Brushes

Chapter 2 - Brushes

Selecting and caring for brushes is as important as painting with them. There is nothing quite as wonderful as breaking the starch the first time on a new brush and feeling the way it flexes against a surface or using the perfect brush to do just what you want without disappointing. It is important to preserve that feeling. I have brushes that are 11 years old and I use them all the time. There are a few basics about the care and feeding of your investments that few emphasize as much as they should. There is great turmoil and ado about whether one should, as a beginner, invest in quality materials for painting. I say “get at least one great brush” I tell my students to think of using a chewed stick (actually, I have been known to make them USE a chewed stick) to paint with, then use an Isabey chunking soise or a Raphael cat tongue and see if they feel differently about their talent, the act of painting, or the world in general. You can buy brushes that shed and spend your time chasing wild hairs all over your canvas or you can spend two or three times more, keep the brush clean and treat it well, and paint with it for years.

For oils:

DO NOT LET YOUR BRUSH SET IN ANY LIQUID^[1]! EVER! NO NOT EVEN FOR A FEW MINUTES! NO! NOT JUST WHILE YOU …WHATEVER!
DO NOT LET YOUR BRUSH SET IN ANY LIQUID! EVER! NO NOT EVEN FOR A FEW MINUTES! NO! NOT JUST WHILE YOU …WHATEVER
You guessed it: DO NOT LET YOUR BRUSH SET IN ANY LIQUID! EVER! NO NOT EVEN FOR A FEW MINUTES! NO! NOT JUST WHILE YOU …WHATEVER
Now on to the other rules, and I must say, "All rules have their exceptions"(except rules 1 through 3).
Try not to use your brush as a mixing tool. If you are mixing and blending on canvas, that is another case, but if you are doing a lot of mixing of colors on your palette, use a knife.
There are places on the brush where paint should be, actually, let's make that a place: The tips of the bristles. Do not work the paint up into the body next to the ferrule. Think of each separate hair in the brush as your fingers, now imagine if you put rings on all your fingers and tried to hold them tight together. Paint residual on brushes does the same thing. It coats the brush hairs until they can not hold close together, just like dipping a wick in wax, and the more you dip it, the thicker the paint gets, hence the name "candling", and unless you keep your brushes clean^[2] , this will end up spreading the bristles out like a fan or, especially with oils, become a solid mass as hard as the brush handle itself. This is a very hard rule to follow but it will keep your brushes in great shape and make your painting more manageable. It will also save paint. Think about the amount of paint you wipe off your brushes, now imagine you could actually paint with it!
Learn what all the different brushes^[3] are for and decide which ones suit your style of painting. (See brush types)
If you are in your studio and have ready access to running water, clean your brushes with soap and water, not paint thinner^[4], and certainly not turpentine^[5]. Think about the hair of the brush as you would the hair on your head. I use Dr. Brauner's lavender hand soap in a bar. I wipe the excess paint from the brush, add a little water and wash the brush by rubbing it on the bar then in my palm, repeating till the brush feels and looks clean. I also use Bronner's liquid soap in a Silicoil jar. That way I reuse the same soap for weeks without wasting it. Then I lay it down on a clean surface. I found an old glass insert from a microwave oven that is long, flat, and easy to clean that I keep next to the sink. Do not stand your brushes up while they are wet!^[6] Let them dry by lying them on a paper towel or cloth, then stand them up.
If you are painting plein air or use a studio without water resources, get some walnut oil (M.Graham) or poppy oil and use it as follows: put a little in one jar or brush washer ^[7] for the initial cleaning. Put some clean oil in another container and rinse your cleaned brush in that, wipe it down and either continue to paint or set it aside. Because the oil dries slowly and will not harm the brush, you may even leave them for a couple of days (not in the jar!) and then use them again. Afterwards, clean them in soap and water as recommended above.
When you travel with your brushes, take some stiff but flexible cardboard, plastic, or other card stock and wrap it around the head of your brush and tape it in place. This will protect your brushes and you can reuse them. I used to try to save the plastic protectors from the brushes when I bought them but getting them back on the brush without bending down one or two of the bristles or having the plastic stick to the ferrule was a pain, so now I simply wrap them.
If you have brushes, either watercolor, oil, or acrylic, that have become misshapen, have hairs sticking out at odd angles ^[8], have the tip bent over^[9], or are just out of control, try this: Fill a glass cup with water, place it in your microwave for 3 minutes, take it out and suspend the brush tip in it for a few seconds, then repeat, dipping the brush to the ferrule and not beyond,as the heat may melt the glue holding the bristles in place. Repeat this until the brush starts to reform correctly. Shape the brush with you fingers and lay it down to dry. This will save you untold amounts of money and it is just a cool trick!
To clean your brushes that have begun to candle from acrylics, oils, or mediums, use Parson's ammonia straight from the bottle. Get a glass container, a piece of stiff cardboard or paper, and a knife. Put enough ammonia in the jar to cover the brush head only, cut a small X in the paper to push your brush tip through, suspend the brush so that the head just touches the bottom. Leave the brush in the ammonia for an hour, checking it every fifteen minutes. Take it out and rinse it completely before washing it with your soap. Work it on the soap bar, then in your hand till the soap stops changing color. Rinse and lay down (the brush, not you). You will be amazed at how soft and manageable your hairs will be.

