BRUSHES
THE BRUSH is said to date back at least thirty thousand years. The brush was probably first developed for the purpose of writing and later evolved into a tool for drawing and painting. Originally, brushes were made from plants or feathers. The bamboo brush is an example of a plant brush that is still made today in Japan. It is produced by sticking one end of a short stalk of bamboo into moist earth and leaving it to decompose. The ground surrounding the bamboo is kept moist for three to five weeks. The end of the stick is then sufficiently decomposed so that it can be mashed with a mallet to form strands of fibers that resemble coarse hairs.
The earliest records of brushes made with hair are found in Chinese writings dating from about 250 B.C. Commercial brush making in Europe did not begin until the late eighteenth century. The Max Sauer Company of France, one of the oldest brush makers in the West, established in 1793, still produces brushes under such names as Raphael, Sauer, Renard, and Gerard. The Raphael name is used primarily for its artists' brushes. Today, however, there is a proliferation of brushes in the marketplace sold under many company names; in reality there are few companies that actually manufacture the brushes available under their names. This makes it possible to see the same style and quality of brush sold under different names and for different prices. Although the reputation of some manufacturers can help in making a decision about buying a particular brush, this is still no substitute for basic knowledge of how to test for quality and performance.
The purpose of this section is not only to show you how to get your money's worth, but also to help you to acquire the correct style and type of brush to accomplish what you wish. After all, what is the point of getting the best value in a brush that will not do the job?
HAIRS, BRISTLES, & SYNTHETICS
Hairs, Bristle, and nylon filaments work as devices for holding and applying ink or paint because of capillary attraction-the natural attraction of a liquid for a solid and its tendency to flow toward it. When hairs, bristles, and nylon fila ments are grouped together to form a brush and dipped into a liquid, the liquid will tend to be drawn up between the hairs and be held in place. When the tip of the brush is touched to an absorbent surface, the liquid will be transferred to it with the help of gravity. Thick paints rely more on pressure than on gravity to be transferred to an absorbent surface.
There are two main characteristics that distinguish one hair from another. as well as hair from bristle and nylon filaments. The first and most important char acteristic is the hair's degree of absorbency. Hairs have scales, and the more scales, the greater the surface area to attract and hold liquids. This increased absorbency provides greater control in the application of inks or paints because they are held within the body of the brush, allowing for even flow off the tip of the brush. Brushes made of less absorbent hairs, or nonabsorbent synthetic fila ments, accumulate liquids at the tip. Inks or paints tend to run quickly and often uncontrollably off the tips of such brushes during application. Spring or stiffness is the second most important characteristic. The presence or lack of it in a particular hair will define how it can be used and with what type of liquid. The large variety of hairs, bristles, and nylon filaments, as well as the way they can be blended and shaped into brushes, provides a vast opportunity for differing styles of expression. Only a knowledgeable painter can, however, take full advantage of this potential.
The availability of choice, natural hairs for brushes is shrinking while the price is rising. One of the major causes for this situation is the increasing number of animals placed on endangered-species lists by importing and export ing countries. The current explosion of new regulations about what is legal for one country to export and what is legal for another country to receive has led to absurd occurrences. There is one story of fill importer of hairs from around the world who was attempting to declare to customs the importation of some nylon "hair." The customs agent insisted on knowing the name of the animal from which nylon "hair" was obtained so he could check it against his list of endangered animals. No amount of explanation that these were synthetic hairs would deter this agent from his appointed duty. Ultimately, it took a phone call to a local congressman to get the shipment released.
The following descriptions are of hairs, bristles, and nylon filaments that are considered in most countries to be both desirable and legal for brush making.
Sable
The name "sable" was made up by trappers to refer to the marten, and especially one particular marten, Martes zibellina. The name "red sable" was used to denote both the weasel and the Asian mink (also known as the kolinsky), which have a yellow-reddish tint to their brown hair. All these animals are so closely related that they are part of the same family, Mustelidae. The red sable is of primary interest to the artist because the finest sable brushes are made from its fur. White sable and golden sable are merely trade names for synthetic filaments used as substitutes for animal hair.
Sable is chosen for its spring (the ability to return quickly to its original shape) and its point (the ability to return to a fine pointed shape). The shape of an individual hair resembles an elongated pear. There is greater width in the middle of the hair than at the tip, which is pointed. This hair shape is what gives sable its strength to spring back and to come to a very fine point. The strength
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KOLINSKY SABLE
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SABLE
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NYLON
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OX
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SQUIRREL
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SHEEP
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MONGOOSE
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HORSE
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BADGER
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BRISTLE
of the spring and the length and fineness of the tip of the hair together determine the quality and the price of the brush. Consequently, hairs collected from wild animals that live in colder climates are preferred because their fur grows thicker and longer. The best-quality brushes are made with hairs that are collected from the middle, or belly, of the tail. The hairs are longer at the end of the tail, but also are thinner, have less body, and are usually damaged, blunted, or kinked from the animal's activity. These hairs are used in lower-quality sable brushes and sometimes as filler in medium-quality brushes.
Kolinsky
Kolinsky is a particular strain of mink that lived at one time in the Kola Penin sula in the western part of Russia and was the source for the finest red sable brushes. Today, there are no kolinskys left in the area. This animal is virtually extinct and is, therefore, a protected species in Russia. The name "kolinsky," however, is currently used to denote the hair acquired from the Asian mink, Mustela siberica, that lives in Siberia, northern China, and Korea. Hairs from the tail of this animal were highly prized and set the world standard for length (up to 2¼ inches), spring, and point. The finest varieties, the longest and the thickest hairs, come from the coldest climates and, because Siberia is farthest north, the best kolinsky comes from the Soviet Union.
The longest and strongest hair is taken from the male winter coat of the kolinsky. The Soviets have severely restricted trade of the animal, and at this time the German brush manufacturer da Vinci (who produces brushes under the names Realite and Cosmos). is the only one who claims still to be trading with them and using this hair. It is the only manufacturer that I have found that will volunteer information about its finest brushes, such as whether it is using male winter coat hair and how much is being used. Other manufacturers, such as Grumbacher, claim still to be using old stock that they accumulated before the restrictions. Manufacturers that have exhausted their stock are now using the Chinese and Korean kolinsky.
The color of Siberian kolinsky hair is brown with a distinctive yellowish-red tint. The Chinese variety tends to be slightly darker with less red. Tiny dark spots running the length of the hair are not unusual. The term "red sable" comes from the reddish tint this hair naturally possesses. Because this hair often sells for several thousands of dollars per pound, it is not uncommon to find hair that has been cosmetically treated to look like the Siberian variety. Crudely treated hairs can often be recognized by an unnatural bright orange tint.
Red Sable
Red Sable is a large category, which includes hair from "seconds" of kolinsky and hair from the weasel. The kolinsky hairs are called seconds because they are thinner overall, particularly in the longer hairs. Hair from the marten, particularly Martes zibellina, is included in this category by some manufacturers more because of the quality than the color. The finest red sable is always sepa rated from the rest and called either "kolinsky sable," "kolinsky mink," or just "kolinsky."
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Red sable hair has slightly less spring than kolinsky and is a little stiffer, and the tips are a little blunter. These characteristics can be attributed more to the warmer climates in which the animals are found than to the differences among species. Most red sable hair, darker in appearance than kolinsky, can vary widely in quality and appearance. In some cases, the better red sable is almost indistinguishable from the kolinsky. In general, red sable makes fine-quality brushes when the hairs are selected for quality and are arranged properly during brush making. When hairs from the end of the tail, which are often thin and kinked, are used, and quality control is poor, the performance can be far less than that of synthetic "sables."
Weasel
Weasel is a Mustela, as is the kolinsky. The hair is similar, but of inferior quality, shorter and with less thickness, or belly. This hair is commonly used as a filler in sable brushes. Weasel hair is preferred in certain styles of Oriental brushes.
Sable or Brown Sable
Sable or Brown Sable brushes that are not designated either red sable or kolinsky, are made of hairs obtained from varieties of the marten, or are left over from the production of the other sable brushes. The quality of brushes made from these hairs varies greatly, from a brush that is virtually useless to an adequate student-grade brush.
Ermine
Ermine was used a century ago in Europe and America when better sables were less common. The hairs are very short by comparison and could only be used for making small brushes. Ermine has essentially been replaced by red sable.
Synthetic Sables
Synthetic Sables are known by many names. The two most common are White Sable, created by the Simmons Brush Company, and golden sable. White or colored, all synthetic sables are some variation of nylon filaments developed and manufactured in Japan. Most of the brushes, with or without handles, are assembled in Japan, regardless of the label. There are some differences in synthetic brushes because of variations in the assembly of the filaments, which are specified by those commissioning their manufacture. These differences are small, however, when compared to the difference between synthetic and natural sables. The shape of the nylon filament is pointed at the tip, and the body is straight and uniform. The filaments used to duplicate hairs range in diameter from 0.08mm to 0.15mm; those for bristles are 0.20mm or more. Nylon has remark able spring, so much so that many professionals feel it is a drawback. Some manufacturers have attempted to deal with this by varying the width of the filaments or blending the synthetic with natural hair.
Another common complaint is the non-absorbency of the synthetic hair. This is a particular problem with watercolor because the color gathers excessively at the tip and runs quickly off the brush onto the more absorbent surface, making control difficult. Recently, some manufacturers began trying to increase the absorbency of nylon either by etching the surface of the filament to simulate the scales of natural hairs or by coating the hairs to reduce the surface tension. Both do help a bit, but there is the question of whether the improvement is worth the extra expense.
There are significant advantages to synthetic brushes. These include the cost of the larger-size brushes, which can be one-tenth the price of red sable. A good synthetic filament is better than a bad red sable.
