Best Brushes to Use for Acrylic Paint

Hi, my name is Nina Weiss, and today I'm gonna talk to you about brushes, specifically, brushes for acrylic paint. All right, let's jump in. So if you're just starting to paint, you may have some questions, there are so many brush options out there, especially when you go into the art store. So you're gonna wonder how you can buy, not a ton of brushes, but the few really good brushes that you're going to use and need. So your first question might be, okay, I see that there are brushes made of nylon, there are brushes made of other synthetics and there are squirrel hair brushes, there are bristle hair brushes, there are a lot of choices. So we want a brush that is going to hold its shape, let the acrylic flow, not break off into your paint, and perhaps last you a little while. So let's talk about the brushes I'm going to suggest that you don't buy. Okay. When I began painting many, many years ago, there really weren't a lot of synthetic options. I had bristle brushes, and in school, elementary school, you may remember some super-bad-quality floppy brushes that were made of squirrel hair and you could still get those. Do not buy them, they don't hold their shape. Bristle brushes tend to be very stiff, they can also break and get into your paint, and we really have no good reason to purchase them. So I'm gonna ask you to veer away from the bristle brushes into the synthetics, because there are so many good ones on the market. I specifically really love working with Princeton brushes, because within the brand you've got different series. So you've got the Summit series, you've got the Aspen series, you've got the Polytip series, and you can choose what works best for you. So a nylon brush is going to give you the flexibility, it's going to not leave brush marks in your paint, and it's gonna hold its shape for a good long while, and that's absolutely what you want. Okay? So we know that we're gonna look for synthetic brushes, we're gonna stay away from bristle, we're gonna stay away from squirrel hair. You may be tempted by really "great buys" of like a rolled up kit that has 20 bristle brushes for $2. Don't buy that. The quality, it's just not there, and it's not gonna give you really good results. Okay. Another question you may have is long or short handles, here we go. So, this is a short-handled brush and this is a long-handled brush. When I work with my students and when I work, I'm always standing, so I always advise my students to work with a long-handled brush, because we don't want to paint like this, this is a really, really tight grip, and this may be how you're, say, writing. Okay? But we paint standing with an extended arm, and we're holding the brush all the way out here for maximum gesture, that's really hard to do with the short handles. So if you're working very small, you're on your desk, you're doing something super delicate, you're not working vertically, maybe you want short handles, I do have some. However, I always use long-handled brushes, so we're gonna talk about those. Okay? So this is a great array of long-handled brushes, and you'll notice that there are so many different shapes. Let's talk about what they're called, and when we use them, and when we don't really need them. Okay, let's talk about the ones I don't use first. This little beauty here is called a fan brush, it's pretty, and I don't use it for anything. It's very thin, and I think it's just kind of used for special effects, which I don't use in my paintings. So if you are trying to buy a set of brushes that are extremely useful, the fan brush is one that you don't really need. So I'm gonna set that aside. Okay. The next kind of brush we're gonna talk about is a Filbert. So the Filbert has a rounded edge, and this kind of brush is really good for blending, which I don't do a lot of on the canvas, I do my mixing on the pallet and then I apply to the surface. You may like Filberts, my students use Filberts, I don't. Again, if you're looking to buy a really spot-on basic set of brushes, a Filbert is not a necessity, okay? So I'm gonna put this one aside as well, but now you know what it is and what it does. So now we're closing in on my favorite brushes. Okay? Oops, there's a Filbert. Oh, one more, a chisel brush. A chisel brush can be good, it's got a point, and it is shaped like a chisel. It is not a necessity, I can still get sharp lines and corners with my brights. Chisels are fun, maybe you wanna buy one of them, it's not an absolute necessity, and that's what we're kind of weeding out right now so you can get a really good start or handful of brushes. And I do say handful, because when I paint, I end up with a handful of brushes, I may have six or seven going at a time. Okay, so now we're in my favorite territory. We're gonna