Painting Brushes for Watercolor

Let’s talk about the brushes for watercolor work. We don’t need to have a large selection of brushes; sometimes 2 or 3 brushes are good enough to start.

Watercolor brushes are in many shapes and sizes, and they can be made from different materials. A brush can be made from sable and natural hairs or synthetic materials. There are also brushes made with a combination of both natural and synthetic materials. Take a look at these brushes. These brushes are made from synthetic materials; these brushes are made from sable hair. You can see that some are softer and others are stiffer. My favorites are the ones made from sable because they are soft enough and hold good amount of water and paint.  This makes them very good for glazing without disturbing the paint underneath.

Depending on the paper that I’m going to use, I will choose a set of hard or soft brushes to paint with. If I am going to use a very absorbent cold pressed paper, such as Arches, I’ll use the thick sable brushes. An Arches paper absorbs water and paint quickly and holds the paint strongly. I can even use this brush for washing on a dry layer of paint. The paint will not be easily removed from this particular paper.

However, other brands of cold-pressed papers, like Strathmore and Montval, don’t hold watercolor paint as firmly, so I will use a much softer brushto avoid wiping off the paint underneath.

Before I start painting, I will use clean water to wet my brush. I use my fingers to squeeze out the excess water from the hair like this, and then I rest the brush on a clean paper towel. I will do the same thing when I finish a painting.

It is important to take good care of our brushes. Cleaning them each time you used them is a good practice. This will keep your workstation clean and extend the life of the brushes. To store my brushes after they are dried, I use this waterproof nylon case and keep them organized.

Among the brushes in my collection, these are my favorite ones. This is a one-and-a-half inches flat sable brush, for most of my washes. This is a number 14 round brush, for developing details. This is a three quarter inch flat sable, useful for overlaid washes. And this is a number 5 synthetic round brush good for details in the final stage.

When I look for a brush to add to my collection, I don’t look at whether it is expensive or cheap, but is it what I need from a brush? Is it the right size, the right shape, and is it soft or hard enough? When you can, play with your brushes, get to know them better.