Ox (Sabeline)
Sabeline is light ox hair dyed to a reddish tint so that the brush's appearance will resemble that of red sable. Only the astronomical price of sable and the lack of absorbency in synthetic hairs keep ox hair in use. Ox hair, which comes from the ears of oxen, has springiness similar to that of sable, but it does not have the fine tip. The tip of the hair is actually quite blunt when compared to sable and will not form a fine point when used to make a round brush, or a fine edge when used to make a flat brush. Both Grumbacher and Winsor & Newton claim that the lighter shades of ox hair are superior to the darker shades. Max Sauer Company claims that the color has less to do with quality than do the method of preparation and the origin of the animal. I believe, light or dark, you should test the brush first to see if it is right for you.
Since the darker varieties of ox hair are longer, they are more commonly used in large flat brushes. The lighter-colored hairs are shorter and are usually used in watercolor flats and round brushes.
Camel
There is no such hair as camel hair used in the making of brushes. "Camel hair" is a trade term for various inexpensive, poor-quality hairs such as pony, bear, sheep, lesser grades of squirrel, or whatever else is available at the time. These brushes are unprofessional and have no redeeming qualities, except that they are inexpensive and .resemble artists' brushes.
Squirrel
Squirrel hair, with one exception, is a thin hair with a pointed tip and a more or less uniform body. It is soft and absorbent, and it has a natural affinity for itself, which means that when a brush made of squirrel hair is fully wet, it can come to an exceptionally fine point. Squirrel hair, however, has little or no spring.
Squirrel is basically misunderstood. When sable rose dramatically in price, many artists turned to squirrel as a less expensive alternative and became disillusioned when it did not perform like sable primarily because of the lack of spring. A good-quality squirrel brush was never meant to be used as a cheap sable replacement. Its particular qualities make it ideal for watercolor wash technique, lettering, and for the application of paints when an exceptionally smooth finish is required. There are four kinds of squirrel that are primarily used in the making of artists' brushes.
Kazan Squirrel
Kazan Squirrel is named for its home province in the Soviet Union. Hair derived from the tail of this animal is highly prized for its superb tip and elasticity, and is considered the best of the squirrel hairs. This hair is used in making the finest watercolor brushes. It can range in color from black to black with red tips and flecks of gray along the shaft.
Blue Squirrel
Blue Squirrel hair is similar to kazan, except that it is longer and of slightly lower quality. The hairs are blue-black with a gray root.
Taleutky hair
Taleutky hair is stronger and longer than the other squirrel hairs and is primarily used to make lettering quills.
Canadian or Golden Squirrel Hair
Canadian or Golden Squirrel hair is shorter and thicker than the other Soviet varieties; it is the only squirrel hair that possesses a "belly." This belly resembles sable hair not only in appearance but also in handling. Although it is too short for round brushes and possesses little spring, it does make a fine-quality watercolor flat and is a reasonable alternative to the high cost of sable. The hair appears variegated with gold and black coloring.
BRISTLE
Hog, boar, and pig hairs are called bristles because of their stiff and coarse appearance. They are actually so stiff that they were used as the balance spring in the first pocket watch. Bristle has a relatively uniform body with natural curve and a "flagged," or split end. The curve is either removed or reduced during the boiling and preparation of the bristles. Interlocked brushes are made from hairs that have been boiled for only two hours so that some curve remains. An inter locked brush takes advantage of the curve; the bristles are assembled so that the curved bristles oppose one another. As with a broom, this helps keep the tip from splaying to give better control.
One of the desirable characteristics of hog bristle is flagging-the multiple tips provided by split ends. The greater the flagging, the better the control. Wild hogs have more split ends than the domesticated animal. Currently, the best hog bristle comes from China, where there are more wild hogs. Bristle from the Chungking province of China is said to be the best.
BADGER
Badger hair, which has a variegated black and white appearance, is not com monly used to make artists' brushes. The one important exception is in blending brushes, for which it is excellent. Sable is too expensive for this purpose, and because of the fineness of the hair it has to be frequently cleaned of paint build up. Badger, however, is longer and thicker than sable and less costly.
MONGOOSE
There are more than forty species of mongoose throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe, all of which are considered in most countries to be endangered. India at this time seems to have far more mongoose than it cares to, and is, therefore, one of the few legal sources for this hair.
Mongoose hair is closer to sable in appearance and performance than it is to bristle. The tip of the hair comes to a tapering point like sable, but the belly is much thicker and therefore stiffer. The hairs, on average, are a bit longer than most sable. Mongoose is also similar in appearance to badger; both have a varie gated colored body. Badger is often used as a cheap filler for mongoose brushes. One way to tell the difference is that mongoose hair has a dark tip and badger hair has a white tip.
Brushes made of mongoose are made primarily for oil painting, and are excellent for times when bristle is too crude and sable is not stiff enough to push thicker paint mixtures over the painting surface. Mongoose is priced between sable and bristle, and is often sold as a cheaper alternative to sable. It makes a fine brush for certain jobs, regardless of the price.
MISCELLANEOUS HAIRS
Fitch, pony, and monkey, as well as the lesser grades of badger and mongoose hair, are animal hairs used in the making of Western brushes to produce less expensive alternatives to such hairs as sable and squirrel. These hairs are most often used as fillers. A percentage of sable, for example, will be replaced with fitch hair to produce a more moderately priced brush. I tend to avoid brushes that have filler because their performance is unpredictable.
Monkey Hair
Monkey Hair, a relatively short hair that often appears light brown in the middle and almost blond at the tip, is usually found in combination with other hairs. These brushes are produced as a less expensive sablel-ike oil painting brush. I find the savings and the performance not great enough to overcome my own inhibitions about using brushes made of primate hair.
Fitch Hair,
Fitch Hair, which is from the polecat (a close relative of the weasel), is similar to but coarser than weasel. The hair ranges from dark brown to almost black. Brushes made from fitch hair can be a cost-effective alternative to sable oil painting brushes. I have found that these brushes are not manufactured with the same quality control, possibly due to the low cost, and should be examined carefully for defects and for tips that have been cut to make them even. Fitch hair brushes are sometimes called Russian sable, black sable, or Russian black sable as a marketing gimmick to promote sales.
Pony Hair
Pony Hair is coarse, often kinked, and very inexpensive. This hair is used to manufacture school brushes and can sometimes be found as a filler in squirrel hair brushes. Pony hair does not perform well and should be avoided.
HAIRS PRIMARILY USED IN ORIENTAL BRUSHES
Samba, horse, deer, weasel, cat, sheep, and goat are the animals whose hair is most often used in the manufacture of Chinese and Japanese brushes. The coarsest and stiffest hair is that of the samba, the horse, and the back of the deer. The hair of the weasel and the inner arch of the deer is less coarse and stiff. The hair of the cat, sheep, and goat is softer, finer, and has less spring. Brushes made of bamboo resemble samba hair in coarseness and behavior.
There are Oriental brushes that are labeled or called wolf hair. All such brushes that have been shown to me were actually sable or combinations of sable and weasel. One of the oldest importers of Oriental artists' materials explained that the confusion lies in some old and poor translation from Chinese to Japanese. Today, when a Japanese importer orders wolf from a Chinese exporter he knows that sable or weasel will be delivered. This situation is further complicated by the recent involvement of Western importers and the English language. Rather than add to this confusion, suffice it to say that Chinese brushes called sable are usually made of high-quality sable and Chinese brushes called wolf are usually sable and weasel mixed, and are of a slightly lesser quality.
Samba, or Sambar
The Samba, or Sambar, which is also called the mountain horse in the Orient, is a large Asian deer that is the source of a stiff and coarse hair used in the making of Oriental calligraphy brushes. The hair appears slightly kinked and has a variegated dark brown and tan appearance.
Horsehair
Horsehair is one of the commonest hairs used in Japanese brush making; it is particularly popular for calligraphy brushes. Horse hairs do not have a great affinity for themselves even when wet; they will not necessarily maintain a brush-like shape without assistance. Consequently, horsehair brushes are often left partially starched near the ferrule, or are wrapped with a layer of sheep hair, which can keep the horsehair in shape. In general, horsehair is strong, slightly coarse, resilient, and long. The better hairs are a cream-colored brown; the darker the shade the poorer the quality. White horsehair is strong like other horsehair, but more flexible and used fully loosened. Microscopically, horsehair appears as a series of tapering scales stacked on top of one another. Where one scale ends and the next begins there are little pockets that trap the ink and hold it until used. It is these pockets that make horsehair more absorbent than most other hairs. (The exception is sheep hair, which has many more pockets.)
The quality of a horsehair brush is, to a great extent, determined by the part of the animal from which the hairs come. Hair from the mane or back is coarse and of poor quality. Tail hair varies greatly in quality. It is often sorted into various grades and is used primarily for making large brushes. The finest horse hair is obtained from the belly and the ears. The shorter, better-quality hairs are used mostly in watercolor brushes, the longer and coarser hairs in calligraphy brushes.
Deer Hair
Deer Hair From the Back is similar to that of the samba, but is not as coarse and has more spring than stiffness. The hair is usually variegated white and tan. This hair is used as an additive to increase the resilience of softer combinations of hairs.
Weasel
The Weasel is common to both Japan and China, while sable is found only in China. Greater availability of weasel than sable has played an important role in its popularity, but since a brush made of weasel hair has less spring than sable it is even more desirable. Too much spring is considered a drawback. The Chinese, who do not generally distinguish between calligraphy and painting brushes, use weasel for both. In Japan, weasel is used mainly for detail-painting brushes.
Deer Hair
Deer Hair From the Inner Arch is similar to so-called wolf hair, but is a little coarser. The combination of deer with other, softer hairs adds resilience to a brush. Deer hair is used for painting brushes in Japan.
Cat Hair
Cat Hair is popular for making detail brushes. It is therefore not uncommon in the Orient to find the village cat missing large clumps of hair, yet not suffering from any particular ailment. Cat hair is soft with some spring and has a natural affinity for itself, causing it to hold a good shape.
