The paintbrush will be your magic wand for weaving colors across the canvas. Artist paint brushes become beloved tools the more you use them! As you paint, you will become increasingly familiar with the way the brushes handle the paint and what they can accomplish for you. Pretty soon the paintbrush will become a part of you that you intuitively know how to maneuver.
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If you're just starting out in acrylics, it can be a bit overwhelming standing in the paintbrush aisle at the art store, with a vast sea of artist paint brushes spread out before you. The wide selection even makes me dizzy sometimes!
No fear - the Art is Fun Paintbrush Guide is here! This page will tell you everything you need to know in order to select the right paintbrushes to suit your needs.
Paintbrushes for acrylics come in many different shapes and sizes. The shapes and sizes of the brushes you choose to work with will depend mainly on how large you want to work, and how detailed you want to get. Take a look:
Page 1........ describes the different types of brushes for acrylics and what each paintbrush can do.
Page 2........ answers all the questions that a beginning artist will have about paintbrushes.
Page 3........ explains how to safely care for your paintbrushes and keep them happy.
Page 4........ demonstrates the best way to clean, store and transport your paintbrushes.
Find out what acrylic painting supplies you should get if you want to get started with acrylic paintings. If you're a total beginner to painting with acrylics, learn what paints are best for you!
Here's an enlightening step-by-step visual guide about how to paint abstract art in acrylics. If you like colorful artwork and want to learn techniques for creating your own funky paintings, this guide is for you!
Click here to return to the main Acrylic Table of Contents page, where you can find heaps of useful info for painting with acrylics!
Causes of damaged brushes
Brush hairs can start to fray from use alone. It’s only natural that over time hairs start to pull apart and not pull to a sharp point, but there are other factors contributing to hair damage:
Not cleaning your brushes
Leaving your paintbrushes to dry without cleaning them can cause the paint to splay and bend the hair. We recommend that you clean your brushes straight after using them to stop this happening.
Over cleaning brushes
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Over cleaning or aggressive cleaning can actually wear down and bend your brush hair, especially with sensitive natural hair or softer synthetics. When cleaning your brushes, be careful and gently knead out any paint.
Using the incorrect solvents can also weaken paintbrush hair and make them more prone to damage.
Brush storage
Either during your painting or cleaning processes when you are not using your brushes, ensure that they are laid on a flat surface. Storing a brush upside down in water uses the weight of the brush to bend the hair.
Storing the brush upright after cleaning allows the colour to run back down into the ferrule. Once this water evaporates, the paint dries and splays the hairs. Unfortunately, because paint in the ferrule is inaccessible, the brush will now be beyond repair.
Restoring your brush
The first thing that you need to do is remove any old paint from the brush. You can read our blog on brush cleaning for more information.
Reshaping synthetic paintbrushes
Bring a pot of water to the boil and submerge all the hair for 10-15 seconds (Tip. You can shake the brush to ensure that the water penetrates all the hairs). The more bent the hair, the longer you want to hold it under water. Following this, gently reshape the brush either with your fingertips or by rolling the brush on a cloth to bring it back to a point. Finally, lay the brush down flat to dry.
Reshaping natural hair paintbrushes
This process is similar to synthetic brush reshaping, although natural hair is much more sensitive to boiling water. Instead, use simmering water and only hold the tip of the hair under water. The rest of the process in the same: gently reshape the brush either with your fingertips or by rolling the brush on a cloth to bring it back to a point. Finally, lay the brush down flat to dry.
Other tips
For any reluctant hairs, you can pick these with a pair of tweezers. Ensure that you’re picking these as close to the ferrule as possible- you want to pull the hair out of the glue, not snapping the hair!
Throw away your brush caps! These are only to ensure that the brush head remains intact during transport and should not be replaced once the brush has been used as you can trap and damage hairs.
Remember that paintbrush hair is very delicate, so there is only a certain number of times that you can reshape and repoint them. But this guide should help to extend the life of your materials.
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