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I've always purchased bulk packs of cheap brushes from Walmart etc and once purchased a GW brush,(absolutely terrible, a real lemon) but I am starting to get more serious about my painting. I recently started using a wet pallet and WOW what a huge difference!

I've seen people endorsing certain brushes, Sable for example, and am having a hard time justifying the price leap. What is the big difference?

Having never used one or seen one in action, I just don't understand how painting would be different with a different brush. I typically rotate between a 10/0 Round, 0 round, and 5 round and a piece of crud thing for drybrushing. I try to take care of them, and don't typically burn through them fast.

How well it holds it's shape. Both in use and over time. Good quality brushes have better quality handles and ferrules in addition to high dollar brush fibers. These help to keep the fibers in place and in shape with use.

How well it holds liquids. This is important for miniature painting when you thin out paints significantly. Sable, in particular Kolinsky Sable have very good water holding ability. You can really load the brush up and that allows smoother brush strokes as well as more painting and less messing about with the palette. The fibers are too close together though for some thicker paints though - which can be a problem if you are doing techniques that use unthinned or full bodied paints.

Varying degrees of other attributes like spring (or lack there of), fiber size (or lack there of), resistance to solvents, general durability...

For what has become traditional miniature painting techniques, I do like a Kolinsky Sables. A good quality brush can last several years of "normal" use. If you take good care of them - they can last even longer. The Kolinsky brush has a fair amount of spring - so you can take a somewhat full bodied brush with a good point and do fine lines and relatively broad strokes and have it pop back into shape. As a water color brush, it also excels at holding diluted acrylics. Acrylic paints are fairly harsh though as far as paint chemistries go though - so it is important to clean and condition the brush after every use (most dead sable brushes are dirty sable brushes...).

If you are interested in other mediums beyond the hobby paints though - it would be good to learn a bit about the fibers and get a varied set. I use a whole menagerie full of brushes from the lauded Siberian weasel butt fur, to pig and squirrel as well as synthetics. I also use oils, enamels, water colors, inks and of course acrylics in my painting - and no one brush is best with all of them.

That's what I'm talkin about! Thanks for the info!

The shape and the tip... my Raphael and W&N brushes have such nice tips on them, that I can paint the finest detail with a size 2 brush.

First, a little terminology: below the handle is the Ferrule, which is the metal part that holds together all the Bristles. The middle section of the bristles is the Belly, and the very end is called the Tip.

Each of these characteristics is very important in the function of a good brush. If you look at a cheap brush (like an Army Painter, or most of the Citadel brushes), bristles essentially taper from the ferrule to the point. If you look at a Winsor & Newton Series 7, the belly of the brush is quite fat -- wider than the ferule. This allows the brush to hold more paint, so that you don't have to go to the palette as much, and also, the brush doesn't dry out as quickly.

Kolinsky sable is highly sought after for top end brushes because it has a natural tendency to form a tip: just wet a good sable brush, and flick it away from you, and it will form a perfect tip. A cheap Kolinsky sable brush like a Citadel Standard Brush will have a tip that frays (splits up into a fat mess) as you paint, requiring you to re-form the tip, while a S7 will maintain its shape and keep a fine tip as you paint.

As compared to synthetic brushes, sable brushes have pros and cons.

The largest downside to a synthetic brush is that they kink. Every single one will kink as you use it, no matter how nice you are with it. This means that with time, the tip will be bent (no matter what you do), and not form a sharp point, making it not ideal for several types of work, like detail. Synthetic brushes also generally hold less paint than natural hair brushes, although some top end synthetics don't have this problem (they are also just as, or nearly as expensive as top sable brushes).

The largest advantage of a synthetic brush is that they are very springy, and bounce back to their intended shape, pretty much no matter what you do to them. This makes them easier to learn with, because a painter doesn't have to work to keep the brush in the correct shape.