Sheep or Goat Hair
Sheep or Goat Hair is the hair most used in Oriental brush making. It is made into large calligraphy brushes and flat wash brushes, and is combined with other hairs. The hairs are boiled to straighten them, and resemble squirrel hair in behavior. They have no spring, but do have a fine point and a uniform body that, under a microscope, appears to consist of tapering, individual scales that are attached end to end. As on horsehair, there are small pockets where these scale-like shapes meet that allow ink to be trapped and held, until used. Both sheep and goat hairs have these pockets, which contribute to their absorbency, but sheep hair has many more. The Japanese word jofuku is used to describe calligraphy brushes made of sheep hair. It means, "dip once, lot of ink." The best-quality sheep or goat hair has a very fine tapering tip. When made into a brush, this tip will have a distinctly yellow tint, but brushes of this quality are rarely found in the West and are extremely expensive.
Miscellaneous Animal Hair,
Miscellaneous Animal Hair, including badger, rabbit, and tiger, is used in Oriental brush making.
Badger Hair
Badger hair has a variegated black and white appearance. The hair is longer and thicker than sable, especially the belly of the hair. Badger is used in com bination with other hairs to lend resiliency and to act as a filler in Japanese painting brushes.
Rabbit hair
Rabbit hair, from nondomesticated rabbits, is similar to badger hair but is shorter. It is used in combination with other hairs to make Japanese painting brushes and in China, for both calligraphy and painting brushes.
Tiger hair
Tiger hair resembles a longer wolf hair. It is white, yellow, and black. It is said that the best hairs are obtained by plucking from a startled wild animal. Brushes of this type are extremely rare and may now exist only in legend.
Brushes made from goats' eyelashes, squirrel and rat whiskers, and even human baby hair (taken from the first haircut) are not uncommon in the Orient. These brushes are more novelties than practical artists' brushes and are not avail able in the West.
TYPES OF WESTERN BRUSHES
EACH STYLE of brush is designed to have the optimum performance with a par ticular type of paint or with a certain technique. Nevertheless, at this time there is no government agency regulating their use, and if you wish to use, for example, a watercolor brush for oil painting, the only penalty you might suffer is that the brush will not last as long and will no longer work with watercolor. The following are only guidelines. The rest is up to your own creativity.
BRUSHES FOR WATERCOLOR
The process of watercolor is extremely sensitive to the quality of the brushes used. Watercolor paint is too light to pull together a badly shaped brush the way oil paints can; it is also too sensitive to hide any imperfections in the tools used. All the finest watercolor paints and all the most expensive watercolor papers cannot compensate for a brush that does not perform well. The selection of at least one fine-quality watercolor brush is an absolute must.
Watercolor brushes perform best when they are soaked in water for a mini mum of five to ten minutes before they are used. Wetting a brush first allows for the expulsion of all air bubbles, which can create streaks in the applied color, and permits the hairs to soften and come into a proper shape. To take the fullest possible advantage of a well-made watercolor brush, it should be held as perpendicular to the working surface as can be managed. A technique has developed over the years to compensate for badly made or badly worn brushes. It involves holding a round brush at a 45-degree angle to the working surface and slowly twisting the brush as the tip is drawn across the surface to produce a consistently drawn line. I have known people who spent years developing this technique and were startled to learn that a well-made brush held at the appropriate 90-degree angle produces this effect with little skill and effort.
There are also differences in watercolor brushes, other than quality and the name brand on the handle. There are considerable differences in style within the different shapes. The most common round brush sold for watercolor, for example, is an English-style round, although the English style of watercolor is not nearly as popular as styles that have developed through the years in North America. People who do detail rendering, or draw, or do line work, all require different
variations on the watercolor brush. Equipped with sufficient information, you should be able to make the best selection for your own needs. Testing is of prime importance when buying a brush. Whenever possible you should test, or at least thoroughly inspect, a brush before you buy it. The following are some methods of inspection.
Check Uniformity. Many brushes have starch in the hairs to protect them until use. The starched tip has to be loosened to inspect it. This may be done by gently rolling the starched brush tip between two fingers. After you have done this, the individual hairs can be spread out by gently pressing the hairs near the ferrule to fan them out for inspection. Look for uniformity in length and appearance. There should be no blunt ends (hairs that are inverted), and the tips should not have been cut or trimmed in any way.
Check Fullness. The hairs of a brush should be gathered tightly so that there is a feeling of fullness when the hairs are pinched together near the point where they enter the ferrule. Brushes made with fewer hairs are gathered loosely to give a full look; these brushes have a hollow feel and compress easily when pinched. When the hairs of a genuinely full brush are bent sharply to one side near the ferrule, there should be no gap between the lip of the ferrule and the hairs.
Check the Point or Edge. To do this, it is necessary to wet the brush. To give it a fair test you should wet it thoroughly, not just dip it and flick it around a few times. Sable or sablelike brushes will readily present a point in the rounds, or an edge in the flats, when removed from the water and the excess water is flicked off the brush. Small, soft-hair brushes like squirrel will point, or edge, like sable, but larger ones have to be shaped to a point.
Check Spring. Spring is the ability of a brush to return to its original shape after use. One method for testing the spring of a dry sable brush is to place the brush near your ear. Bend the hairs and quickly release them. You should hear the hairs snap back. To test a wet brush, bring it to a point and hold it perpen dicular to a piece of paper. Then draw a line that stai1s thin and is made wider by slowly pushing the brush down. When the brush is pushed down halfway along the length of the hairs, lift it as the line is completed. The line should look like a cross section of a discus, and the degree to which the brush returns to its original shape determines its spring. The finest kolinsky brush will not only return to its original shape, but can perform this maneuver quickly and repeat edly. Kazan squirrel can perform this maneuver only if the first quarter of the brush is used and will not return at all if the entire brush is used. (This char acteristic is ideal in squirrel and a drawback in sable because these hairs are used for different purposes.)
Standard Watercolor Rounds are the workhorses for traditional watercolor technique. Currently, the most popular brand and style is Series 7 by Winsor & Newton. The name is derived from the time when Queen Victoria commissioned Winsor & Newton to make her a brush in her favorite size, which was seven. It is said that it was made of the finest kolinsky with a silver ferrule and an ivory handle. Although brushes of this quality are no longer available, the name remains on the finest Winsor & Newton kolinsky sable brushes. With the exception
of the West German brush manufacturer da Vinci, which exports under the names Cosmos and Realite, Soviet prohibitions on the export of the finest Siberian kolinsky have resulted in a change to the Asian kolinsky. Da Vinci claims that its finest watercolor brushes are made with 100 percent Siberian male, winter coat, kolinsky. The ferrules of the brushes are gold plated. Sizing of the da Vinci brushes is modeled after the English.
Grumbacher claims that in its finest watercolor brushes it's using old reserves of Siberian kolinsky that it had stockpiled before the restrictions.
Series 7 has dominated the American market because of its quality and its availability in larger sizes. The hairs needed to make such sizes as 12 and 14, which are difficult to find, must be quite long, between 1½ and 2½ inches (to obtain maximum spring the hair must be crimped at its belly resulting in half the length being buried in the ferrule). Winsor & Newton claims it requires six hundred tails in the size 12 and one thousand tails in the size 14 to find sufficient hairs of quality and length to make one dozen of each of these sizes.
The increasing rarity of quality long hair and the astronomical prices of the larger brushes have resulted in a greater openness toward other brands and styles of rounds. Some attention has focused on Raphael brushes, which is the artist brush division of the Max Sauer Company, one of the oldest Western brush manufacturers. Americans have not yet quite adjusted to the different size stand ards between the French or International and the English. English brush com panies, although not as old as the French, are better established in the North American marketplace. I once asked the representative of a French brush com pany, in a typically American way, "Why do the French make their larger watercolor brushes smaller than the English?" To which he replied, "Why do the English make theirs so different from us? We have been making brushes for forty years longer than they!" In any case, French brushes seem to gain some of their economy, in the larger sizes, by using shorter hairs. This can often be a reason able tradeoff when money is short as well.
Both English and French brushes are the same diameter in the small sizes up to about . size 7, but the French brushes are a little longer, particularly in sizes 000 through 1. After size 7, they do not increase in diameter and length as much as the English brushes do. A French size 12 brush, for example, would be roughly equivalent to an English size 10. French brushes are shaped or cupped a little differently, resulting in a bit more point. English or French, companies such as Winsor & Newton, Realite, and Raphael still make among the finest watercolor brushes available today. When buying a Winsor & Newton brush, always look for the "made in England" stamp on the brush to be certain it is actually made by Winsor & Newton.
Kolinsky. Very few brush manufacturers are using the Siberian kolinsky, which is recognized by its light yellowish-red hairs. Commonly seen in the marketplace are shades that range from light to medium reddish-brown. The darker Chinese sable is used in the lesser-grade sable brushes. A sign of a well-made sable brush is a dark tip that lightens toward the ferrule. The best indicator of quality is whether or not the brush performs well. You should, therefore, always test a sable brush before you buy it.
Red Sable. The dividing line between a fine-quality red sable brush and a lesser kolinsky sable brush is often unclear. A beginner might not be able to tell the difference. In the marketplace, however, there is often a clear difference between the "average" red sable brush and the "average" kolinsky sable brush. Whether a red sable brush is average or not, it should still point easily and well and, despite the reduced spring and responsiveness, should return to some sem blance of its original shape. The sable hairs used to make red sable brushes are usually of the darker shades.
Sable, or Brown Sable. Sable hairs from the various marten animals are becoming more common as red sable continues to increase in price and diminish in availability. Well-constructed brushes of this hair are excellent for student use.
