Paint brushes are incredibly powerful tools that help artists put out their imagination on the canvas. Nearly every artist has these tools in their studio as paint and paint brushes go hand-in-hand. Paint brushes come in various sizes, shapes, and materials. You’ve got various options when it comes to picking out your favorite paint brush. Every artist has their own style of painting, so there is no right or wrong brushes. It’s up to the artist to decide which one they are most comfortable working with! Here we take you through all that you need to know about the different types of paint brushes to make it easier to achieve different effects you are looking for.

Anatomy Of Paint Brushes

Paint brushes are an artist’s most important tool, so it is best to understand the various parts of your paintbrush before you start. These magical wands (paintbrush) consist of three major parts – bristles, ferrule, and handle.

Bristles – Bristles is the head of the brush that holds the paint. This type of paint brushes are made from natural hair, synthetic fibers, or a combination of both. Bristles come in different shapes, which dictate the type of brush it is; bright, fan, filbert, flat and round. The tip of the bristles is called the toe, while the heel is where the strands go into the ferrule at the tip of the handle, and the belly is the fattest part of the bristle head.

Ferrule – The ferrule of a brush is the metal band that holds the brush together, and the crimp is the part of the ferrule that holds the bristles and the handle together. Ferrules are made from tin, aluminum, brass, copper alloy, nickel, or chrome plated. The quality of the ferrules should be good; else the bristles may fall out.

Handle – Handles are made from a wide variety of material like plastic, wood, acrylic or even bones. Length of the handle differs from brand to brand. Long handles help an artist reach further while shorter ones provide more control. The number printed on the handle indicates the size of the paint brushes, starting from 0, 1, 2, up to 12 or larger.

Most Common Types Of Paint Brushes And Their Uses

Paint brushes are available in a variety of sizes and shapes. You might be wondering, why are there so many types of paint brushes for art? To help navigate the wide variety of paintbrushes, we’ve outlined a few of the most common types below. Read on to know more about the types of art brushes and their uses for beginners and art-lovers.

Round Paint Brushes

The round brushes have bristles that are in a circular formation with pointed tips. They are the most adaptable kind of brushes as you can do a whole lot of things with them.  It’s ideal for painting lines of all sizes, covering large areas quickly and easy to work on details.

Used For: Sketching, outlining, detailed work, controlled washes, and filling small areas. You can create thin lines with the tip and wider lines by pressing it down.

Flat Paint Brushes

Flat Paint Brushes are good for spreading paint quickly and evenly over a surface. They have flat style bristles that are square or rectangle in shape.

Used For: Filling wide spaces and bold strokes. Use edges for fine lines, straight edges and stripes. Long haired flat paint brushes can be used for varnishing too.

Bright Paint Brushes

A bright brush looks very similar to the flat brush but it has a shorter bristle than the flat brush. For best results hold the brush closer rather than holding the brush at a distance from the canvas.

Used For: Short controlled strokes, thick heavy coloring.

Filbert Paint Brushes

Filbert paint brushes are essentially a flat and oval-shaped end with medium to long hairs. Their rounded edges are effective in blending paint pigments. Natural fibers work best for filberts as the hairs stick together better when wet.

Used For: Blending, detailing soft rounded edges, thick covering.

Fan Paint Brushes

The fan brush is a flat and splayed brush that can be used to stipple or flick paint onto the canvas. Fan brushes are great for creating unique textures and special effects. These types of painting brushes make it easy to create multiple lines or dots at once. It’s helpful in creating modulating marks and interesting textural effects.

Used For: Good for smoothing, blending broad areas of paint, textural effects.

Angled Paint Brushes

Use of angled paint brushes are versatile and can be applied in both general painting applications as well as some detail work. Bristles are tapered to a point which gives the brush the ability to spread pigment over large areas as well as paint tight corners to offer finer handling.

Used For: Curved strokes, filling corners, filling wide spaces, to reach small areas with tips.

Mop Paint Brushes

A mop brush is a large, round edged wash brush most commonly used to cover large areas. It is used for soft paint application as well as for getting thinner glazes over existing drying layers of paint without damaging lower layers.

Used For: Covering large areas, for wetting the surface, and for absorbing excess media.

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Rigger Paint Brushes

A rigger brush has longer hair compared to the other types of paint brushes. It is used for painting straight lines in oil, acrylic or watercolor. Rigger brushes are available in synthetic and sable hair.

Used For: Good for drawing fine lines, commonly used to paint the rigging on maritime paintings.

Paint brushes are like magic wands for weaving colors across the canvas. Choosing the correct brush makes it easy to create the masterpiece in your mind. Hope this page will help you choose the right paint brushes to suit your needs. It’s time to pick up your brushes. Happy painting!