narrow it down just one more time. These are both flat brushes. Okay? You'll notice that the ferrule is stamped flat, flat, but this one is much longer, okay? So this is called a flat brush, it's quite long. I do not love working with these, and here's why, when you press, you get a lot of wobbly wiggle room, I like to have a little bit more control, so I do not use flats, I use brights. So here, finally, is my perfect brush. It's a bright. Here's a used bright. They are shorter and they are flat. Okay? So we've got brights. Then we have rounds. You'll notice that the ferrule is a barrel, it is round. And the great thing about brights, excuse me, rounds, is that they come to a point, and this is really, really useful. So even a chunky number eight brush can be used in a couple of different ways, you can stay up on the point and get a nice flowing line. This is a new one, hasn't been quite broken in. There it goes. Hear that crunch? Okay, so, now, if I apply pressure, I can get a fatter line with it. So it's good for going into line work or thinner areas, but you can also get variable lines, and you can also do more coverage with the line. It's very good for organic movement, it's really good for line making, especially if you go much thinner. So that's my round, love them. And these are my flats, absolutely love working with those. Really good for, obviously, flat coverage, covering larger areas. Then your question will be, okay, so I know I want flats and I want brights, there are ranges of numbers, and here's the thing to look for. So let's say you're buying jeans, and you're looking at a size eight in one brand, and then you try on the eight in another brand, and you're thinking, well, that's not right. So, unfortunately, sizes and brushes are not consistent, so it's good to be able to eyeball the size that you want. In general, I would say, if you stick with like a four a six and eight, maybe a 10, you'll be in really good shape. So this is a Princeton 10, this is Summit, it is a flat, it's nice and big. It's about, what is that? That's not even an inch. So that's about me for a big brush, I do have a couple of larger ones that I use sometimes. This is what, I believe this will be a four. This is what a four is gonna look like. So, one in between is going to be a six. And same thing with your rounds. So here is your round, and it is an eight, you can go up to a 10, you can go down to a four, and I believe I've got an unopened round here, they put these caps on them to maintain their shape. And this is what a two looks like, so this is good for fine work. So again, if you wanna go two, four, six, eight, 10, you'll be in really good shape. So let's say you had two, four, six, eight, 10 in flats and rounds, or you could go four, six, eight, and maybe just one 10, and you'll be so happy. The ones that I use the most, I have to say, are the flats. Okay. That's for when you're painting, so long-handled, and if you like a stiffer brush, go into the art store, feel it. How does that feel? These tend to be a bit softer, I like a softer brush. But you can go into some that feel almost like bristle brushes, if that makes you happy. Okay. A couple of other kinds of brushes to think about. It's a house painter brush. What do I use this for? I use this for applying gesso to my supports. We'll talk about supports in some other videos, but you often will find that you need to apply a layer of gesso between your support and the paint, that's a barrier so that your paint doesn't soak into your support. So this is, again, a synthetic brush, it is a house painter brush, you can see that it's much loved, and I use this to apply gesso. When I work on a much bigger canvas, I have a bigger brush. So these get used extremely vigorously, and they really hold up. I do not like natural bristles for this either, because they tend to break off into your gesso and then it seals itself, and you've got to pick out all these nasty little brush hairs. So that's a good, well-loved gesso brush. One other brush that you might wanna think about, is, after you apply the gesso, in my practice, and how I teach my students, is I put on a ground. And a ground is a layer of thin paint, it's usually a color, and this color will remove the white and give you a base to work off with. I love this brush, it's called a mega brush. It is nylon, and it is a Filbert in this case, it's rounded, and it splays out, and I get really good coverage, but it's soft, so it doesn't leave streaks. You don't want to ruin a good brush with gesso, and this would be really too small to cover a canvas with. So for optimal happiness, you want a gesso brush, you want a brush for your grounds that's bigger, and then you want your beloved, and hopefully well-taken-care-of flats and rounds for your painting practice.