Nylon. White or golden sable, which are nylon substitutes for sable, are less costly and do get the job done. Brushes made from these filaments do come to a point, but have difficulty maintaining it, especially in the larger sizes, in spite of an excessive amount of spring. There are many inexpensive sable brushes that still cost more than nylon, yet will not point well to start with and have little spring at all. Point and spring are still more desirable than absorbency, which is nylon's most serious drawback. Nylon has no absorbency and watercolor tends to run quickly off the tip of the brush when brought into contact with a more absorbent surface such as watercolor paper.
Attempts to improve the ability of synthetic brushes to hold more paint have met with only limited success. Etching or coating the surface of nylon filaments does help reduce the surface tension (which improves capillary attraction) and slow the runoff of color, but the total volume of liquid held by the brush is not significantly changed. Synthetic filament brushes just do not hold the same vol ume of liquid that natural hair brushes do and, therefore, their value in applying washes or large amount of color is limited. It often takes two to five times more applications of material to cover the same area with a synthetic filament brush than with a natural hair brush.
One encouraging development in the attempt to improve the characteristics of nylon brushes has been made by the new company ProArte, which is attempting to market what it claims is a third-generation nylon named Prolene. The surface tension does seem to be lower than conventional nylon filament brushes. This can be seen by wetting a flat watercolor brush and then draining it until it is almost dry. A conventional nylon flat will develop a serrated edge and a Prolene flat will not. This indicates that watercolor should flow more slowly and evenly with this new filament. However, it still does not seem to resolve significantly the question of the small total volume of liquid held by synthetic brushes. Prolene is among the best performing of all synthetic brushes that I tested, and is also the most expensive. For a bit more money it is possible to buy a serviceable red sable brush.
Nylon filaments wear differently than natural hair; the filaments tend to curl at the tip rather than wear down. The curl can usually be removed by running almost-boiling water over it. This method will also restore the shape of nylon filaments that have been accidentally bent. (Never do this with natural hairs.)
Blends of Nylon and Natural Hairs. The addition of natural hairs to a nylon filament brush does improve the performance without substantially increasing the price. This combination has reduced the excessive spring of nylon and increased the brushes' absorbency. Although such brushes are not equivalent to an average red sable brush, they do perform well and are an acceptable alternative when cost is a serious consideration..
These blended brushes consist of 10 to 15 percent natural hair with the balance made of synthetic filaments. Several manufacturers have used misleading advertising, which implies that their brushes consist mostly of natural hair when they do not. Natural hairs can be distinguished from synthetic filaments on close inspection with the naked eye, although it is easier with a magnifying glass. I have tested blends with sable and those with sheep, and I feel the less expensive sheep blends perform better. The use of sable blends seems to be more of a marketing gimmick. Sheep is more absorbent and has less spring than sable, which is precisely what a nylon brush needs.
Ox (Sabeline). Sabeline, or ox hair, has excellent spring and no point because of the nature of the hair. Consequently, it makes a poor round and I would recommend a brush that is a blend of nylon and natural hair instead.
Squirrel. A well-made squirrel brush can be just as valuable a tool as a well made sable brush, for there are times when a softer, more fluid look is needed. Since squirrel has little spring and greater absorbency than sable, it would be a far better tool for producing this effect. Squirrel brushes should not be acquired as a substitute for sable, but as an adjunct. A squirrel brush should be at least twice the size of the red sable brush that is used most often. Squirrel brushes that come in extra-large sizes are called mops, which describes their use as well as their appearance. These brushes hold a tremendous amount of liquid and make excellent wash brushes.
These brushes are made of red sable or kolinsky sable, and are constructed with two to three lengths of sable hairs "stacked," or arranged in levels. "Stacking" can be done by taking a group of short hairs of equal length and surround ing them with a second group of longer hairs of equal length, and then repeating this with a third group of still longer hairs. This creates a brush that holds liquid color up close to the ferrule so that it can then be fed to a extraordinarily fine pointed tip.
This brush is known for its point, spring, and quick response, in which it has no equal. Designer quills are superb for line work, illustration, and egg tempera. Script Brushes have the longest hairs of all the watercolor round brushes dis cussed so far. Script brushes are lettering, or showcard, brushes and have a pointed rather than a chiseled tip. This is a large .category of brushes in which various qualities and types of hairs are used. They may be set in metal or quill ferrules and they are primarily used for commercial lettering. The advent of dry transfer lettering and other innovations in the sign and lettering industries have considerably reduced the demand for these brushes. However, they are also used for special effects in watercolor, line work, and illustration.
Many Script brushes are made of sable hair, but squirrel and sabeline are also commonly used. The longest sable hair does not possess much spring because the belly of the hair is exposed beyond the tip of the ferrule to gain usable length. The great length of the hair enables a skilled artist to draw a long, consistent line without all the stops that would be necessary when using a conventional watercolor round.
Spotter Brushes are used to apply little round dots of liquid color. There is a common misunderstanding that a spotting brush is an extraordinarily small brush with a long narrow point. Such a brush produces tiny dashes, not tiny dots.
A true spotter is a very short-haired sable or kolinsky brush that has a short taper to a definite point. Although spotters are made in extremely small sizes, sizes up to 10 and 12 are useful not only to graphic artists and restorers, but also to watercolorists who need to apply color in a tight comer in one stroke rather than with the many overlapping strokes that are necessary when using a conventional round brush.
Lettering, or Showcard, Brushes include riggers, lettering quills, and one stroke brushes. Riggers and lettering quills are round brushes that have long hairs that are shaped to a chisel tip, rather than a pointed tip. The one-stroke brush is the same as a regular flat watercolor brush, but the hairs are ¼ to 3/8" longer. These brushes are used primarily for lettering, but many are also used for special watercolor effects.
Riggers are like script brushes that come to an abrupt end, which is shaped, not cut. They are made of sable and have a metal ferrule. They range in size from approximately 1/16 to ¼ inch in diameter. The numbering system for each size may vary, depending on the manufacturer, since there does not seem to be an agreed-upon size standard.
Lettering Quills are like riggers, except that they have quill ferrules instead of metal ferrules. They are available with hairs of squirrel, nylon, and ox (sabeline), as well as sable. Squirrel, with its minimal spring and greater length, works best with paints that are of a heavier consistency such as that of enamels. Sable, nylon, and sabeline, with their greater spring and control, work better with more fluid paints such as watercolor.
Watercolor Flats are used for watercolor washes, for rendering edges or geo metric shapes, and for filling in large areas. The most common numbering of sizes is in inches such as ¼, 3/8, ½, ¾, and 1 inch. Flats have the same short style of watercolor handles, but with an additional variation-a plastic handle that has a beveled end. Grumbacher was the first to market this style of brush, which it called Aquarelle. The name has stuck and is commonly used when describing this style of brush without regard to the actual manufacturer. The beveled handle serves as a tool for burnishing areas of a watercolor to produce a special effect. Beveled handled brushes are made only with hair that has spring, such as sable, ox (sabeline), nylon, or nylon blends.
Soft hair brushes like these need to be thoroughly wet, and soaking them in water for five to fifteen minutes (the larger the brush, the longer the time) before use will remove trapped air and reduce the natural surface tension of the hairs. Using a brush like this upright, or perpendicular, to a level working surface will give a better result than holding it like a pencil. In the larger sizes, squirrel has to be shaped to a point, which the brush will tend to maintain if it is held upright and only if the tip and not the belly of the brush is used.
Designer Rounds are virtually the same as the standard kolinsky sable round watercolor brush, but are shaped to give a longer tapered point. This particular shape is ideal for quick and precise brushwork, and is also better for line work and illustration. This style of brush is quite versatile and I feel should be the brush of choice for the watercolorist, graphic artist, and illustrator who prefers a detailed appearance over that of a semiabstract one.
Designer Quills are similar to the rounds except that the shape is thinner and longer, and the hairs are held in ferrules made of quills or a plastic substitute. The reason for the quill ferrule is in part tradition and in part to protect the hairs from the hard metal ferrules that might damage them during manufacture or during use. With this type of ferrule, the brush cannot be used when harsh solvents are involved.
These brushes are made of red sable or kolinsky sable, and are constructed with two to three lengths of sable hairs "stacked," or arranged in levels. "Stacking" can be done by taking a group of short hairs of equal length and surround ing them with a second group of longer hairs of equal length, and then repeating this with a third group of still longer hairs. This creates a brush that holds liquid color up close to the ferrule so that it can then be fed to a extraordinarily fine pointed tip. This brush is known for its point, spring, and quick response, in which it has no equal. Designer quills are superb for line work, illustration, and egg tempera.
Script Brushes have the longest hairs of all the watercolor round brushes dis cussed so far. Script brushes are lettering, or showcard, brushes and have a pointed rather than a chiseled tip. This is a large .category of brushes in which various qualities and types of hairs are used. They may be set in metal or quill ferrules and they are primarily used for commercial lettering. The advent of dry transfer lettering and other innovations in the sign and lettering industries have considerably reduced the demand for these brushes. However, they are also used for special effects in watercolor, line work, and illustration.
Many script brushes are made of sable hair, but squirrel and sabeline are also commonly used. The longest sable hair does not possess much spring because the belly of the hair is exposed beyond the tip of the ferrule to gain usable length. The great length of the hair enables a skilled artist to draw a long, consistent line without all the stops that would be necessary when using a con ventional watercolor round.
Spotter Brushes are used to apply little round dots of liquid color. There is a common misunderstanding that a spotting brush is an extraordinarily small brush with a long narrow point. Such a brush produces tiny dashes, not tiny dots.
A true spotter is a very short-haired sable or kolinsky brush that has a short taper to a definite point. Although spotters are made in extremely small sizes, sizes up to 10 and 12 are useful not only to graphic artists and restorers, but also to watercolorists who need to apply color in a tight comer in one stroke rather than with the many overlapping strokes that are necessary when using a conventional round brush.
