Paintbrushes

Paintbrushes are used for applying ink or paint. These are usually made by clamping the bristles to a handle with a ferrule.

Paintbrushes can have three shapes:

• Round: The long, closely arranged bristles of these brushes enable them to hold more paint than other similarly sized but differently shaped brushes. This is why many artists prefer them for painting large areas and for color washes.
• Flat: These spread paint well
• Fan-shaped: These mix paint well.

Various types of brushes are used for painting pictures:

• Brights are flat brushes with short stiff bristles and can be useful in impasto work.
• Filberts are flat brushes with pointy ends. You can vary the width of the stroke by applying more or less pressure.
• Hakes are larger flat brushes used for covering large areas.
• Riggers are round brushes with longish hairs, and were traditionally used for painting the rigging in pictures of ships. They are useful for fine lines.
• Spotters are round brushes with just a few short bristles.

• Paint must be cleaned from brushes immediately after use. This is especially true for oil and acrylic paint because removing dry, set residue can take bristles off or ruin a brush's shape.

• Never leave brushes bristle-end down in a container of water, turpentine, or any other solvent (if you want to clean them, do it by hand or with a wet cloth). This is because the bristles of the brush spread out against the bottom of the container and, will, if left too long, set that way (like hair).

Sizes and materials

The sizes of brushes used for painting and decorating, usually given in mm or inches, refer to the width of the head.

Common sizes are:

• ⅛ in, ¼ in, ⅜ in, ½ in, ⅝ in, ¾ in, ⅞ in, 1 in, 1¼ in, 1½ in, 2 in, 2½ in, 3 in, 3½ in, 4 in.

• 10 mm, 20 mm, 30 mm, 40 mm, 50 mm, 60 mm, 70 mm, 80 mm, 90 mm, 100 mm.

Bristles may be natural or synthetic. Natural bristles are preferred for oil-based paints and varnishes, while synthetic brushes are better for water-based paints as the bristles do not expand when wetted.

Handles may be wood or plastic; ferrules are metal (usually nickel-plated steel).

Artists' brushes are usually given numbered sizes, although there is no exact standard for their physical dimensions.

From smallest to largest, the sizes are:

• 10/0, 7/0 (also written 0000000), 6/0, 5/0, 4/0, 000, 00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30. Brushes as fine as 20/0 are manufactured by major companies, but are not a common size.

Sizes 000 to 20 are most common.

Artists' brushes are most commonly catagorized by type and by shape.

Types include watercolor which are usually sable, synthetic sable or nylon, oil which are usually sable or bristle, and acrylic which are almost entirely nylon or synthetic. Turpentines or thinners used in oil painting can destroy synthetic brushes, so synthetics are avoided by oil painters. Natural hair, squirrel, badger or sable are used by watercolorists due to their superior ability to absorb and hold water.

Shapes are quite varied and often watercolor brushes come in the most variety of shapes. Rounds (pointed), flats, brights (shorter than flats) and filbert are the most common. Other shapes include stipplers (short, stubby rounds), deer-foot stipplers, liners (elongated rounds), daggers, scripts (highly elonged rounds), eggberts, fans, among others.

Bristles may be natural -- either soft hair or hog bristle -- or synthetic.

• Soft hair brushes are made from Kolinsky sable or ox hair (sabeline); or more rarely, squirrel, pony, goat, or badger. Cheaper hair is sometimes called camel hair... but doesn't come from camels.
• Hog bristle (often called china bristle or Chunking bristle) is stiffer and stronger than soft hair. It may be bleached or unbleached.
• Synthetic bristles are made of special multi-diameter extruded nylon filament.

Artists' brush handles are commonly wooden, but the cheapest brushes may have moulded plastic handles. Many mass-produced handles are made of unfinished raw wood; better quality handles are of seasoned hardwood. The wood is sealed and lacquered to give the handle a high-gloss, waterproof finish that reduces soiling and swelling.

Metal ferrules may be of aluminum, nickel, copper, or nickel-plated steel. Quill ferrules are also found: these give a different "feel" to the brush.