Like spray cans, it’s a very personal choice. Some like these, some like those. So I guess I’ll tell you about the ones I use and why, maybe it might be useful to someone.
Which types of brushes are there?
There are 2 main types of brushes, Artists’ brushes and decorators’ brushes.
Decorators brushes are great for the background and for effects. I used to use the round one (sash brushes) but now I prefer rectangle brushes as they are easier to control and more versatile. My favourite being a 2” brush (50cm) I find bigger ones are good for effects but they are not efficient enough as you use too much paint and they dry up around the collar. there is little difference between a cheap or expensive brush, as long as they’re smooth and the hair is thin. A brush with corse hair will be better for a difficult (thick) paint like enamel but overall, it won’t give you a very smooth finish. Some cheap brushes may have the hair coming off as you paint, but to be honest so do expensive brushes.
I find Artist brushes have a similar story. When I studied art at college, we used to use brushes made from marten hair (a type of weasel) as they are very bouncy. But nowadays synthetic brushes are the same if not more bouncy and smooth, and obviously far cheaper. As a full time working artist, we need to be very efficient and quick, often once the job is done the clients rush us out the door because the event is about to start or they need to open the restaurant or whatever, and cleaning the brushes isn’t always easy. So a lot of brushes bite the dust. So being able to buy cheap brushes is invaluable. On a side note, I found some folding buckets on amazon that don’t take a lot of space, and allow me to clean the brushes (when possible) at a client’s house without using their bathrooms, then empty the bucket in a bottle.
So in 2023 I can’t recommend natural hair brushes to paint with acrylics, oil, water-colour or emulsion (house paint) however, if you’re looking to paint pinstriping you’ll need a brush made of squirrel hairs and short handle or if you paint Chinese Kanji (characters) you’ll need one made of goat, horse or rabbit hair, as they are not bouncy.
If you’re painting letters or you’d like to paint steady long lines, you’ll need ringer brushes, they look like a normal paint brush but with extra long hairs.
Here are some of my favourite brushes and what I use them for:
1: Flat decorator’s brush, Versatile brush, great for flat areas and effects such as dry brushing
2: Spalter, very wide brush with a narrow profile, allows you to paint large areas without overloading the brush
3: Cheap Amazon brush, great for use with spray paint for details, epoxy or anything that will destroy the brush
4: Daler and Rowney graduate, excellent all around brush for murals. I prefer the flat ones personally.
5: Daler and Rowney System 3, excellent all around brushes, though slightly more expensive but smoother bristles.
6: DaVinci round brush, great for details, I like 1 or 2 for most things or a 000 for very vine details.
7: Ringer brush, my favourite for letters, long lines or controlled curves.
8: Pinstriping brush, Like a ringer brush but steadier due to it’s longer hairs.
9: Pasting wallpaper brush, great for effects and drips, you can load a lot of paint or water then either splash or paint.
10: Cheap brush, last but not least is poundland’s finest! This type of brush is by far the best for painting clouds or any type of fade. If you spend £22 on a spalter from Leyland, you’re not going to bash it against the wall, you’ll be very gentle with it, which is great sometimes, but not when painting fades. Having a cheap brush that you can repeatedly bash against the wall and use from side to side like sand paper is the best way to get great fades and clouds-like patterns. So even though I’m not very good with my brushes, once I have a cheap brush that looks like a mop, I tend to keep them because they’re so useful. In this list I didn’t include round flat brushes, normally used for chalk paint, because I find a damaged cheap brush does a far better job.
Voilà! Here are the brushes I use. Maybe there’s one in there you haven’t use and you’d like to give it a go…
Olivier.