Oil Painting Brushes

Which Brush Is Best for Oil Painters?

 

The hairs used for good quality oil painting brushes are stiffer and taper differently than the natural hairs used for watercolor. Where the sables, horse, squirrel, ox, or goat hairs in watercolor brushes tend to be longer in taper and more supple, hairs from hogs, boars, badger, weasel, and mongoose are better for the more heavy bodied oil paints. Let's take a look at each.

The Kolinsky sable hair, especially the female golden brown hair, is used for oil painting brushes. These hairs are a bit stiffer than the tail hair of the males and have better snap and resilience. The true Kolinsky sable was banned from import to the U.S. in 2014. Today, Kolinsky sable actually comes from the Siberian weasel. The hairs are harvested from the tail of the males. This ban came about because sable martens where pure red sable comes from do not do well in captivity. The only way to harvest the hair was through trapping. Thankfully, that is now banned.

That's both good and bad news for the artist. Good the little critters' lives are saved, bad that these super high quality brushes are no longer available. But, the tail hair of the male Siberian weasel still makes a very fine --- and more affordable brush. Because manufacturers had back stock of Kolinsky sable, you may still be able to occasionally find some on the market. But when they are gone, they are gone. You will have to travel out of the country to purchase them legally, since the ban was for export to the U.S. only.

 Hog bristles. These are by far the best hairs for oil painting brushes. They hold a good paint load. They spread the paint uniformly. They blend the paint well. The best bristle comes from hogs in the Chunking region in China. On better quality brushes, the bristles are arranged in an interlocking fashion with the bristles curving inward. Hog bristle is naturally split at the ends and arranged thus they hold paint well and spread it around nicely. Cheaper bristle will have stiffer hairs, be arranged more erratically, and may turn both inward and outward making the brush look fuzzy.

Horse or pony hair is typically used in cheaper natural hair brushes and marketed for different kinds of paint use. Although sometimes sold as oil painting brushes, they are better for acrylics and watercolor, but are used more in student grade brushes and cosmetics. In terms of cost, they are cheaper than squirrel.
Badger hair, due to its shape being thinner at the root and fatter at the tip, makes for a bushier brush. Oil painters like these for blending.

Weasel and a close relative, fitch, hair are very resilient with long conical shapes. Although close in quality to red sable, they are not quite as supple making them better for oils than for watercolor.

Mongoose hair is strong and resilient with good pointing. But they are better for oils for this reason since they are not fine enough for watercolors. They are difficult to find sometimes.

There are a number of synthetics on the market in several brands that are designed for both oils and acrylics.
As with the natural hair brushes, you need to try them until you find one that fits your style of painting and feel in your hand. From a cost standpoint, synthetics are less expensive. You can see many of these brushes, natural and synthetic, and touch before you buy, in better quality art supply stores.

One last tip: brushes will last longer if you always pull, never push, your brush across the painting surface.
 by Rick Jones

 

Watercolor Brushes

What Type of Watercolor Brush Is Best?

With so many choices available on the market, how can you decide on the best brushes to use for watercolor? First, watercolor is a transparent medium. It goes on in thin layers of color and lets the white paper act as a white light source for your hues. How you want to put down those colors is as much personal choice as it is functional device. So, you want the feel and comfort of the brush to help guide your decision.

From a practical perspective, you want a brush that loads up with paint well to eliminate constantly dipping the brush into the paint or water. You want a brush made with natural hair that has a nice "belly", wider in the center, that tapers to a good point. Some natural hairs do this better than others. The best, in my opinion, is pure Kolinsky sable. Its large belly and long, tapered hairs hold a lot of fluid. These hairs, in the finest brushes, come from only the tail hairs of the male. So, for a truly fabulous watercolor painting experience, splurge on a Kolinsky sable brush at some point. These are the finest brushes for watercolor. But, keep in mind that pure Kolinsky sable was banned in 2014. Pure red sable from the sable marten is no longer available. Hence, today's Kolinsky sable comes from the tails of Siberian weasels. Still, they are fine brushes.

