This article is a continuation from last week’s post, Brush Taxonomy.
The most common brush issue I see with my students is folks trying to paint with a brush that’s too small. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to make a nice, smooth, wash with a brush that won’t hold enough paint, and it encourages fussy little mark-making instead of the strong compositions you get by painting big shapes first. It’s also just a waste of time having to stop and pick up more paint all the time. So how do you know how big to go? Start a painting with the biggest brush you can, paint large blocks of color until the brush starts to hold you back from what you want to do, and then switch to something smaller for the final details.
How Many Brushes Do You Need?
Not many! I usually use a three-brush system: a big squirrel or synthetic squirrel quill or round brush for initial washes, a somewhat smaller sable or synthetic sable round for the bulk of the painting, and a little nylon spotter for a few tiny details. Artist Matthew White has lots of great videos on this painting method if you’d like to see it in action. When I’m plein air painting or working on a smaller painting (7×10 or 5×7) I often use one brush (the medium-sized one) for the whole painting. I start my students out with just one brush, a Creative Mark Durahandle #8 Round. It saves money and keeps them from using a brush that’s too small.
The 1/30th Rule: Looking at my own brush choices, I found that the width of the brush I use for the bulk of a painting is generally around 1/30th of the longest dimension of the paper. So:
20×30 (full sheet) paper = 1” brush
12×16 paper = ½” brush
5×7 paper = ¼” brush
I paint mostly with round brushes, so this dimension is the width of the round brush at the ferrule. This ratio seems fairly consistent with the brush size I see many other artists using in demos, although there’s much variation based on personal style. Here’s a couple extremes:
Ali Cavenaugh – one of my favorite portrait artists – is known for her free-flowing watercolor portraits on Ampersand watercolor panels. She works on small areas at a time, using a very small, round, synthetic brush in order to avoid unintentional puddles on the non-absorbant panels. Her brush ratio might be more like 1/50.
Tom Hoffman – author of my favorite watercolor book, Watercolor Painting – painted large watercolors with big, clearly defined shapes. Based on what I could find online, he recommended painting with ½” 1” and 1.5” flats on an 11×15” sheet of paper for his workshops, so his mid-size brush would have a ratio of 1/15, double my ratio.
Find the Size
Flat brushes generally have their width in inches conveniently printed on the side. Rounds, meanwhile, have a mostly meaningless number printed on them which is not standardized across brands so you have to look up the actual dimensions of each brush if you’re shopping online. This is analogous to the sizing for men’s pants vs. women’s pants, though you can’t blame sexism for the inconvenience of round brush shopping (perhaps it’s shapeism!) Quill brushes use an entirely different sizing system from other rounds – a #2 quill is usually more than twice as large as a #2 round. Inexpensive brushes from China and Korea that are available on Amazon often run much smaller than other brands. For instance, my #12 Fuumuui travel brush is almost the same size as my #8 Escoda travel brush.
If you’re new to brush buying and can afford to pay top dollar, get yourself to a good brick-and-mortar art supply store where you can actually handle the brushes to get a feel for the real size of what you’re buying. The next best thing is to request a free catalog from Rosemary and Co. where you can see life-size photos of all of their brushes.
Coming up, we’ll look at ways to care for your brushes and a few hacks to repair damage. Subscribe below to get these articles delivered to your email so you never miss a post!
Carrie Glessner 