Art Supplies
Blend Your Way into Art with a Paint Brush
When you picture a painter in your mind, you see him/her hold a paint brush and a palette in hand, creating a scenic view for the world to appreciate. But, have you ever wanted to try your hand at art, particularly painting. For painting, one of the first things you’d need is a paint brush. Let’s first understand what a paint brush is:
Bristles: The tip of the brush that has a fuzzy texture is called bristles.
Ferrule: The ferrule is the metal part of the brush that connects the bristles to the handle.
Crimp: The crimp is a part of the ferrule that connects to the handle.
Handle: This part is usually made of acrylic or wood.
What Do You Need the Brush for?
To choose a brush, you need to consider what kind of effect you want to create. Stiff brushes create visible and sharper texture. While, softer brushes create smooth and soft textures. The type of brush also depends on the type of paints you’ll be using, i.e., watercolor, oil paint or acrylic paint. For oil painting, you’d need a stiffer brush as the paint used is heavy and dense. For watercolor painting, pick a soft brush as the color used is more fluid in nature. Now, acrylic colors are a little more thicker than watercolors, but less denser than oil colors. So, for these colors consider paint brushes in between soft and stiff brushes.
Before you go on to buy a paint brush, you need to consider the following, as well:
Brush Size
The size of a paint brush is indicated by a number on it. This number varies from 000, 00, 1, 2 and so on. As a key rule, use bigger brush sizes for painting large areas that don’t have intricate designs and patterns. Brushes of smaller sizes are used for detailing and painting smaller areas. Daler-Rowney has a good collection of brushes in smaller sizes. Some brands, such as Faber Castell, Bianyo and Shrih have paint brush sets that include brushes in different sizes.
Brush Shapes
The shapes of paint brushes depend on the kind of work you need it for. Let’s see what are the uses of different brush shapes:
Round: Round paint brushes are generally used for detailing, outlining and filling up smaller areas. This kind of brush creates thin strokes, which increase in width when the brush is pressed down. A variation of this kind is a pointed round-shaped brush, that is used for finer detailing, spotting and retouching.
Flat: Flat brushes are used to fill up wider areas and create bold strokes. This kind has a square end that you can use to outline fine and straight lines, and make stripes.
Filbert: Filbert brushes have an oval-shaped end that can be used to create soft-rounded edges. This kind of brush is ideal for blending in colors.
Fan: These brushes are used to create textures, such as clouds and leaves of a tree. Fan brushes are ideally used for blending, smoothing and feathering.
Angular Flat (Shader): This type of brush is very similar to flat brushes. It covers a wider area, and is used to create strokes and fill corners.
Shop and compare prices of paint brushes online from different brands, such as Faber Castell, Sakura, Daler-Rowney and Chrome. Buying paint brushes individually might be expensive. Consider buying paint brush sets, which feature different shapes and sizes of brushes. Man shopping sites offer discounts and deals on paint brushes. So, log on to your favourite shopping site and shop for your art supplies.