to try a variety of these types of paint brushes and stick to the ones that feel right for you and the task at hand.

A script liner has longer hairs than a regular liner, which makes it appropriate for doing fine lettering. By the way, using a script liner means you have to have a lot of brush control. It can be a little difficult to manage in tight curves because it tends to flick out. Practice, practice, practice!

Obviously a short liner will do great for small details like eyelashes. And a scroller will be ideally shaped for doing, you guessed it, scroll work.

The best memory is nothing

compared to a good brush.

- Old Chinese Proverb

As you can see there are so many types of paint brushes. For the beginner you only need a few of the most commonly used brushes to start.

But as you develop your craft, you’ll want to start dabbling in all sorts of different ways to paint. That’s when you’re ready to try all types of paint brushes.

The filbert rake is fun for creating hair, beards, feathers, fur, grass and woodgrain. It's a flat texturing brush with an oval, naturally fingered shape. Because of it's shape it offers softer edges than a flat rake.

When you're using either of the rakes you can choose to thin your paint depending on the effect you're trying to achieve. To get light texture just apply very little pressure. Don't overload the hairs with paint... the idea is to make sure that the bristles stay apart. Rakes are available in many sizes.

A mop brush is designed for gentle blending and softening. Used with a light touch, these types of paint brushes can quickly blur and soften a hard edge.

Mops come in a variety of shapes. Some resemble a make-up (blush) brush. Others are flatter and stiffer. These are the ones we prefer to use.

Mops are available in 1/4', 3/8', 1/2', 3/4', and 1'.

Stipplers are the types of paint brushes used for creating fur and foliage and to give an open or soft general appearance to a painting. The stippler can be oval with flat, tidy bristles. Or it can be domed and round, as in this brush from Heinz Jordan.

It should be used dry. The amount of pressure you apply during the pouncing or stippling will determine the overall look and color value of your painting. They come in many sizes.

The deerfoot stippler is also a texturing brush used for creating fur and foliage. It's round and the bristles are long on the toe and short on the heel, bringing to mind the shape of Bambi's foot.

You should pick a deerfoot that has a lot of texture in its bristles over one that's stiff and neatly formed. You can use these brushes either wet or dry.

The amount of pressure you apply during the pouncing or stippling will determine the overall look and color value of your painting.They're available in 1/8', 1/4', 3/8', and 1/2'.

The fan brush is flat with its bristles widely fanned out. It can be used dry to drag paint lightly across the surface of your painting. It can be used wet to create textures. And dragged through wet glazes it gives a fine wood-grain effect. Comes in a range of sizes.

These brushes require a little practice to use at first... it's like they're a filbert brush with half their bristles missing! They are terrific once you get the hang of them.

Truly a multi-purpose gem. You can load the brush with multiple colors, create great ribbons and petals and do stripes all in one fell swoop!

This artist paint brush is fairly new and funky looking! The needle pointed brush is a round with a long liner that extends through the end.

You can create some very interesting effects, especially great vines and twigs. Loaded with inky consistency paint, the round part acts as a reservoire and the liner is, well...a liner. By holding it almost perpendicular to the surface and using varying amounts of pressure, you'll have loads of fun with this one! It comes in Sizes #4, #6 and #8.

The Fandango brush...we just LOVE saying it... looks a bit like a fanned mop brush. This brush has long hairs with shorter ones in between. All hairs have very fine points on the ends. Not only does this brush hold lots of paint, but stroke it once on the surface and you've just made lots of fine lines. Great for creating grasses, fur, feathers and Santa's beards. Ready to Fandango?!

Best Kind Of Paint Brushes For Acrylic Paint

The Whale's Tail...a flat brush with the bristles cut in a 'V' shape which can be used for lots of one stroke effects. Loaded with two colors and fully pressed, results in a tulip shape. Change to green and three presses of the brush will give you an ivy leaf. It can also be used to create plaid, ribbon, layered petals and palm trees. Available in sizes, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and 1'.

The Wave Brush, with scalloped bristle tips, comes in multiple sizes cut in Angular, Filbert and Flat shapes. There's a ton of stuff you can do with these brushes. Quick and easy strokes result in flower petals, leaves, simple birds, butterflies, woodgraining, eyelet lace and more. They can also be used to stipple light, airy foliage, and for some dry brushing techniques. Set your imagination in motion and have fun!!!

Another interesting brush shape, the Fountain Brush has a ring of bristles with a center opening. Loaded and spun in a circle gives you a quick rosette. Press down firmly for other interesting petal shapes. Also, try your hand at stippled foliage or fur and pulled strokes that create waterfalls and feathering.

Stay tuned as we will continue to bring you more information on all types of paint brushes such as stencil brushes, scruffies and scumblers.

If you'd like more information on allall types of paint brushes, drop us a line here.

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Brushes list you need for learning to paint.

Here is a list of brushes for painting landscapes wet on wet in oils and acrylics.
There is no need to buy expensive brushes for learning to paint in oil or acrylic.

