Which Brushes Are Best For Painting in Acrylics

If you are confused about which art brushes you should buy to get started painting in acrylics, then you can find my recommendations below. Before I get into that, though, let’s talk about the different brushes that are available.

Brush Sizes

Brushes are sized by numbers, starting from the smallest which is generally 000.  You should include a range of sizes in both flat and round types in your kit.  Brush companies number their brushes differently so can sometimes be difficult to choose the correct size.  If you think of the sizes in terms of where they fit on the scale of numbers available for each particular brand then you shouldn’t go too far wrong.

Type of Bristle

Brushes come in a variety of different bristle types.  The most common are hog hair, synthetic and sable.  You can also get goat hair which is nice and soft for gentle blending but these are not so readily available.

Different Shapes of Paint Brushes and Their Uses

There are many different shaped brushes, each one designed for a different purpose. Most brushes can multi-task, however you will make the learning curve easier when you understand the purpose of each brush.

• Flat brush – used for large areas such as skies or backgrounds.  Comes in synthetic, sable or bristle.  All of these work great for blending but you might achieve a softer blend with a synthetic or sable brush.  Great for fast coverage and blending colours together wet-in-wet. 
• Round brush – Comes to a point at the end.  These are what you generally think of when you think of an artist’s brush.  You can use them for any of the objects you might want to paint.  You might use a large round brush brush for a tree trunk, a vase or a piece of fruit.  Small round brushes are great for fine lines. As general rule, a round brush is best for painting anything with rounded edges
• Fan brush – This is my favourite of all the brushes because it is so versatile.  The fan brush is made from stiff bristles that are spread apart.  Hog hair bristles are the best for objects such as leaves, grass, sea foam or anywhere where you need a stippling effect.  You can also drag the fan brush along the surface to get really fine lines close together, such as in fur, hair or even eyelashes.  Use a softer sable fan brush for gently blending washes or glazes.
• Bright – like a flat brush but with short stiff bristles. These are great for pushing paint around the canvas when you are softening edges, removing unwanted paint or scumbling.
• Filbert – like a flat brush but with a rounded end.  Use these where you want to achieve soft edges on large areas.  Great for clouds.
• Rigger – a longer, fine round brush that will hold more paint.  I like to use these for very fine lines, like signing your name, because you don’t need to reload the brush as often.
• Mop – a round brush with bristles that are spread out at the ends. These hold a lot of paint and can be used for soft edges, washes or gentle blending.
• Angle – a flat brush that comes to a point at one end.  These are perfect for getting into tight corners or painting straight lines such as the edges of walls on a building or the horizon.
  

• 

• 

• 

• 

Which Brushes To Buy When You Are Just Getting Started

I like to use a variety of both hog bristle and synthetic bristle brushes.  You could also include some of the softer, sable brushes but they are quite expensive and honestly, I think that for acrylics, the synthetic ones work just as well, if not better.

The sizes and shapes of brushes I recommend you buy if you are just getting started are listed below. Try to include at lease one flat hog bristle brush. This selection will allow you to create pretty much any desired painting effect.

• Small round (0) 
• Medium round (6)
• Large round (10)  
• Small flat
• Large flat
• Fan

If you are more serious about learning to paint, then you might also want to include the following, if the budget allows. These specialty brushes are going to make painting any number of tricky situations that much easier.

• Angle
• Bright
• Mop
• Filbert 
• Rigger or liner

Do you need help with figuring out what other supplies you need? If so, I have a free art tools checklist for you.

There are also lots of other free art-learning resources for painting in acrylics on the Blue Beach House Art Website. You can find them here