Types of brushes for oil:

There are many types of fibers and bristles used to make brushes. Oil brushes are made with hog bristle^[10], sable^[11], ox ear hair (hmm, I wonder if they could do something with mine…), and a myriad of synthetic fibers^[12]. It seems at times that there are as many brushes as there are people to use them.

Bristle Brushes

1.      Brights: This brush has short stiff bristles used to push paint around. It is not a good brush to start painting with because it will teach you bad habits. I have seen students scrubbing with brights, trying to get the paint to perform like they think it should. They end up with a stub, an unsatisfying experience, and a bad painting. Think of a bright as a chewed stick. You can use it to lay down thick passages of paint, use it to push the paint from one place on the canvas to another, use it to pick up paint from the canvas, but it is very hard to get used to creating delicate passages with a bright. The bristles just don't flex like a long.
2.       Longs or flats: This is a great brush. The brush head is long (hence the name), flexes wonderfully, holds paint, and, if made with good bristles, will do just about any task you can think of involving oil paint. You can brush on thin glazes, thick passages, create lines, and even blend with a good flat. I recommend three sizes to begin with, small (2 or 3), medium (5 or 6) and at least one large one (12 or 14).
3.       Rounds: The bristles in an excellent round will be curved in slightly to the center and will come to a dull point. Longer bristles to the center, shorter ones to the outside. This is the tool for sketching in your preliminary under drawing or your grisaille. (We will talk about this in another chapter). It is a superb brush for a broken line, for painting up to a complex edge, or just about anything really. It was the favored brush of the classic early painters. There is only one brush I like more for basic painting…
4.       The Filbert: This brush has most of the attributes of the other shapes. It will flex and lay in paint over large areas like a flat, it will give you nice straight lines like a round, and it will make delicate detailed passages like a round.
5.      Blending fans: Not my all time fav…This is a brush that can be used properly to great effect in softening and blending but it has become a tool of the Devil, used for painting "happy trees" and painting like they do on PBS. I much prefer:
6.       Floggers: This is what some brush salesman once told me they are called. Long, 2 to 3 inches and not very dense or wide. This is a brush you can find through Cosmos by DaVinci.

Animal Hair Brushes and Synthetics^[13]

1.         Longs: These are much the same as the bristle brushes but are sized differently and are by nature, softer and more detail oriented. The sizes are measured differently and a #6 in hair will be about a #3 in bristle.
2.         Brights: This brush holds less paint but gives very direct control and is good for edges. It has short hair and is about half the length of a long.
3.        Rounds: Drawing fine detail, filling in detail, all the things you need glasses for (or a magnifying lens).
4.         Cat's tongue: Another of my favorites. This brush has almost all the answers! Great for detail and line. It looks like a filbert but the hairs are cut to shape from the bottom. Some finely made brushes have a shaped head much like a filbert. Look close and if you find one, buy it!
5.       Riggers: Though usually associated with watercolor, these extremely long, fat bodied, thin tipped brushes are named for their original use: Painting the “rigging” of tall ships. They are great for fine line and detail an hold huge amounts of liquid for long, controlled, drawn line.
6.         Others: There are many interesting brushes that fit your individual style so go out and do some research. Never be afraid to ask questions about the brushes you see in the stores. You may actually find someone working that knows something. ^[14]

