The Painter’s Brush

The brush of a painter is an important tool through which the artist wields his power and expresses his emotions. The canvass, the oil, and all the other painting media are important too, but these leave the artist when the work is done. Only the paint brushes stay, faithful and willing to participate in the making of the next masterpiece. Painters need two kinds of brushes. One is stiff and the other is soft. A painter usually has a range of sizes for both types of brushes. The stiff brushes are used for the majority of painting tasks and it comes in three shapes: the round, the flat and the filbert. For all ye art beginners, filbert is a shape that is rounded at the base and tapers to a point at the tip. Stiff brushes are made of hog bristles but there are also synthetic bristles available that can make acceptable results. Naturally, many painters prefer the genuine article. The soft brushes are used for putting in fine details. Painters agree that the best soft brushes are the ones made of sable. Since sable brushes are expensive, there are substitutes available. But the brush strokes made using these replacements are not as good as the ones made by the sable-made soft brush. There is also a kind of brush made of either sable or hog hair. It is called a fan-head brush and it...

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