Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

Types of Brushes

1. Spotters- Fine detail work
2. Liners- Continuous curved or straight lines of same thickness
3. Scripts- Holds more liquid than Liners
4. Miracle Wedge- Can be loaded on three sides with different colors
5. Chisel Blenders- Thick, heavy color or fine precision blending
6. Angular Shaders- Fan, leaf, “S”, and “C” strokes
7. Filbert- Soft edges and blending colors
8. Rake- Texturing for fur, grasses, vines, or feathers
9. Fan- Dry texturing and smoothing, softening of brush strokes
10. Dagger Striper- Long flowing thick to thin line work
11. Deerfoot Stippler- Texturizing with pouncing motion for fur or foliage
12. Washes- Long, broad sweeping strokes · Shaders- Crisp edges, stroke work, and floating
13. One Stroke- Longer hair than Shader for lettering and borders

Natural or Synthetic?

Natural brushes are made of animal hair and are usually the most costly and time consuming to make. Most painters feel that a natural brush gives the finest chiseled edge or point. Synthetic brushes are manufactured with hairs made of polyester. The advantages of a synthetic brush include being less expensive to produce, easier to clean, less prone to damage from solvents and paint, and better suited for painting with acrylics.

Proper Care of Brushes

1. Use the proper solvent for the paint being used. Watercolors and acrylics use water. Oils use solvents.
2. Keep the water-based brushes and solvent brushes (oils) separate. Most solvents repel water.
3. Always clean the brush between brush changes and color changes. Never allow paint to dry on the brush. Acrylics dry very quickly, even when basecoating with an acrylic there is a need to clean the brush occasionally.
4. Avoid twisting and pushing down hard on the brush hairs. It leads to distortion of the natural direction of the hairs. The fine edge or point of the brush is permanently damaged.
5. The water level of your water container should not be above the ferrule (where brush hair is attached to handle) of the brush. Excessive moisture to the handle can cause the surface of the handle to chip and erode causing damage to the ferrule and brush handle. Excessive moisture will distort and loosen the ferrule.
6. Never let a brush sit in water. Clean or rinse brush and remove from water container. When the painting session is done completely clean the brush. First wipe brush on a paper towel. Rinse thoroughly in proper solvent. A brush cleaner or soap and water should be used. Then wipe brush over paper towel again to make sure there are no traces of color left in brush. Dry the brush including ferrule and handle. Reshape the brush with fingers.
7. Store brushes upright on their handles, suspended, or lying flat. Tips (brush hair) should not be bent or pressured.
8. Avoid storing wet brushes in an airtight container to prevent mildew problems.
9. Do not try to keep placing the little plastic tip protector back on the brush. More times than not, damage is done to the brush hairs. The plastic tip was meant to protect the brush from the manufacturer to the store shelf.
10. Avoid getting paint into the ferrule. It is better to have a light touch with the paints and have to apply a second coat, than to overload a brush with paint. It is a good idea to occasionally restore the natural oils in natural hair brushes with a paintbrush conditioner or clean with conditioning brush soap.
11. Use damaged brushes for basecoating, strippling, antiquing, or donate to a children’s craft class.