You can certainly find good watercolor brushes without going all out for pure Kolinsky. These are squirrel, goat, horse and "camel" to name the rest of the naturals. Then there are the synthetics such as nylon, silicone, and faux this or faux that. Try as many as you can until you find what works best for you and your personal style. By the way, earlier you saw that I put camel in quotes. That is because camel hair brushes are made from other critters' hair such as horse, goat, or squirrel. Also, many times these mixed hair brushes are just marketed as natural hair brushes. There is also ox, which comes from inside of cows ears. Sabeline is ox hair that has been bleached, then dyed to look like red sable.

Other considerations when buying brushes include a well-made ferrule (the metal thing that holds the hairs), short or long handle (short is usually preferred by watercolorists), and handle material (wood or plastic). The ferrule should be put on, as well as the hairs, with waterproof glue. The handle should be sealed well if made from wood.

Your brushes will last for many years if you buy good quality and take good care of them. One more tip: brushes last far longer if you always pull, and never push them across the painting surface.

 by Rick Jones

Best Type of Paper

What's the Best Type of Paper for Artists?

Paper surface is affected by a number of different factors. The type of fiber used to make the paper, the moulding or manufacturing process, whether made by machine or by hand, and screens used in finishing the process. Surface texture is referred to as "tooth". Tooth is determined by the texture of the screens used in the process. Let's review some terms and uses.

Terms and uses

1.  Acid-Free---made with a neutral PH giving it higher resistance to yellowing and becoming brittle over time. 
2.  Grammage---the weight of the measured in grams per square meter of paper (gsm). The higher the grammage the more it can endure coats of paint or amounts of water.
3.  Pounds (lbs.)---the weight of the paper measured in 500 sheets (ream) of a particular size. For example, standard 22"x30" ream of watercolor paper that weights 300 lbs. is a 300 lb. paper. Even if that paper is in larger than standard sheets and weighs much more, because a standard 22"x30" ream weighs 300 lbs., it is still a 300 lb. paper.
4.  Hot Press (HP)---paper that has been "ironed" by going through steel rollers. This creates a very smooth surface preferred by artists doing detail work in ink, graphite, or markers, for example. Used by portrait artists.
5.  Cold Press (CP)---sometimes referred to as "Not" meaning it has not been pressed by warm rollers. This paper has a light texture and is the paper surface most used by artists. The 140 lb. and 300 lb. weights work well for watercolor and printmaking.
6.   Laid---these have a very subtle line texture created by the manufacturing process. Ideal for softer mediums such as graphite, colored pencils, charcoal, and pastels.
7.  Rough---papers that are close to some handmade papers with a heavy textured surface. It produces textural qualities in drawing, pastels, and charcoal valued by some artists.
8.  Vellum---very smooth surface found in bristol and tracing papers. Excellent for highly detailed drawings.
9.   Deckle edges---the untrimmed and irregular edges of machine-made papers that are made to look like traditional handmade papers.

Papers made by hand produce unpredictable and uneven textures that are desired by many artists. Fibers and plant materials can be pressed into the paper during its production that creates interesting visual effects and possibilities. The most common handmade paper is made with 100% cotton fibers. These papers have good resilience and can absorb water well making them good for watercolor, acrylics, and ink washes.

Machine-made papers are moulded on rollers and are less expensive than most handmade papers. They also tend to be smoother and depending on certain types of rollers, the papers are quite smooth and less expensive.

The heavier papers like 140lb and 300lb take water well and are good for watercolor and washes as well as printmaking. Some artists also prefer to draw on the smoother surfaced papers in these heavy weights like vellum or smooth finishes. Lighter weight papers like 90lb and under work well for most drawing needs in pencil, charcoal, markers, etc.
By Rick Jones