Paintbrush essentials - what I recommend

It can be hard to know how many brushes we should have in our collection, whether we need one for everything or should keep it minimal and work with what we’ve got. My opinion is that the more the merrier, but as a go-to collection, the one’s always have in the pot on your desk, should be kept small so you can confidently learn and go back to the same favourite brushes.

This isn't a post telling you the perfect set for any artist - what brushes you’ll want nearby totally depends on how you paint.

Is your art small and detailed? Big and messy? Smooth and blended? Bold and textured? Your brushes should fit the way you like to move.

Here’s a peek into what I keep at arm’s reach - and why.

Do you need to spend a lot of $?

Short answer: no.

The biggest price divider with brushes is whether they’re natural hair or synthetic. Natural hair can give a gorgeous soft stroke. With the amount of painting that I do, and the amount of brushes I go through,  I find synthetic brushes are the way to go. It’s much less heartbreaking when they eventually wear out (or when I accidentally leave them covered in paint overnight). The cheapest brushes aren’t great either, so as with everything, you want to find the middle ground.

Brands I recommend are: Catalyst Polytip, Jackson’s Shinku Synthetic, and DinaWakley Media for acrylics and oils, and Daler Rowney Aquafine for watersolubles.

Brushes for acrylic and oil paint

For painting with acrylics and other thicker paints like oil paint, you’ll want stiffer brushes. Either synthetic, labelled for acrylics, or natural hog hair brushes - they split at the ends into little "flags" that help them hold more paint for a good, even coverage. My top-tip is to avoid white hog hair brushes if you can - they’re usually bleached, which weakens the bristles.

Flat brushes are considered a staple for acrylic work. They let you load up a lot of paint and make big clean strokes. But honestly, I love round brushes even more. With a round brush, you can start a stroke really fine and then press it into a big juicy swoop - so much more control and a lovely, natural variation.

Also, don’t forget about palette knives! They’re great for scraping, layering, and adding texture.

Brushes for watercolour

Watercolour brushes are a bit different because they need to soak up a lot of diluted paint so should be softer. These brushes are good for anything water-soluble, including inks as well as watersoluble pastels and pencils.

Round brushes are my best friends here too — they hold loads of water and pigment at once.Flat brushes are handy if you want clean, sharp edges or you’re doing full-page colour washes.

There are also long, thin brushes (called riggers) that are brilliant for fine line work and encourage you to make large brush strokes - the key for a confident painter!

Horsehair brushes can hold an impressive amount of watery colour — lovely for bigger fluid strokes.

'Cheapie' brushes

I also keep a little collection of cheap, battered brushes nearby. These are the ones I use for glue, gel medium, anything messy where it doesn’t matter how they apply. Size 24 is a standard size and will allow you to cover large areas quickly.

And any brushes that have gone a bit wild — bristles sticking out everywhere, or flattened beyond hope — get repurposed for texture work. Perfect for scrubbing, scratching, or rough dry brushing.

Taking care of your brushes

If you want your brushes to last, you need to wash them as soon as you’ve finished painting, to not let them dry. Now, I’m no saint and have lost many brushes to forgetting to wash them and destroying the bristles as I try to pull dry paint from them, but when I clean them well, here’s how I do it:

Rinse them in warm water (not hot — hot can melt the glue inside the ferrule and wreck the brush). Use a gentle soap. Don’t worry if they don’t go back to their original perfect colour — some staining is totally normal. Pat them dry with a cloth or paper towel. Then leave them standing up in a pot, bristles facing upwards, to air dry properly.

Oil paints are a bit different. They usually need solvent like turpentine to clean up, but I find if you catch them while they’re still wet and use bar soap and a sprinkle of crushed black pepper, it lifts the oil paint really well — it’s what I use for my hands too.

So, in summary you’ll want two or three different sizes of stiffer brushes for thick paints, and two or three sizes of softer brushes. Mix and match between flat and round depending on how you like to paint (if you paint large pieces then you need large brushes, for art journaling you'll need medium and small). You should also have a palette knife to elevate your painting and a cheap standard size (definitely synthetic) brush for applying other mediums.

Paint brushes are your little companions at your desk — they don’t have to be fancy, they just have to suit you. Few will stay pristine; most will end up wild and battered from love and overuse, and that’s just how it should be.

The more you paint, the more you’ll learn which ones you reach for again and again.

I hope this has been useful to you.

Happy painting!

Kasia x