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| A Few Choice Words About Brushes |
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by Florida Artist Robert
Long |
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Sharon and I are frequently asked, “What brushes
should I buy?” We reply: “What size paintings will you be
doing?” Almost always we hear, “What difference does it make?”
Think for a moment about painting an eighth sheet painting (approximately
7.5” x 10”). If, for this painting, you choose round brushes sizes 1
and 3, angular brushes size 1/4” and 3/8,” flat brushes 1/2” and
3/4” and Filbert brushes sizes 6 and 8, when you decide to do the same
painting ina quarter sheet format, every brush you used for the first painting
with a half inch flat will need to be done with a 3/4” brush in the
quarter sheet painting. Things you did with the 3/4” brush in the first
painting will now need to be done with a 1” brush. The same will apply to
the sizes of rounds and angulars. If you think about it, using the same size
brush in a larger painting to do the same task will result in doing two or
three strokes of the brush for each one stroke you made in the smaller
painting. This of course will result in a change in the look or style your
painting will have.
When choosing brush sizes for a painting, we must give thought to
what our painting will include. If our painting will include large wash areas
such as skies, bodies of water, etc. we must include a relative large brush for
that purpose. Opinions vary as to which type large brush should be used. While
any large brush will work, I tend to use flats and angulars for this purpose.
The bushy goat hair brush is a good choice for skies but is not as useful for
other wash applications. |
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