2 inch house painting brush.
3/4 inch house painting brush.
Large round hog bristle brush.
Large flat hog bristle brush.
Small fine hair brush.
Medium sized fan brush.
The bristles need to be firm.
Painting knife. (We will cover them last)

Read on for more about items in this brushes list

The 2 inch house painting brush

1 inch or 3 inch will do, the 2 inch house painting brush does not need to be exactly 2 inches wide.
The bristles need to be soft hair or nylon, black, brown or white, but not too soft like a makeup or shaving brush.
The thickness does not matter but later on you might find you prefer thick or thin brushes. I like both.
The thick brush applies more paint quicker while the thinner brush gives better reflections, but the difference is minimum.
The best place to buy your brush is a handy man or hardware store, in the house paint section.
Similar brushes are sold in art supplies stores but do not seem to be as strong as the house painting brushes.
Some 2 inch brushes from the art supplies store are often too soft and go mushy when loaded.
We use this 2 inch brush to paint in our sky, water, put reflections on our water. it is also used to block in the trees and to produce foliage on larger painting. (On large murals I use a 5 inch brush and sometimes a roller).
It is useful to have 2 of these brushes. Keeping one for skies and the other for darker colors. This saves time cleaning brushes in the middle of a painting.

Acrylic Paint And Brushes

The 3/4 inch house painting brush

The 3/4 inch house painting brush should be of similar quality as the 2 inch brush and need not be exactly 3/4 inch.
It is used for painting the larger foliage in the foreground and also for blocking in on paintings.
Click for a closer look.

The large round hog bristle brush

The large round hog bristle brush is for dabbing on the foliage. It may be used for many purposes but it is the easiest brush to use when painting foliage.
Click the image to see more.
Don’t buy the pointy type of brush.
I have always advised others to use a size 12 but things have changed and sizes now vary as does the quality.
So the description of a good brush is:- a big round hog bristle brush with a ferrule width of about 5/8 inch. They usually have white bristles, long pale wooden handle and are made in China.
Do not buy the pointy ones for a foliage brush although you could trim it with scissors if need be.
This brush is very common in Australia but I could not buy one in Thailand.
They are not an expensive brush and often can be found in hardware stores etc.

If you cannot find one then try using your 3/4 inch house painting brush to paint the foliage.

When using the round brush or the 3/4 inch brush for foliage it is important to load and unload the brush in the right way.
Firstly saturate the bristles with dark paint, and then clean the brush by squeezing it and pulling it through a clean rag. This will leave the bristles putty like and making it easy for you to squeeze them into a chisel point. With a well shaped brush you pick up your dark and light colors on different sides of the brush and keep the colors separated. Repeat the squeezing and cleaning process every time you pick up more paint. This is a habit you should get into if you wish to paint crispy looking foliage. If you do not clean and re-shape the bristles before picking up paint, your colors will become muted and your foliage will look dull and be lacking depth.

The large flat hog bristle brush

The large flat hog bristle brush is available everywhere. We use it for painting mountains, huts, tree trunks, soil and everything in between including blocking in the distant trees. Like the round brush it is usually white bristled with a long pale wooden handle. Again you need to clean the brush before re-loading and wipe it clean often when blending.

The small fine hair brush.

The small fine hair brush is used for painting the twigs and small branches.
Find a size with more than a few hairs which you could imagine to be the width of the middle sized branches in a painting as you will use only the very tip hairs for the finer branches.
Let us say the size could be between one and two match heads thick at the thickest part of the bristles.
The bristles are very soft and this brush must be cleaned well between painting sessions.
They cost from about 50 cents for a small brush and the more expensive brushes will give you a finer line if needed.

The small fan brush

The small fan brush is used for painting grass as well as falling water, ferns and some other foliage.

Warning

A very soft haired fan brush is now on the market. This very soft brush is of no use when painting in oils or acrylics. Look for a firm bristled brush.
The prices vary and an expensive brush will wear our just as quick as an inexpensive one. I like a medium sized fan brush because it can do any job but might take more brush strokes than a larger one.
If you cannot find a fan brush you can make one by driving a clout nail down the middle of a round brush and the bristles will fan out.

The painting knife

The painting knife is also in our brushes list.
A painting knife is not a palette knife but we do use it as a palette knife.
Palette knives do not have a cranked handle or a narrow tip.

The painting knife is cranked. This is to make it easy to pick the paint up and place the paint down without the handle getting in the way.
A flexible, pointed painting knife with about a 2 or 3 inch blade is ideal. The point is rounded.
You will become accustomed to using your own knife and you may find other shaped knives awkward to use.
Choose a knife you will want to use for both mixing and sculpturing the paint.
A bad habit.
Another point I must make is that you will come to have a favorite brush or brushes and after a while they will wear out. Don’t keep using worn out brushes because you will find you cannot use a newer brush in the same way as the old favorite brush.
This is a bad habit and will restrict your painting skills therefore it is better to have several brushes of the same kind.
Try to use the newer brush before your hand becomes reliant on the worn out or half worn brushes.
Beware.
Some non-art brushes are too soft and become a sloppy mess when loaded with paint (e.g. make-up brushes or shaving brush) some are too firm (e.g. car engine cleaning brush).
There are endless brands of house painting brushes which are a pleasure to use with oil or acrylic artist paint.
Soft nylon house painting brushes are ok but beware of the nylon brushes with what looks like a little knob on the tip of each bristle (Seen in Australia).
Be careful if working in oils and cleaning plastic or nylon brushes in turpentine. Plastic brushes might melt and the glue holding the bristles or a plastic handle can sometimes melt.

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