Tag: paint brushes

A Brush with Brushes

As someone who has used water-based media for years – watercolor, acrylic, gouache – I am used to using just one brush for the most part, or two if I need a different quality. A round, a flat. That’s about it for watercolor or acrylic or gouache. Of course, different sizes matter as far as what I am painting, but with a couple of good brushes, much can be accomplished. I just take my brush, swish it around in water, and then on to the next color.

Oil painting does not allow this. To clean a brush means to work at getting it clean, and that work is best done at the end of a session when all is ready to be set aside. This means cleaning the brushes in mineral spirits to get rid of the oil. This is done after wiping excess paint off and discarding the rags or towels. After the mineral spirits comes a bar of soap and hot water. Squish and swish the brush in the soap, rinse. Repeat if necessary. Set aside to dry after reshaping the brush, and you are ready for the next session.

I have done a bit of observation and a bit of reading about brushes. Some oil painters say you never need to wash your brushes, just clean them off by wiping and using some mineral spirits. For me, this is a disaster in the making. My habits are to use the same brush with rinses in between, and oil painting does not allow for this – at least, not the way I paint.

The classic picture of an artist is with his handheld palette, beret on head, easel in front of him / her, and multiple brushes being held in the hand holding the palette. It makes sense! Brushes with different colors, different values, different shapes to create different strokes. I watched a lot of oil painters, and some do hold multiple brushes. Some even go so far as to have the same brush in 3 editions – one for light, one for medium, and one for dark values, with other brushes exclusively used for blending. Recommendations for brushes are also as varied as how and what to do with brushes – what shape, what size, what material, how much to spend.

Well, for now, I need to focus on clean brushes. Mud was a very common byproduct of my earlier days in watercolor, and now I have to fight the same problem with oil painting. I need to retrain how I use brushes altogether. I have also found I need to determine what kind of brush I like. Watercolor works with both soft and stiff brushes, depending on desired effect. Soft brushes are the best, IMHO, for gouache. Acrylic, like watercolor, can vary with the need of the painter – hard, soft, round, flat, filbert, fan. Right now, I prefer softer brushes for oils, but I know that this will change as I become more comfortable with the medium.

Meanwhile, I think cheap brushes for 3 values will be my default for now – and it won’t be easy!

The Four Treasures: Brushes, i

The brush used in ink painting and calligraphy, as practiced in countries such as Japan, China, and Korea, is very different than those used in traditional western painting arts, such as watercolor or oil painting. Because of the differences, it can be very frustrating for the westerner to learn how to hold and how to use the Asian brush. How the brush is held, and how the brush is manipulated, requires re-learning and re-thinking habits instilled from childhood.

Older Americans who learned cursive writing using the Palmer Method will appreciate the importance of posture in Eastern brush techniques, as well as exercises designed to help learn how to manipulate the brush. Younger people, unexposed to daily handwriting drills in school, may or may not find it a challenge to hold the brush in the prescribed methods, as well as practicing exercises designed to enhance one’s skill in using the brush. Learning how to use a brush may be equated with learning a musical instrument, or, for that matter, learning anything new – practice makes the unfamiliar familiar, and provides the basis from which an acquired skill becomes the vehicle for artistic expression.

For all who wish to learn to control the brush, some information about differences in materials may be helpful. The western paintbrush consists of three parts – the handle, ferrule, and bristles. The handle is generally made of wood, though acrylic or plastics can also be used. It can be long, straight, or curved. At the end the handle is the ferrule, usually made of metal, which holds the bristles of the brush. Some companies, such as Isabey, make brushes with a goose quill wrapped with metal wire, to hold the bristles in place.

Traditional bristles in western brushes are usually sable, squirrel, camel, and hog. Sable is a soft hair from the tail of the sable marten, and is used primarily by watercolorists. Squirrel and camel are also very soft, but do not form the fine point that sable does; their ability to retain water as well as reasonable cost makes them attractive for both professionals and students. Hog bristle is stiff and bouncy and generally used in acrylic and oil painting. Synthetic bristles are also used to create equivalent natural hair brushes.

The shape of a western brush is also different than that of the traditional Asian brushes. Type of medium and desired use determine the shaping of the bristles in the western brush. Broadly speaking, western brushes come as rounds, flats, brights, fans, filberts, slant or angle, riggers, and mops. Rounds are primarily used for detail, with the tip of the brush coming together in a fine point. Sable is famous for this quality. Squirrel and camel can be used to create soft brushes primarily used to spread thin medium quickly, such as in watercolor washes; mops are often made of these hairs. Fans are used spread paint, and for blending. Brights are short and stiff, and have the ability to push paint deep into a canvas, as well as create texture in impasto painting. Flats have longer bristles than brights, and are used spreading paint evenly across the painting surface. Filberts are a variation of the flat brush, having long bristles, but they are structured so that the bottom of the brush is curved. Riggers are detail brushes, with long, narrow bristles capable of creating long graceful lines.

Generally speaking, western brushes do not contain mixtures of hair. Asian brushes can be made up of all sorts of hair – from that of newborn babies, to elephants, to sheep, pony, wolf – and even feathers! These are often mounted in a bamboo handle, although wood or other materials can also be used for the handle. The qualities of different hair determine their usage, just as they do in western brushes. Soft, absorbent hair, such as sheep, is used to create brushes for “boneless” painting, washes, and the beautiful soft shades of dark to light found in sumi-e. Harder hair, such as wolf or pony, is used to create sharper lines, such as found in calligraphy. Combinations of different hair create brushes which might have a firm, hard point along with an absorbent soft hair. In addition to hair and feathers, brushes can also be made of shredded bamboo or dried grasses. In combination with ink, the textures produced by such materials can be very interesting and exciting.

The creation of well-made brushes, whether western or Asian, is labor intensive, with numerous steps involved in the creation of a single brush. Hair is chosen, sorted, cleaned, combed, mounted in a handle. A soft glue is frequently used to help retain the shape and protect the bristles of a brush when shipped. This is easily dissolved by soaking the brush for a while in cool water, and then rinsing out the softened glue prior to initial use. Proper care and cleaning of a paintbrush will aid in its lasting several years, and even old and worn-out brushes still serve their owners in many ways. After use, all brushes need to be cleaned and put away to dry. Asian brushes usually need nothing more than cool water, blotting, and reshaping to a point. They are left to dry either hanging, if there is a loop on them, or on their sides. Never let your Asian brush dry tip up – the glue holding the bristles in place may dissolve, or worse, the brush could mildew or rot.