Brushes for Different Aspects of a Painting

If you are a beginner artist then you might be asking yourself “Which brush is the best choice for the different aspects of a painting?”

Learning how to distinguish paint brush types is an important part of being a good painter. Having the right paintbrush at your disposal can help you create a number of different techniques on the canvas.

For simply creating figures or shapes in painting the best types of brushes to us are round with pointed tips.

These are called rounds or round paintbrushes in the store. These brushes are good for roughing out the shape of figures or a landscape.

If you want to fill in a landscape or figure then using any of the flat bristled paintbrushes is a good idea. As they are flat they can carry a little more paint on them than other types of brushes. Brights are shorter versions of flats that fill in blocks of color in smaller spaces in a painting.

Stippler paintbrushes are used to create dappled marks on canvas. Stormy seas or green fields rippled by winds are examples of the kind of textured surface that can be created with a stippler paintbrush. Stipplers can be described as short stubby rounds.

There are several types of paintbrushes that are strictly used for drawing thinner lines or line drawings. These include liner paintbrushes. Liner paintbrushes can be described as elongated round paintbrushes and are good for drawing.

Highly elongated rounds with exaggerated tips are also known as dagger paintbrushes. Brushes that have bristles that are splayed out are known as fan paintbrushes because that is exactly what they look like – a spread woman’s fan.

It is important to have a big selection of different types of paintbrushes on hand so that you can fill all aspects of your painting as needed and create the exact types of effects that you need.

Many artists splurge and get every single type of paintbrush that is available but if you are on a budget all you really need is a good round, a stippler, a fine liner and a fan.

With those four types of paintbrushes you should be able to create any type of effect that you want using acrylic, oil or watercolor paint. Just remember that if you are painting in watercolors that it is to your benefit to use a sable or human hair brush as it holds the water and color better than a stiff nylon brush.