Lettering, or Showcard, Brushes include riggers, lettering quills, and one stroke brushes. Riggers and lettering quills are round brushes that have long hairs that are shaped to a chisel tip, rather than a pointed tip. The one-stroke brush is the same as a regular flat watercolor brush, but the hairs are ¼ to 3/8" longer. These brushes are used primarily for lettering, but many are also used for special watercolor effects.
Riggers are like script brushes that come to an abrupt end, which is shaped, not cut. They are made of sable and have a metal ferrule. They range in size from approximately 1/16 to ¼ inch in diameter. The numbering system for each size may vary, depending on the manufacturer, since there does not seem to be an agreed-upon size standard.
Lettering Quills are like riggers, except that they have quill ferrules instead of metal ferrules. They are available with hairs of squirrel, nylon, and ox (sabeline), as well as sable. Squirrel, with its minimal spring and greater length, works best with paints that are of a heavier consistency such as that of enamels. Sable, nylon, and sabeline, with their greater spring and control, work better with more fluid paints such as watercolor.
Watercolor Flats are used for watercolor washes, for rendering edges or geo metric shapes, and for filling in large areas. The most common numbering of sizes is in inches such as: ¼, 3/8, ½, ¾, and 1 inch. Flats have the same short style of watercolor handles, but with an additional variation-a plastic handle that has a beveled end. Grumbacher was the first to market this style of brush, which it called Aquarelle. The name has stuck and is commonly used when describing this style of brush without regard to the actual manufacturer. The beveled handle serves as a tool for burnishing areas of a watercolor to produce a special effect. Beveled handled brushes are made only with hair that has spring, such as sable, ox (sabeline), nylon, or nylon blends.
Sable Flats for Watercolor have become increasingly rare because of their high price and the unwillingness of manufacturers to produce brushes that are slow selling. A great deal of sable hair is required to make a I-inch flat sable, and it would sell for between sixty and one hundred dollars. Most people find it hard to justify the expense of a brush that is used less frequently. For an individual who uses a flat watercolor brush more often, however, sable does have some distinct advantages.
Because sable hair has spring, absorbency, and point, a flat sable brush can form narrow edges at the tip. This can easily be seen by wetting the brush and flicking off the excess water, then turning the brush sideways. As you look down the edge, the shape will resemble the cross section of an airplane wing; the hairs near the ferrule will be tightly compacted, the body of the brush will be the thickest part, and the tip will come to a razorlike edge. This unique edge allows the brush to be used in two ways; the first is simply to use the flat part of the brush to cover large areas; the second is to use this edge to draw or paint a narrow line, which is accomplished by placing the brush edge perpendicularly to the working surface and moving the brush along the narrow edge rather than the flat edge. It is far easier to paint a straight line with this kind of flat brush than with a round brush.
A poor flat sable brush, or one on which the tip has been cut to correct poor craftsmanship, will not give this edge. You can inspect a dry, flat sable brush by first looking down the length of the hairs, with the tips pointing toward you; if the brush has been cut it will have a faint, two-tone suede look. Wetting the brush will provide the final test to see if it produces a fine edge.
Ox (Sabeline) has spring but no point. Flat brushes made with this hair behave similarly to sable flats when used to cover large areas with color, but sabeline will not form a narrow edge that could be used for drawing lines. Nylon has spring and when used in a flat brush it will form a narrow edge for drawing. But since nylon has no absorbency, it does not perform as well as a natural hair with wash techniques. One wash technique, for example, involves the slow application of color, and also a dry brush to soak back up part of the still wet color. The non-absorbency of nylon makes this difficult.
Blends of Synthetic and Natural Hairs are good, low-cost substitutes for sable. I particularly recommend the blends of nylon filaments and sheep hair where 10 percent or more of the brush is natural hair.
Sheep or Goat have excellent absorbency but no spring. Consequently, the brushes made of these hairs are excellent for washes, but are not adequate for rendering.
Squirrel, like sheep, lacks spring but has great absorbency. The better-quality squirrel hairs, such as kazan, are finer and softer than sheep and are therefore better for more delicate washes or applications of color.
Watercolor Ovals look like squashed, round brushes. In appearance, they are halfway between round and flat brushes, and are made primarily of squirrel hair, the best ones being of kazan squirrel hair. This style of brush is designed for creating washes where the color is applied gradually. When you apply color with a traditional flat brush, the straight edge of the brush begins the application of color abruptly, leaving a hard edge. With an oval brush, the application of color starts more gradually with a narrow point and then expands for wider coverage.
An oval brush should not be purchased as a substitute for a sable or a sablelike flat. It is best used as an adjunct to a flat brush.
Mops are large squirrel hair brushes. The first choice in squirrel hair is kazan squirrel, with blue squirrel a close second. The lesser-grade mop brushes are often made with pony hair or with other less costly hairs, which produce a coarser brush. Large, good-quality mops are difficult to make and it is not uncommon to find that the lesser grades of mop brushes have been cut into shape with scissors. If your sole concern is the application of a great deal of color, these lower-cost and lesser-quality mops should prove adequate. If you wish to have more painterly control, however, it will be necessary to select mops made of hairs like kazan squirrel. Inspection is particularly important because if the brush has been cut, it will not point or provide good control.
There are mops in which the hair is built up around a "plug," or spacer, to save on the amount of hair needed to fill the brush and also to provide a better point. In the larger sizes you can feel for this plug by pressing your little finger toward the center of the gathered hairs near the ferrule. The reduced concentra tion of hairs will reduce the amount of liquid that the mop can carry at one time. This is not a serious drawback if a point is more important to you than the ability to carry truly large amounts of color.
BRUSHES FOR OILS
Quality is not as important in an oil painting brush as it is in a watercolor brush because the viscosity of the oil helps pull together and give control to a brush that would be questionable for use with watercolors. This is not to say that quality is not important, but rather that the techniques of conventional oil paint ing are not as sensitive to small imperfections in brushes as are the techniques of watercolor. Possible exceptions are tole painting, miniatures, and photorealism, where the quality of the brush may be integral to the technique. For these styles, the finest oil painting brushes and, in some cases, the finest watercolor sables, are selected for use, regardless of price.
There is also a greater cost consideration with oil paintiong brushes. With watercolor brushes, it is not unreasonable to spend a great deal of money on brushes. When cared for properly, the brush can last for decades. When painting in oils, it is not uncommon to use up a set of brushes, especially sable brushes, in the production of one painting. With the exception of pig bristle, the guidelines for brush testing and inspection are the same as those for watercolor brushes.
The primary reason for using sable oil painting brushes is to be able to apply paint with a minimum of texture and a maximum of control. Kolinsky sable provides the greatest control, but kolinsky oil brushes are rare. They are not as expensive as kolinsky brushes made for watercolor because shorter hairs are used in oil painting brushes, which makes for better control in pushing around thicker oil paint. Unless meticulous detail and control is needed, kolinsky sable oil painting brushes are unnecessary with conventional techniques.
Red sable oil brushes are adequate for figurative painting where control is needed to render details, and for abstract painting when a smooth surface or a sharply defined edge is desired. (Blends of nylon and natural hair are not yet available in oil painting brnshes.) Nylon oil brushes have filaments of a thicker diameter than those used in watercolor brushes and are therefore stiffer. At one time a still thicker nylon filament was used to make a substitute pig bristle, but it never caught on. The brushes were more expensive than natural bristle and did not perform as well. The lack of absorbency of nylon is not a serious problem in oil painting.
There are, however, two additional drawbacks to oil painting with nylon brushes. The first of these drawbacks is that when a nylon brush is rubbed vigorously over a gessoed canvas surface, the friction causes the ends of the nylon filaments to curl. (The curl can sometimes be removed by placing the tip of the brush in water that has been brought to a temperature just below boiling.) The other drawback is due to the thicker nylon filaments, which result in a brush with excessive spring. Too much spring in a brush can cause previous layers of paint to be disturbed during application of fresh layers of paint. The great advantage of nylon is the cost savings, which can sometimes outweigh the drawbacks. Oil bristle (hog, pig, or boar) brushes are used for the application of thick paint, for scrubbing and scumbling (a technique of applying a lighter, semi transparent color over the surface of a darker color), and to impart texture to the painted surface. Sable brushes apply paint smoothly and consistently, while bris tle applies paint roughly and inconsistently, giving a more impressionistic appearance to the painting. The stiff quality of bristle can leave streaks or gaps in the application of a fresh layer of paint, and this can allow the underpainting to show through for effect. Sables are used to create a more refined version of this technique by glazing (a small quantity of paint is dissolved into medium and applied thinly over another layer of paint so that the layer beneath can be seen through the top layer of paint).
To inspect a bristle brush, check the amount of flagging and see if the tips of the bristle have been cut. The flagging should be plentiful because it is the softer split ends of that flagging that give control to the tip of the brush. If the flagging is minimal, because the bristle has been taken from domesticated animals, or because the tips have been cut to improve the appearance of a poorly made brush, the performance of the brush will be excessively coarse and erratic.
There are two styles of brushes for which the bristles are treated and assembled to make oil bristle brushes. There are "interlocked" and "non interlocked" brushes. Part of the process of treating bristles is to boil them to clean them and remove part or all of their natural curve. The longer the bristles are boiled, the straighter they will become. Noninterlocked bristle brushes are produced from bristles that have been boiled until they are straight. These are then made into a brush that resembles a small broom in appearance. In a finely made brush this broomlike appearance means that there is plenty of flagging and the brush has not been starched to improve its appearance. When such a brush is loaded with paint, the splayed, broomlike look will change as the weight of the paint draws the bristles of the tip closer together. In a cheap brush made with inferior bristles, the splayed broomlike appearance will change little when loaded with paint, and the bristles tend to spread even farther apart with the slightest pressure.
