Brushes For Watercolor Painting

Materials

Jul 23

An Assortment of Flat and Round Brushes For Watercolor Painting

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Brushes are essential tools for watercolor painting. Think of them as extensions of the artist’s hand. Chosen well, they are both the means of delivering water and paint to the paper, and the medium of transmission for the artists style and vision.

Your brushes can be either help or hindrance so they should be chosen carefully. They are offered in different sizes, shapes, and materials. It should be no surprise that different brushes create different strokes and are better for some techniques than others.

We’ll visit the aspects that affect how a brush works, what they are best for and some specific recommendations for getting the best, most versatile brushes while minimizing cost.

Anatomy Of Watercolor Brushes

The Anatomy Of A Brush For Watercolor Painting

Brushes consists of three main parts, the head, the ferrule, and the body:

The Head

This is the part that contains the bristles. Bristles can be either made of natural fibers, synthetic fibers, or a blend of both. A brush head has three main parts : The Tip, The Belly, and The Heel.

Tip : Tips are of various shapes but all are principally flat and round with more or less of a point. There are many ‘specialty’ brushes that appear to be something other than flat or round, but nearly all are just some variation of a flat or round. The shape of the tip and the character of the bristles determine the type and range of washes, marks, lines and strokes it can produce.
Belly or Body: The Body is the fattest part of the head. It is the ‘reservoir’ that holds most of the water and paint. Its size and bristle character determines how much paint the brush can carry and release onto the paper. A larger bodies, obviously, hold more paint and water. These work well for wet-on-wet washes or large areas of color.
The Heel: The heel is where the bristles insert into the ferrule, it acts as the transition point between the Body and the handle.

The Ferrule

The ferrule secures the bristles to the handle, maintains the brush’s shape and ensures that the bristles remain together. In better brushes, the ferrule is a rust-resistant metallic material. The ferrule is attached to the handle by a ‘crimp’, where the ferrule is pinched or pressed to attach it to the handle. The more secure the crimp, the higher precision and better control one has over their brushstrokes.

The Handle

The handle is the largest component and is the part you hold while painting. It can be made of wood, plastic or metal.

Brush handles can be long, or short. Most brushes intended for watercolor are short-handled. Some brushes are designed traveling and plein air sketching. These brushes are often collapsible, made to be disassembled for easy storage and transport.

Types of Watercolor Brushes

There are different types of brushes designed to be used for watercolor painting. The two most important brush types are Rounds and Flats. Both are useful and versatile, capable of washes, strokes and even some detail.

The remaining types are specialty brushes that have valuable for specific purposes or techniques, but with limited versatility.

It is easy to buy and have too many brushes that won’t serve you well. My preference is having a few sizes each of Rounds and Flats along with a specialty brush or two that fit your own painting style.

Round Brushes

Rounds ar versatile and widely used. Quality rounds have a huge range of capability from detailed work to broader passages. The largest round are even capable of large washes. High quality rounds of every size will point well, making them excellent at line and detail.

Flat Brushes

Flats are also versatile painting tools. They can produce wide strokes, flat washes, and sharp edges. The larger the brush, the better at filling large passages. They also have surprising capacity for line and some detail work when the corners are used with a skilled touch.

Filbert Brushes

Filberts are specialty brushes with an oval shaped tip. They have some capacity for blending, soft-edged strokes, and establishing the edges of subjects that have rounded edges - like the petals of flowers. They are also capable of producing lines and marks that have varied weight along their length.

Fan Brushes

Another specialty brush, the Fan brush is excellent of creating the textural quality of foliage, grass, and hair. They have some use for blending, and are often called “Fan Blenders”. Their rounded fan shape is very consistent and uniform - a benefit for some subjects, but a real drawback in scenes where variety and ‘random-ness’ is needed.

Mop Brushes

These brushes are excellent at , and in fact were developed for, large washes and broad strokes. Mop brushes can hold a lot of water and pigment, making them ideal for wet-on-wet techniques and applying large areas of color. They have only limited capability for finer detailed work.

Riggers

These are speciality brushes named as such because they were used for ship rigging when artists were painting lots of sailing ships. they are thin but with long bristles. Their forte is the thin, continuous line that represent things like branches, wires, or hair. Their size makes them unsuitable for just about anything else.

