Do you know hair type of paint brush?(1)

There kinds of paint brushes in market, such as flat paint brush, inch paint brush and natural paint brush.

Different media, such as water color or acrylic or traditional oil, require different types of brushes, and they come in four main types :

• Natural Hair

• Hog Hair (Bristle)

• Synthetic Hair

• Blends (Synthetic and Natural)

Natural Hair

For working in water color or gouache natural hair brushes are a good choice because they tend to be softer and more flexible than hog hair brushes. Natural paint brushes come in different varieties.

• Sable brushes maintain a perfect point allowing for great control and are excellent for precision marks. Sable hair is also naturally absorbent which means these brushes hold a lot of color for excellent flow. Sable brushes are very high quality, with the best being hand made from the tip of the tail of the Siberian Kolinsky sable such as Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Brushes.

• Squirrel brushes carry color very well because they can hold a lot of water. They are very good as mop and wash brushes as they do not point as well as Sable.

• Goat brushes also have a good color carrying capacity but tend not to release the color as well as squirrel or sable and they have no point.

• Camel brushes is a term used to capture an array of miscellaneous natural hair brushes which have low quality.

• One exception where a natural hair brush can be used effectively with thicker media is Pony brushes. Pony brushes have coarse hair which does not form a point and offer little spring. However their stiffness is useful when using media such as oil and acrylic.

Hog Hair (Bristle)

When using oil and acrylic then hog hair brushes are a good choice. They are naturally stiff and each bristle is split into two or three at the tip and these are called flags allowing the brush to hold on to more paint and apply it evenly. Remember, hog brushes come in different shades so if they are white then you need to make sure that this is natural and not bleached as this will have weakened the bristle. Bristle paint brush comes in different in qualities.

• Best Hog has the stiffest hair, plenty of flags allowing it to carry more color, and extremely resilient so that the brush keeps its working edge and shape for longer. Winsor & Newton Artists’ Oil Brush is the highest quality hog brush.

• Better Hog has hair that is a little softer than best hog and will not wear quite as well.

• Good Hog is even softer. This type of brush will not maintain its shape well.

• Poor Quality Hog is soft, weak and tends to splay which makes controlling the color difficult.