Large Brushes

I use a lot of so called house-painting brushes for my larger work. There are many inherent problems with using big brushes that keep painters from using them, not the least of which is loose hairs. The other big problem is proper cleaning.
Investing in a great line of brushes such as Purdy can solve the first almost completely.
The other can be kept under control by keeping the paint where it belongs on the brush, the tips of the bristles. You do not use a large brush for our purposes the same as house painters do. Try some and see how you like them. There are all types of brushes used traditionally by artists that had their origins in very different places. A good example is the sash brush. It has been used in Europe for years to paint windowsills and detail on houses. If you have been to just about any European city, you have seen the degree of decorating done to individualize ones house or store. America is much less about that outside detail so we don't see the brushes they use in Europe as much. Omega is a good example of a sash brush maker. I have used their brushes and enjoy the surprising control you can achieve with such a large brush.

There is more to come on brushes so I welcome your input and I will list comments about your favorite brushes and why they are so good.

In the next chapter we will talk about mediums for oil painting.

^[1] When you stand a brush in liquid, you risk bending the brush tip and letting the wood soak up the liquid, swelling it until the paint on the handle falls off and the ferrule loosens. Of course you would NEVER forget and leave your brush in the jar for say, a day, a week, while you go on vacation…

^[2] To clean your brushes that have begun to candle from acrylics, oils, or mediums, use Parson's ammonia straight from the bottle. Get a glass container, a piece of stiff cardboard or paper, and a knife. Put enough ammonia in the jar to cover the brush head only, cut a small slot in the paper to push your brush through, suspend the brush so that the head just touches the bottom. Leave the brush in the ammonia for an hour, checking it every fifteen minutes. Take it out and rinse it completely before washing it with your soap. Work it on the soap bar, then in your hand till the soap stops changing color. Rinse and lay down (the brush, not you).You will be amazed at how soft and manageable your hairs will be.

^[3] For oils, you may use just about any brush in existence as long as you care for it.

^[4] Have you ever noticed that most if not all paint companies that make or sell brushes as part of their line recommend using paint thinner, turps, or odorless this or that to clean brushes?

^[5] Real turpentine is made to paint with; it is not for cleaning anything. Oil of turpentine is a wonderful painting medium, unlike Gum Turpentine, a product used by house painters and, unfortunately, recommended by many teachers, artists, and writers, as a medium, and even a brush cleaning agent.

^[6] A wet brush standing head up is almost as bad as a brush standing head down. The liquid in the brush will move into the ferrule and into the wood. This swells the wood, expands the ferrule, and leads to a loose head, and hair falling out into your work. Water and other solvents will weaken the glue used to keep the hair on the handle of the brush so let them dry lying down. Wipe your brushes and lay them down until dry.

^[7] Use a brush washer. You can get them from Jack Richerson's or Holbien. They have an insert with holes that lets the pigment fall through to the bottom while letting the oil clarify.

^[8] This may be caused by "candling", where the paint builds up over time at the base of the bristle.

^[9] This is called "flagging" (this is not the same as "flags" at the end of hog bristle) and is caused by basic friction on the brush tip as you use the brush on paper. It curls the brush one way and the tip becomes lopsided.

^[10] Well made brushes will have an inward curve to the bristles. This is achieved by hand sorting the hairs from the hog so that the ones on the outside (from either side of the hog) and the ones in the middle (from the back,) form a brush head that will spread evenly when you bend it against the canvas. It has a great deal of control. Avoid brushes the do not have this inward curve on each side. Do not be fooled by brushes that are razor cut to shape or are otherwise manipulated. Look Close .

^[11] Most "sable" is from the female sable or pine martin with the exception of a few high-end brushes. The best sable hair comes from the male and from far northern Siberia.

^[12] Try hard not to use your good synthetic brushes with pure turpentine (it is a medium, NOT a cleaning product) paint thinner, odorless turp. (Paint thinner) or other petroleum based products (paint thinner). It will ruin the fibers eventually.

^[13] Please remember that you CANNOT use thinner or any other petroleum by-product to clean a good synthetic brush. It WILL ruin it over a very short time. I do not care what the manufacturers say! Also remember, we do not use turp to clean brushes do we?

^[14] Most, if not all large art stores are staffed by people who do not know which end of the brush to use. Low pay, no respect for education, and many other elements have led to a decline in knowledge about the products sold by the chains. Shop at small stores or places that you trust. You can't expect a clerk who sells raffia to crafters trying to be Martha to know the difference between nylon, Chunking Soise, and sable!