Trimming Flats to Filberts
Stacy MinchDescription
Ever wondered how you can modify your flat paintbrushes to create more versatile strokes in your paintings? Join Stacy Minch in this creative and handy tutorial where she teaches you how to transform flat paintbrushes into versatile filberts. Stacy dives into the fascinating history of filbert brushes, explaining how artists originally crafted them by wearing down flat brushes over time to achieve their distinct rounded edges. Today, Stacy prefers to speed up the process using a simple and effective method.
In this video, Stacy demonstrates step-by-step how to reshape a flat brush into a filbert using nothing more than a pair of sharp scissors. She begins by flattening the brush, sometimes moistening it slightly for easier handling. With careful snips, she rounds the edges, ensuring the brush transitions smoothly from the ferrule—the metal part—to the tip, creating that desired rounded edge which is perfect for achieving soft transitions in your paintings.
Whether you’re a novice painter looking to expand your toolkit without breaking the bank, or an experienced artist interested in customizing your brushes, this video is packed with practical tips. Stacy emphasizes the importance of using sharp fabric scissors to avoid a jagged cut, ensuring a clean and effective transformation. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll be equipped to tailor your own brushes and bring a new level of finesse to your art projects. Join Stacy and learn how to create your very own filbert brush for more dynamic and fluid painting strokes!
Hi, my name is Stacey Minch. And today I'm going to show you how to trim flat paint brushes into Filberts. So one interesting thing about Filbert brushes is that they didn't used to exist. Artists would get this beautiful shape by using a flat brush for a long time and eventually the edges would wear off and create this rounded shape. Now, for me, I prefer Filbert brushes because they create a soft edge. And I'm often looking for that in my portraiture work. So this is a brand of brush that I like. It's called the pro stroke Power Reel by Creative Mark. And I found that I can order these brushes in bulk, but a lot of the brushes come as flats. So sometimes I want to change my flat brush into a Filbert brush and I'm going to show you how I do that today. So if we look at the shape of this Filbert, it's gently rounded on the sides. And so I take a scissor and I make sure that this brush is flat, you can get it a little bit wet if you wanna be able to shape the brush before you cut it and you just start gently on the side in a rounded motion. Beginning to trim those hairs helps to have a really sharp scissor with these scissors, they're a little bit dull. So, um, I'm kind of fanning out the bristles here just to make the matter that the scissor is cutting through a little bit thinner. That helps a little bit. But if you're going to do this at home, make sure you have a sharp pair of um fabric scissors. They usually work pretty well. It's not that important and the shape is exactly perfect. It's just that um the edges round a little bit so that you don't get that sharp pointy edge. If you're not looking for that, what I like about the filberts is that soft transition. When you lay down a brush stroke, sometimes you want a sharp transition with the flat. But like I said, when I buy these brushes in bulk, most of them come in flats. So I improvise by making my own here, just try this direction. This is a little bit more dangerous because it's not as gradual. There we go. And so that's not completely perfect. But you get the general idea, use a sharp scissor. So as you're trimming these brushes move gently from the feral. The feral is this metal part right here towards the point to create this beautifully rounded edge. And with just some a few simple cuts, you can create a filbert brush to get those soft, gentle transitions as you're painting.
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