Interlocked bristle brushes contain bristles that still have part of their natural curve, and in which the curved bristles are assembled so that the brush narrows toward the tip. For example, a flat brush would be made from two groups of curved bristles, each gathered into the ferrule so that one side is curved toward the other. This gives the brush the opposite appearance to that of a splayed broom-the bristles curve outward rather than inward. The purpose of making a brush this way is to give greater control to the tip of the brush so that it resists spreading under pressure. Greater care is needed to make an interlocked bristle brush, and such brushes are therefore more expensive than those with non interlocked bristles.
Although it is common practice to starch the hairs of a brush to help protect them from damage until they are sold, you should beware of noninterlocked, lesser-quality brushes that have been heated, starched, and molded to look like interlocked brushes. Visual inspection of a bristle brush can indicate only some of its strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, there is no adequate pre-sale testing procedure for bristle brushes as there is for sable brushes. After you have checked the flagging and tested the spring by pressing the brush down, bending the hairs in a 90-degree angle in the palm of your hand, and comparing the resistance, the next step is to buy the brush and test it under actual use.
It is my experience that buying the very best bristle brush you can afford is not always a good idea. Many artists have established styles that depend on the lack of consistency and control that is derived from lesser-quality brushes.
Oil Sable Rounds are made with shorter hairs than the traditional watercolor round brushes. This is to allow for the manipulation of the heavier oil paint. A few brush makers still produce rounds of shorter and longer lengths for special effects. These brushes, however, are not generally stocked by retailers in North America, although they can be specially ordered. When a special-purpose brush is desired, most artists make a selection from the more available styles in the watercolor rounds.
Oil Sable Flats also have shorter hairs to allow for the heavier consistency of oil paint. The term "flat" in reference to a sable flat oil brush is misleading. There are two basic styles of sable flat oil brushes, one is a "bright," which is a flat brush with short hairs, and the other, a "flat," which is a flat brush with long hairs. The brights are better for general painting and the flats for glazing. Since the glazing technique has not been as popular in North America as in Europe, most of the flats that are available here are brights.
The purpose of an oil sable flat is to cover larger areas, to render edges, and to apply thin, smooth layers of paint with a minimum of texture.
Oil Sable Filberts are said to resemble worn flat brushes. The shape of a filbert is halfway between that of a round brush and that of a flat brush. So what is so good about a brush that has neither a point nor an edge? When paint is applied with a filbert, there is little or no textural beginning or end to the brush stroke. Consequently, paint can be applied smoothly and the brush strokes that are left behind in the paint film are difficult to see.
Bristle Rounds are used for impressionistic rendering, or drawing with oil or acrylic paints. The coarse bristle does not permit detail rendering as sable does. A noninterlocked brush that is not starched and has good flagging will appear to have a very blunt tip, although when the brush is loaded with paint the tip should narrow considerably to a workable point. An interlocked round bristle will display this tapered point before use, and will spread considerably less than the noninterlocked round, and will maintain better control with extended use.
Bristle Brights are flat brushes with less bristle exposed. The bristle used is approximately one-third shorter than that used in the round or flat bristle brushes. Using this length provides a much stiffer brush and allows the handling of very thick paint mixtures (almost as if the brush were a miniature palette knife), and enables the use of such techniques as scumbling (scrubbing the paint into the surface for effect). Here again flagging is important, and if more precise control is desired, the interlocked bristle is preferable.
Bristle Flats have approximately the same length of bristle exposed as the round bristle brushes. This length allows for a softer technique where heavy paint can be applied with less texture than would be left by a bristle bright. Interlocked bristle is most effective in the larger sizes of flat brushes.
Bristle Filberts look like flat bristle brushes with the edges worn down. It is not uncommon to find that a painter's favorite tool is a flat bristle brush with the edges worn down, yet few such painters have tried a filbert. A filbert is a bristle brush made to duplicate this oval shape. The rounded edges allow the applica tion of paint without the abruptness that occurs when painting with a flat or a bright bristle brush. With a filbert, an artist can draw thin lines by using the edge, or thick lines using the flat of the brush, giving an overall softer look to the painting.
Oil Blenders are used primarily to remove brush marks and texture. The painted surface. while still wet, is nibbed with the tip of a blender. There are fan-shaped blenders and round blenders. Blenders, particularly those that are fan-shaped, are also used to apply paint when special effects are desired.
The round blenders are actually large, round, squirrel lettering quills or mops. Fan-shaped blenders are available in bristle, badger, sable, and nylon. Bristle fans are the least expensive and, in most cases, the least effective because of the coarseness of the hair. Sable fans are very expensive and most effective in areas where precise and delicate blending is necessary. Nylon is more expensive than bristle but far cheaper than sable and, in most instances, is adequate only for blending. Nylon does not hold up well if the blending requires a great deal of scrubbing because the filaments tend to curl. Badger blenders are an excellent compromise because they are significantly less expensive than sable and perform almost as well.
A blender rapidly becomes ineffective if paint is allowed to build up on the tip of the brush. It is helpful to clean the blender frequently.
Winsor & Newton and the da Vinci Company still make a pure red sable fan blender. Raphael (Max Sauer Company) makes a uniquely large badger fan blender, which is labeled "12 12," or "double 12."
EXTRA-LARGE BRUSHES
With the one exception of Winsor & Newton, size 14 Series 7 watercolor brush, the Max Sauer Company sets the world standard for extra-large artists' brushes.
This company is one of the few brush makers that still makes fine-quality extra large brushes. Raphael is the name placed on the brushes made primarily for artistic use, and Sauer is the name on brushes made primarily for industrial use. Raphael supplies conventional artists' brushes with extra-long handles (36 inches long), as well as extra-large bristle (or ox hair) brushes (up to 120mm or approximately 4¾ inches wide) with conventional handles. Sauer's industrial brushes are made primarily of bristle, have heavy-duty handles, and are available in flat sizes up to 300mm (or 11¾ inches) wide, and round bristle brushes up to 2 inches in diameter.
Industrial brushes, regardless of the manufacturer, are certainly acceptable for artistic use if they will get the job done. There is a great range in quality among industrial brushes and proper examination is important. In addition to inspecting these brushes as you would any artists' brush, it is important to look for an excessive amount of loose hairs, cut hairs (some cut hairs can be tolerated in extra-large brushes), weak handles or badly crimped ferrules, and plastic spacers, which are sometimes set into the ferrule to cut down on the amount of hair needed to fill out a big brush.
Loose hair can be checked for in a large round by spinning the brush in the palm of the hand, and in a flat brush by slapping the ferrule against the palm of the hand. This will help force loose hairs up and out of the brush. Most large brushes will lose some hairs at first, but this shedding should stop with normal use. Weak handles or badly crimped ferrules are easily checked by applying some pressure at these points. (One buyer for an industrial paint store used to test brush handles by breaking them over his knee.)
The hardest thing to test for is a plastic spacer that is used to scrimp on the amount of bristle. The outside of the brush will appear quite normal, but in use it will not carry, or hold, very much paint. Medium to large spacers can be felt for by pushing the small finger into the center of the bristles near the ferrule. Small spacers, however, are difficult to detect without destroying the brush in the process.
Because of price, nylon has almost totally replaced natural bristle in the large brushes available in hardware and house paint stores. Nevertheless, I do not recommend large synthetic brushes because of their lack of absorbency. All professional house, or industrial, painters know that it takes twice as much work to paint something with a synthetic brush as it does with a natural bristle brush, because the brush has to be dipped into the paint twice as often and there is also far less control.
ACRYLIC BRUSHES
At one time, a variety of synthetic filament brushes were specifically marketed as "acrylic brushes." They rapidly fell into disfavor when people discovered that these brushes had no special advantages and, in some cases, were priced higher than brushes made for other media.
When acrylics or vinyls are to be used like oil paints, oil painting brushes are best. If the acrylics or vinyls will be used in.a watercolor technique, then tradi tional watercolor brushes are best.
TYPES OF ORIENTAL BRUSHES
IN THE WEST, a brush is considered simply a tool for self-expression; it needs little character of its own. A brush should also be multipurpose-the "vegematic" approach to brush selection-so one or two brushes fulfill all needs. In the East, however, there is a tradition of treating artists' materials as friends, rather than as slaves to artistic expression. Artwork is a cooperative process that involves the unique characteristics of the tool as well as those of the artist. The belief is that no single brush does everything well, and to have true versatility several styles of brushes are needed. Thus it is common to find many different shapes and styles or Oriental brushes.
The actual selection of a brush is based on the calligrapher's aesthetic attitude and choice of technique. There are two major types of aesthetic attitudes. The first proposes that calligraphy involves producing readable characters and that their appearance should follow traditional laws, or rules, of writing. This point of view is similar to the Western notion of fine penmanship. In the East, this attitude is referred to as the Old Style, or Chinese style, of calligraphy, and the selection of the right brush for the correct form is critical. The second, and more modem, attitude is more concerned with the state of mind and the aesthetic appearance of the characters than with readability. The emphasis here might be more on the ink or the paper than on the brush that is used. This style is referred to as the Japanese style, even though both styles are commonly used in Japan. Technique is the other major determining factor in choosing a brush. In Japan, there are four techniques, or styles, of writing. Jofuku, which means "dip once,'' is a style where the brush is dipped only once and narrow lines are produced. Part of the idea is to finish before the ink runs out, as well as to do the stroke without hesitation. Of all the Japanese calligraphic styles, this one is most easily applied to Western watercolor techniques.
Cultural differences affect not only style and attitude but also the composition of the brushes themselves. Chinese brushes, for example, are often composed of just one type of animal hair: weasel, rabbit, or goat. While the Chinese do not differentiate between brushes that are used for calligraphy and those used for painting, the Japanese do make a clear distinction between the brushes intended for each purpose. Japanese brushes may contain one or more types of hair selected from horse, badger, sheep, goat, deer, cat, and, in some cases, weasel. Hair such as horsetail, badger, deer (from the animal's back), and weasel are selected for their firmness and are commonly used as the central core in building a brush. The softer hairs-sheep, goat, cat, and deer (from the inner arch)-are selected for absorbency and are often wrapped around the firmer central core. The softer and more absorbent hairs have a great inclination to stay together when wet. When used as the outer wrap, they tend to bind together the less absorbent firmer hairs of the core and give the brush more control. Brushes that are made primarily of coarse dark hairs such as horsetail are left partially starched, up to one-third the length of the hairs near the ferrule, to give added control, and only the first half of the brush is actually used.