Liners, Sword, Daggers

This group represents a variety of specialty brushes evolved from the sign painting trade. Their names suggest their best role for creating interesting lines. The heads are typically angled to facilitate linework. Most are larger than riggers allowing them to carry more water and paint for longer, continuous strokes.

Synthetic vs Natural Hair

Brush bristles are made of different materials each of which affects brush performance. The two major categories are natural and synthetic hair. There are variations within each category as well.

In comparing similar sized natural hair brushes to synthetic bristle brushes, the natural hair brushes hold much more water, tend to point better and have a softer ‘touch’.

Synthetic bristles are generally some grade of nylon. They are sturdier and most have more spring than natural hair brushes. Recent improvements in synthetic nylon has resulted in brushes that have soft touch that approaches that of natural hair as well.

Natural Brushes

Natural hair watercolor brushes are considered higher in quality than synthetic brushes. Most come with a higher price tag as well. The most common natural fibers are Kolinsky Sable, Red Sable, Squirrel Hair, Goat Hair

The highest quality natural hair brushes are made from the fur of Kolinsky sable. Kolinsky sables have arguably the sharpest points and hold significant amounts of water and paint relative to their size. These brushes are prized for their ability to make smooth washes, broad strokes and fine details. No matter the brand, Kolinsky sable brushes are the most expensive brushes you will find. That said, they are worth the cost and perform like no other watercolor brush.

Red sable brushes are very similar to Kolinsky sables in both their pointy-ness and as remarkable water and paint reservoir capacity. They are generally a bit softer in the touch with a bit less ‘snap’. These are among the most costly brushes

Squirrel hair brushes hold lots of water but are not springy and do not point well. They are great for large washes and fluid passages. You’ll find them less effective for lines, marks, details and dry brush work.

Goat hair brushes, are sturdy and resilient. They hold a lot of water and paint but don’t point well. These are generally the lowest cost natural hair brushes. Their limited capability makes them less useful than even higher quality synthetic brushes.

Synthetic Brushes

Synthetic fibers are made mostly of nylon. These brushes are lower cost than natural hair brushes. Their quality and performance has greatly increased in recent years. Modern versions use different kinds of synthetic fibers that are much better at mimicking various features of natural hairs.

They tend to be more durable and long-lasting. They offer an ethical advantage as well. They are animal-friendly, since they are not made with animal hair.

Synthetic fiber brushes are much lower in cost, although the recent advances in their quality have also resulted in higher prices. Even so, their combination of quality, higher performance and durability make them must-have choices for novices. They also serve the professional painter extremely well.

Recommended Watercolor Brushes

A Basic Brush Set That Is Economical And Will Do Much!

A handful quality synthetic or synthetic/natural blend brushes are really all that are needed to do the trick. There are many quality brushes made by many different manufacturers. The most important characteristics in watercolor brushes are water absorption, springiness and, for rounds, coming to a fine point at the tip. Brushes called “white sable” (which is really synthetic white nylon) or “golden nylon” are good choices to start with, as they generally combine the best characteristics of natural hair brushes at moderate cost.

Start with three rounds, two flats and a rigger.

SYNTHETIC BRUSHES

Large Round - Larger than 18 - Recommended : Blick Mega Golden Taklon Brush - Mega Round, Short Handle, Size 50

Medium Round - #16 or #14 - Recommended : Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolor Brush - Round, Short Handle, Size 14, Raphael Golden Kaerell Brush - Round, Long Handle, Size 16

Small Round - #8 or #10 - Recommended : Raphael Golden Kaerell Brush - Round, Long Handle, Size 8, Utrecht Synthetic Sablette Round - Size 10, Short Handle

1 1⁄2” or 2” Flat - Recommended Choices : Winsor & Newton Sceptre Gold II 2” Wash Brush, Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolor Brush - Wash, Short Handle, 2"

1⁄2” or 3⁄4” Flat - Recommended : Princeton Velvetouch Series 3950 Synthetic Brush - Wash, Size 3/4", Princeton Neptune Synthetic Squirrel Brush - Aquarelle Square Wash, Short Handle, Size 3/4",

Rigger

NATURAL HAIR BRUSHES

Sable Rounds are versatile brushes, so you only need a couple to start

Medium Round - #16 or #14 - Recommended : Escoda Optimo Kolinsky Sable Brush - Pointed Round, Short Handle, Size 14

Small Round - #8 or #10 - Recommended : Escoda Optimo Kolinsky Sable Brush - Pointed Round, Short Handle, Size 6