The larger Citadel brushes (standard, basecoat) will not keep their shapes as you work. This means you constantly have to go to the palette, and roll the brush (in the paint) to reform a nice tip. Duncan is a pro at this in the GW videos

The W&N Series 7 brushes, in comparison, are extremely springy, nearly as much as a synthetic. The Raphael 8404 is slightly less springy, and will tend to stay bent. Technically, this is not a quality issue -- it's because the 8404, by design, has a larger Length Out (length of bristle from ferrule to tip). This allows it to hold more paint, but reduces its ability to hold its shape.

One other advantage of Synthetic brushes is that the material for the better ones (Golden Talkon, I think it's called) is more durable than natural hair. This means you don't have to be as diligent at cleaning it, you can be rougher with it, and, importantly, it wears better when you are using metallic paints, which contain flakes of mica.

Now, your original question included one of price. When I buy them on sale, I can get W&N Series 7 Size 0 and smaller for about $10-$12, and size 1 and 2 for around $17-$20. They are maybe $5-8 more than that when not on sale. This is actually MUCH cheaper than synthetic round brushes over time, because if you care for your W&N S7 (or Raphael) properly, and don't use them for metallic paints, they will last 6 months to a year, *at a minimum*. I have year-old brushes with 1000+ hours that I've given away, that still look new.

In contrast, a synthetic brush that kinks goes straight into graveyard, and that happens in weeks, for me (using brushes about 3 hours a day).

Cleaning natural hair brushes is really important. Basically, after you're done and have cleaned them, they should look exactly like what they did when you opened them new. Over time, the bristles will effectively get shorter, and the tip less sharp, but they should still look awesome. I highly recommend Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner & Restorer for daily use and Master's Brush Soap and Conditioner for the major cleanings (for me, that's 2-4 weeks).

I also highly recommend keeping a separate set of brushes for metallics (because they will get ravaged :() and one extra brush for super details like eyes, that you don't use for anything else. For the super detail brush, my recommendation is Raphael 8404 size 6/0.

Also: find out who sells Kolinsky brushes in your area -- try fine arts stores -- and ask when they have customer appreciation days and sales. Just buy a couple of brushes when they are on sale, treat them well, and they will last you a long time. They are also much fun to paint with

I can't say enough good things about Army Painter's character brush. I had one for two solid years before it gave up on me and I do a lot of painting.

Since I started painting with W&N series 7, I find that all my other brushes doesn't get used. I use a S7 size 2 for almost all my painting except metallics. The point is so fine that I seldom have a need for smaller sizes.

I personally now only use the Games&Gears Ichiban studio brushes... Quality for me is really good. They hold their tip nicely and the hairs are very fine.

Pete Melvin wrote:I can't say enough good things about Army Painter's character brush. I had one for two solid years before it gave up on me and I do a lot of painting.

The Regiment brush is also excellent. I use Character and Regiment for doing washes. The triangle shape also makes the brush easier to hold. However, they are not really comparable to W&N S7.

Another worthy mention is the Tamiya Pro brush, which also has an incredible handle, and is a very nice kolinsky brush. it has a short length out, even on the large sizes, giving it tons of control. Sadly, it is very expensive (double the price of a S7, from my hobby shop), and the beautiful handle gets chipped away by acrylic brush cleaners.

jorny wrote:Since I started painting with W&N series 7, I find that all my other brushes doesn't get used. I use a S7 size 2 for almost all my painting except metallics. The point is so fine that I seldom have a need for smaller sizes.

Yeah, this was pretty much it when I went from FLGS hobby brushes to S7 from a fine arts store. My hobby brushes pretty much all went into the drawer. My favorite sizes are 1, 0, 00 -- I have the 2, 3 and 3/0 sizes, but I don't use them as much.

The one exception is base coat: I actually use a flat or filbert brush, one because it gives a much smoother finish (ever tried painting the wall of your house with a round brush? ), and two because I don't feel bad about jamming it into the nooks and crannies, which tends to destroy brushes.