Oriental brushes are heavily starched to protect them until they are purchased. Before use, the starch should be removed by washing the brush in room-temperature water until the working length of the brush is fully loosened. The softer brushes, particularly the painting brushes, are always fully loosened.
A particular style of brush may have several names. One name given to the brush may, for example, be taken from the family who originally made that style of brush. It might be a poetic description, or simply a listing of the composition of the brush. In some cases, no name is used. Since names cannot be relied upon, it is important to understand both the intended function and the composition of an Oriental brush to make a proper selection. It might be helpful, how ever, to know that the Japanese have five descriptive terms that they use to distinguish the general appearance of round brushes. Flat brushes, as opposed to round brushes, are all lumped into one category and called hake.
The first category of round brushes is choho, which means "long tip" in relation to the diameter of the handle. The Japanese use this type of brush in the jofuku style. The Chinese have a version of this brush in which the hair can be up to one-third the total length of the brush. This type of brush is commonly used in the Zen style of painting, which resembles the jofuku style of calligraphy. Chuho, which means "regular long hair," is the second category. Chuho refers to the basic painting brush. Category three is tanpoh, which translates as "short hair" and is used to describe brushes used for coloring. Menso, category four, means "small detail" and describes small brushes used for detail.
The fifth category, jakuto, or "peacock head," is an ancient style of calligra phy brush, which is neither popular nor even found in the West. This brush has a long, thin handle with a ferrule that resembles a bulb and holds cat hair.
For the sake of simplicity, all the commonly used Oriental brushes have been broken down into two major types based on their intended use, whether for calligraphy or painting. The Japanese term for calligraphy is sumi, meaning ink. The term for painting is sumi-e. Therefore, sumi brushes are for calligraphy and sumi-e brushes are for painting. Because of the dominance of Japanese brushes in the market, it has become common practice to refer to all Oriental brushes, regardless of national origin, by the Japanese terms sumi and sumi-e.
CALLIGRAPHY (SUMI) BRUSHES
Calligraphy brushes are designed to be held perpendicular to the paper; the width of the brushstroke is varied by pushing the tip down into the paper or lifting it up while moving the brush parallel to the surface. This allows for the proper flow of ink or watercolor from the belly of the brush to the tip and helps the brush to maintain a proper point. If more than the first half of the brush-the tip to the mid-length of the hairs-is used, or if the brush is too dry, point and control are lost.
Any brush that is to be used with watercolor or ink should be wet before dipping it into the watercolor or ink. A large calligraphy brush should be pre pared approximately fifteen minutes in advance by first thoroughly soaking it (hold the brush in water to soak-never allow the weight of a brush to be supported by the hairs) in room-temperature water to allow trapped air to escape. The excess water may be removed by gently squeezing the hairs together without pulling on them. The brush should then be placed upright in a jar to stand for the remaining length of time. Preparing the brush for this length of time gives the hairs a chance to soften and the scales to open and allow for the reduction of surface tension to increase absorbency.
When it is time to clean up, it is preferable to rinse the brush with warm water. If Oriental ink (sumi) has been used, it is recommended that some ink, 10 to 20 percent, be left in the brush to dry. This will cause a slight stiffness and protect the hairs until the brush's next use. After the brush has been rinsed, it should be squeezed dry, reshaped, and hung tip down to dry. If wet brushes, particularly large brushes, are left standing upright in a jar to dry, or stored away before they are thoroughly dry, the hairs will mildew, rot, and fall out.
Sheep or Goat Brushes are popular in China and Japan. Sheep or goat hair is long, at least 2 inches in length. It is very absorbent and can be shaped into a fine point when wet. Sheep hair has a natural inclination to stay together when wet and will, therefore, make it possible to maintain excellent control even when all the protective starch has been removed and the hairs have been fully loosened.
Few types of hair will hold up well or make good control possible when the direction of a brush stroke is changed 180 degrees without stopping, or without lifting the tip of the brush off the working surface. Sheep hair is very elastic and is one of the few hairs that will survive this type of treatment.
Horsehair Brushes are used primarily by the Japanese. Horsehair is popular because the length of the hair makes it possible to create extremely large brushes. Horsehair does not have any natural ability to stay together when wet, and is often left partially starched, or is covered with an outside layer of sheep hair. Calligraphy brushes made only of horsehair are loosened only one-half to two-thirds from the tip; the remainder of the brush is left permanently stiff, and only the first quarter to one-half is ever used.
Horsehair is not as elastic as sheep and will not hold up as well if dramatic changes in direction are not accompanied by the lifting of the brush from the working surface. White horsehair, however, is an exception to this rule.
Weasel or Rabbit Brushes, or brushes made of a combination of weasel and rabbit hair, are popular in China for calligraphy. Brushes made of these hairs are for smaller calligraphy pieces and for everyday writing. They are preferred for their quick reponse and point. These brushes are used fully loosened.
Samba Brushes are highly prized among Japanese calligraphers because of the hair's great resiliency and point. They are used either partially or fully loosened. Samba brushes have become rare in the West and when found are often expen sive. To the beginner, a samba hair brush often tends to feel uncontrollable, if not wild.
Badger Hair is used in Oriental brushes only in combination with other hairs. Badger hair adds resiliency to a brush.
WATERCOLOR (SUMI-E) BRUSHES
Since watercolor painting is more sensitive to the quality of the brush, greater care is often taken in selecting and assembling watercolor brushes than calligra phy brushes. It is not uncommon to use a watercolor brush for both watercolor and calligraphy, particularly in China.
The method of applying paint with a watercolor brush, although prescribed, is not as restrictive as is the application of ink with a calligraphy brush. Most brush strokes still involve a combination of up and down movements, onto and off the working surface, that are accompanied by parallel movements across the surface. The brush may be held at different angles, however, to give a greater variety of painterly effects. Skill at performing the various movements, coupled with knowledge of the way a particular style of brush will behave, allows the artist to create spontaneously artwork that is natural to the eye with a minimum of effort and great economy of form.
Watercolor brushes are used fully loosened, and the full length of the hair is commonly used. Those brushes that are made with combinations of the more resilient hairs are not designed for 180-degree changes in direction without first being lifted from the working surface.
Watercolor brushes can be divided into those that are used primarily for rendering and those used mainly for sketching or shading. Rendering brushes, which are the menso style, are used similarly to small Western watercolor brushes to produce detailed images through the use of multiple small brushstrokes and outlining. Sketching, or chuho-style, brushes and shading, or tanpoh-style, brushes are used for creating an image, often semi-abstract, with a minimum of brushstrokes. Sketching brushes are usually dipped into three values of ink to create shading in one stroke. The brush is first dipped fully into the lightest value, then it is dipped approximately one-half the length of the hair into the middle value, and, finally, the tip alone is dipped into the darkest value.
Weasel, cat, and rabbit hair are used primarily in brushes designed for render ing. Sheep hair, horsehair, deer hair from the inner arch, bamboo, and blends of natural hair and synthetic filaments are used in brushes that are designed for sketching or adding color.
Japanese Weasel Brushes are sharply pointed, narrow, and small. The length of the exposed hair is longer than a Western sable brush of the same diameter. This brush closely resembles a designer's quill. This type of brush is commonly called menso and is used for detail drawing, line drawing, and illustration. It can be used either partially loosened or fully loosened.
Chinese Weasel Brushes are sharply pointed and resemble Western watercolor brushes in shape and size. These brushes are used fully loosened. This style of brush is commonly bought in a set of three-small, medium, and large. The small is roughly equivalent to a size 7 Western watercolor brush and the large is comparable to a size 14. This style of brush behaves almost identically to that of a Western sable watercolor brush, and is one of the few Oriental brushes that can easily make the transition to Western watercolor technique.
Cat Hair Brushes are detail brushes that resemble Western spotting brushes in
Weasel or Rabbit Brushes, or brushes made of a combination of weasel and rabbit hair, are popular in China for calligraphy. Brushes made of these hairs are for smaller calligraphy pieces and for everyday writing. They are preferred for their quick reponse and point. These brushes are used fully loosened.
Samba Brushes are highly prized among Japanese calligraphers because of the hair's great resiliency and point. They are used either partially or fully loosened. Samba brushes have become rare in the West and when found are often expen sive. To the beginner, a samba hair brush often tends to feel uncontrollable, if not wild.
Badger Hair is used in Oriental brushes only in combination with other hairs. Badger hair adds resiliency to a brush.
Deer Hair (Inner Arch) Brushes are made in several styles. Deer hair (taken from the inner arch) is used primarily by the Japanese in brush making. It is used to produce both chuho- and tanpoh-style brushes. There is one style called kumadori, a tanpoh brush, in which the better grades are made with 100 percent deer hair. The lesser grades are blends of sheep, badger, horse, and, sometimes deer. Kumadori brushes look like extra-large Western spotting brushes; the length of the hair is short and the shape resembles the tip of a bullet. A kumadori brush is used for shading and to sketch semicircular shapes, such as plum blossom petals. Shading is sometimes accomplished by loading this brush with plain water and running the tip of the wet brush along a painted edge, causing it to bleed. This style of brush is popular among ceramists for applying glazes in designs to the surface of pottery.
Deer is often used in combination with such hairs as weasel and horse to produce an all-purpose sketching brush that resembles in appearance the choryu, or seiryu, brush, but which has a different responsiveness. The feel of this style of brush is like that of a Western watercolor brush, and it is commonly called by the name of gyokuran or maruyama. This brush is used fully loosened.
