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Choosing good paint brushes for your art is an important step in gathering your art materials. Here are some guidelines to consider when making your purchases.



  1. 1
    Familiarize yourself with the brushes. Typically, an artist will have many different types of brushes for different techniques and painting methods:
  2. 2
    Familiarize yourself with different hair-types. There are different materials used for brushes:
    • Bristle - usually the cheapest - made from pig hairs. This is a standard brush that you would find often in artists' collections.
    • Synthetic - these can be cheap or expensive and they have a different feel than natural hair brushes.
    • Sable - usually the most expensive - made from various other fine-haired animals, such as sables, weasels, and other rodents.
  3. 3
    Choose a brush that feels good and is well-built:
  4. 4
    Look for sales at art supply stores. If you are a student, be sure to go to stores that honor student discounts. Paying full price for art supplies is rarely wise, as artists are not known for being wealthy.
  5. 5
    Collect together one of each of these brushes and additional sizes of the main workhorse brushes - the flat and the filbert. You may also want a very wide flat brush (like a 2" wide house painting brush) for covering very large areas initially.
  6. 6
    Learn about the different ways each brush can be held and the different ways of making strokes. This knowledge will also come with experimentation, which is clearly the best way to learn. What you are trying to accomplish will generally decide which brush is best for which job.

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This video covers the different types of brushes and uses.


  • Brushes can get quite expensive, so take care of them: don't leave them sitting in water, don't get paint up into the ferrule (the metal part), and wash and dry your brushes thoroughly right after use.
  • Go with what works for you. If a cheaper brush does a better job and feels right, use that instead. You don't always have to have the most expensive items.

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Categories: Painting

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