If you're new to acrylic, oil, or watercolor painting, a great place to start is still life watercolor painting, and getting the right brushes is the first step. Here you’ll learn about the different types of painting brushes and their applications.
Paintbrushes come in different lengths, styles, and bristles. Each of these serves a unique role and adds unique strokes, intricacies, and characteristics to your painting.
Wash Brush
With a squared tip and relatively long bristles, an acrylic wash brush is the largest of the bunch. Because it is wider than just about any other brush, it is great for lacquering because it provides total exposure gently and swiftly. Its edge may be used to draw lines, wrinkles, and patterns, and it produces great powerful strokes.
Angled Brush
The angled brush, as its name implies, has a sloped or inclined tip. Because of this, it's also referred to as the slanted brush. Some may even refer to it as a blender because of its ability to fill small portions into larger ones with ease. It's ideal for curled strokes and filling in edges.
Flat Brush
Consider the flat paintbrush to be the smaller version of the wash paintbrush. The flat brush is not as dense as the wash brush, which has dense bristles with slightly round corners. When you need a lot more painting coverage and the surface you're working on is too small for a wash brush, try the flat brush.
Fan Brush
A fan brush resembles a fan, as the title indicates. It's flat and has scattered hairs, making it an excellent choice for painting natural components and sceneries. It could also be used to soften backgrounds or provide modest accents to bright regions You can choose a fan brush with genuine hairs for softening, merging, and scuffing, or a fan brush with artificial hairs for fascinating textured patterns like leaves and branches.
Round Brush
Imagine holding a pencil in your hand, and that's how a round brush feels. Because it is smaller than other brushes, it provides you with greater control of the flow of paints. There are broadly two types of round brushes. The first is a simple round paintbrush with a sharp tip that can be used to paint thin lines and detailed features. The other one is even thinner with a much more sharply pointed tip, perfect for capturing even finer details.
Liner Brush
There’s another type of brush that can be narrower than the round paintbrush. A rigging brush, often called a liner brush, is a tiny applicator with incredibly long strands. This brush's tip can be flat or squared, and it's known as a sword's paintbrush when it's slanted. Use this brush to produce very delicate lines. Because of its small point, the brush is frequently used to write letters and figures, and for artists to mark their work. Believe it or not, this razor-thin brush can contain a surprising amount of flowing paint.
Filbert Brush
Filbert brushes are flat brushes with medium and long strands that form an elliptical shape. The filbert paintbrush is a favorite among realistic painters due to its wide range of marks.
Final Words
Understanding the different types of brushes and their uses is important in painting. To learn more and check out how each brush is used in painting, you can also visit Ino Chang’s art website, where you can also get your hands on hand-drawn art for sale.