Bamboo Brushes are made by leaving one end of a piece of bamboo to rot in the ground until it is soft. The individual fibers are then separated by mashing them with a mallet. This brush is used for both calligraphy and painting, when a distinct textured appearance is desired. Drawings or sketches with this brush will have an abstract quality.
Blends of Natural and Synthetic Hair in Oriental brushes would seem to contradict romantic notions about the purity of the tradition in Oriental artists' materials. Because of the substantial price increases in recent years, the temptation to use less costly ingredients for brush making is no longer being resisted. Because of the sensitivity of sumi-e to the lack of absorbency inherent in synthetic brushes, the proportion of natural hair to synthetic hair must be higher than would be found in Western brushes. If there is too little natural hair, the paint will collect at the tip of the brush rather than remain in the belly. The result will be too much paint deposited at the beginning of the brushstroke and not enough at the end.
Early efforts by the Yasutomo Company to strike an effective balance between synthetic fibers and natural hairs to produce a more affordable category of Oriental brushes have been moderately successful. Their first efforts are in the choryu, menso, and hake styles of brushes. These brushes are a reasonable alternative when cost is a serious concern.
Recommended Brush Assortments
THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS are made without mention of quality' and are intended only as a guide.
WESTERN WATERCOLOR BRUSHES
Basic Assortment
One standard watercolor round, size 7 or larger. One watercolor flat, ¾ inch or larger.
One watercolor mop, twice the size of the standard round or larger.
General Purpose Assortment
Two standard watercolor rounds, one between sizes 5 and 7, and one between sizes IO and 12.
Two watercolor flats, ½ inch and 1 inch. One squirrel round, between sizes 10 and 14.
One watercolor mop that is at least twice the size of the larger standard water-, color round brush.
For greater detail add:
One designers' round quill, English size between 4 and 8 (or between 2 and 2/0 in French sizing where 8 is the smallest and 6/0 the largest).
One spotting brush, between sizes 4 and 8.
For a softer look add:
One oval wash brush, ¾ inch.
One hake brush, between 2 and 3 inches.
One one-stroke lettering flat, between I and I¼ inches.
OIL AND ACRYLIC BRUSHES
There are too many variables, such as the size of the intended painting and the painting style to be used, to give specific recommendations. As for general recommendations, bristle is best if a more textured or an impressionistic appearance is desired. Sable or sablelike brushes are best if a smoother or a more detailed appearance is sought.
ORIENTAL CALLIGRAHY (SUMI) BRUSHES
There are countless styles in Oriental calligraphy, and brush selection would depend on which style one intends to follow. However, if you wish to begin without formal training and are interested in Japanese calligraphy, you may begin by selecting a round brush made with long sheep or goat hair. This brush is commonly recognized by a thin black stripe around the bamboo handle near where the hairs are inserted.
If a Chinese style of calligraphy is desired, select a Chinese weasel brush of a medium size.
ORIENTAL PAINTING (SUMI-E) BRUSHES
Oriental painting technique is derived from calligraphy and, like calligraphy, has many styles. Its nature is less esoteric for Westerners and specific recommendations are more easily made.
JAPANESE PAINTING BRUSHES
Basic Assortment
One basic painting brush like choryu, or seiryu,in a medium or large size.
One smaller and different-style basic painting brush such as gyokuran, or mar uyama, in a small size.
One detail brush, such as menso, in a medium to large size.
One hake brush about 2 inches wide
For a general-purpose assortment add:
One coloring brush like saishiki in a small or medium size. One shading brush like kumadori in a small to medium size.
One extra-small detail brush like those made of cat hair in small to medium size.
CHINESE PAINTING BRUSHES
Basic Assortment
A set of three weasel brushes-small, medium, and large. If cost or availability is a problem, one large weasel brush will suffice.
One hake brush around 2 inches.
For a more general assortment add:
One rabbit hair brush in large to extra-large size. If not available you may sub stitute a brush like gyokuran.
One extra-long-hair brush made of sheep. You may substitute a long-hair sheep calligraphy brush.
BRUSH CARE
There are four things that will end the life of a brush-wear, dried paint, mildew, and moths. Although there is little that can be done about wear, damage from dried paint, mildew, and moths can be easily avoided by proper cleaning, proper drying, and proper storage.
CLEANING
Thorough cleaning involves removing material that gets caught in the scales of the hairs or that builds up near the ferrule. Material trapped in these locations prevents the brush from returning to its ideal shape.
Watercolor Brushes, both Western and Oriental, and calligraphy brushes made with natural hair, are best cleaned by rinsing with room-temperature water never use hot water on natural hair brushes-when watercolors or non-waterproof inks have been used. This preserves the natural oils in the hairs that protect them from becoming dry and brittle. However, since dyes are sometimes used, which stain the hairs and tend to dry out the brush and affect successive uses of other colors, and because it is difficult to be patient for all necessary rinsing, a cleaning aid may be used .Do not clean watercolor brushes with anything that you would not be willing to use on your own hair. You would not use liquid dishwashing detergent or paint thinner to wash your hair. Neither should these be used on expensive brushes that could last for decades if properly cared for. True soaps such as Ivory soap do far less damage than chemical detergents and are recommended for cleaning fine brushes. Some of the new cake brush cleaners (the Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver by B & J Company and Brush Soap by Grumbacher) that have recently come on the market function like hair shampoos.
They contain mild chemical detergents combined with such conditioners as natural oils like lanolin, which replace what is removed in cleaning. Some artists use their own shampoo and conditioner on their brushes. This would seem to be an acceptable alternative as long as the brush hairs are not made too oily from the conditioner, in which case they could lose their natural absorbency.
After a brush has been cleaned it should be reshaped and allowed to air dry thoroughly before being stored. The best way to allow a brush to dry, particularly a large brush, is to hang it with the tip down. This will help prevent moisture from being trapped in the ferrule, which would cause the brush to rot.
Acrylic Brushes
, or those used with vinyl paints, must be periodically rinsed clean while you are working, because the paint that is trapped near the ferrule is drying while you are working with the tip. Small amounts of paint buildup in this area will not wash out once dry and will eventually render the brush useless. The only way to prevent this is to rinse the brush thoroughly every fifteen to twenty minutes with warm water. When finished, cleanup can be accomplished easily with soap and warm water, or with any of the new commercial brush cleaners.
If acrylic or vinyl paint has dried in a brush it can be removed with acetone. Acetone will, however, rob a brush of a great deal of its life, if not destroy it. (It should be noted that nylon brushes tend to dissolve in acetone.) Acetone is a hazardous substance, which can be absorbed through the skin, and frequent use may reduce your life expectancy as well. Manufacturers of the new artists' brush cleaners claim that they can remove some dried acrylic paint. There are also artists' brush conditioners, such as Silicoil, which can help recondition a brush with dry and brittle hair.
Oil Brushes
Oil Brushes can be cleaned easily without the use of such solvents as turpentine, petroleum distillate, or paint thinner. (Paint thinner should always be avoided for cleaning brushes.) Plain soap and water, or an artists' brush cleaner, work extremely well after the brush has been wiped free of excess paint. Ilut this procedure is not workable when it's necessary to clean a brush quickly so that it can be loaded with a different color and continue to be used. In this case, the brush will have to be rinsed with thinner, but it should not be left sitting in thinner.
I recommend that a jar of solvent, such as turpentine, be set up with a coil in the bottom of the jar. This provides a nonabrasive surface to scrub the brush while rinsing it with thinner. The jar should have a cover to protect against evaporation when not in use. This will allow the rinsing of the brush between color changes as well as before final cleaning with soap and water. When it is time for cleanup, the brush is first wiped clean of excess paint, then quickly rinsed in the jar of solvent, and finally washed and allowed to air dry. Periodically, a brush conditioner may be used to restore performance. This method keeps the exposure to thinners at a minimum.
As for brushes with dried oil paint, if an artists' brush cleaner is not successful, it is time to consider a new brush and better work habits.
Synthetic Filament Brushes can easily stand repeated exposure to solvents such as turpentine, petroleum distillate, and most paint thinners. Solvents such as acetone, however, will dissolve nylon filaments. Synthetic brushes that have lost their shape, perhaps because the weight of the brush was left resting on the tip, may be restored by placing the brush in water that is hot, but just below the boiling point.
STORAGE
After a brush has been cleaned, reshaped, and air-dried, it has to be protected. All brushes, whether made from natural hair or synthetic filament, have to be protected against mechanical pressure. Never store a brush resting on the tip, or in a container so small that the tip is pushed against one of the sides. The hairs or filaments will take on a distorted shape that is difficult to undo. Natural hair brushes can sometimes be reshaped by giving them the equivalent of a shampoo and set. This involves rinsing the tip of the brush in warm water and attempting to reshape it. It may be necessary to repeat this effort several times. Sometimes it is helpful to dip the brush into a solution of gum arabic after the warm water treatment to aid in reshaping.
Synthetic brushes may be reshaped with hot water. Natural hair brushes, especially expensive watercolor brushes, have to be pro tected from moths, which may lay their eggs on the hairs, which will be food of the larvae when they hatch. Never place a brush in a plastic bag and put it in the dark. This may keep the moths off the brush, but you will be providing a fertile ground for mildew and rot.
I recommend using a Japanese brush holder for storage. This resembles a bamboo placemat with a string attached at one end. Brushes are simply rolled into the mat, which permits the circulation of air and protects the brushes from moths. If you are storing large brushes in a Japanese brush holder, it is a good precaution to wrap a cotton cloth around the holder to prevent insects from crawling into the partially open end. Moth balls, or flakes, provide extra protection and are particularly important when storing brushes in drawers.
These storage procedures are not necessary if the brushes are used every day; then they may simply be placed upright in a jar when entirely dry. Whenever they are not to be used for several days, however, it is best to store them away using one of the methods described.