Open a brush set and you get a row of shapes with names that explain nothing. Each one exists because it solves a problem the others do not. Here is what each shape does, and which ones you actually need first.
Round
The one everyone recognises. A round comes to a point when wet, so it draws a line, and it opens up when you press, so the same brush does detail and fills small areas. If you own one brush, it is a round. Sizes matter more than usual here: a small round for detail, a larger one for everything else.
Flat and bright
A flat has a square end and long bristles. Use the edge for a crisp line and the face for laying down colour quickly. It holds a lot of paint. A bright is a flat with shorter bristles, which makes it stiffer and easier to control. Brights are what you reach for when you want to push thick paint about and keep the edges sharp. Flats are for coverage.
Filbert
A flat with the corners rounded off. That small change means it leaves no hard edge, so strokes blend into each other. Petals, leaves, clouds, skin, anything that should not have a line around it: this is the brush. Many painters find a filbert does most of what a flat does with fewer hard marks to clean up afterwards.
Angled
Cut on a slant. The long corner gets into tight spaces and draws a fine line, the full edge lays colour, and the angle lets you paint a clean edge without twisting your wrist. It is the brush for corners, for the line where two colours meet, and for anyone who finds a flat awkward to control. Our angled set is five short handled brushes in synthetic nylon.
Fan
Bristles spread into a fan shape. It is a blending and texture brush, not a drawing brush. Dragged lightly through wet paint it softens a boundary. Tapped, it gives foliage, grass and hair. In oils, where blending on the canvas is half the work, a fan earns its place quickly. Ours is a set of four, long handled, in synthetic hog for oil painting.
Cat's tongue and script
Two you will see in larger sets. A cat's tongue is a filbert that comes to a point, so it blends like a filbert and details like a round. A script, also called a liner, has very long thin bristles that hold a lot of paint and let you draw a long unbroken line. Both are specialists. Useful once you know you need them, not before.
Long handle or short?
Long handles are for standing at an easel, where you hold the brush further back and work at arm's length. That is oil painting and large acrylic. Short handles are for sitting at a table, close to the paper, which is watercolour and gouache. Buy the handle length for how you actually paint, not for how you imagine painting.
Which three first?
A medium round, a filbert and an angled will cover most of what a beginner or an improving painter does. Add a fan when you move to oils and find yourself blending on the canvas. Add flats and brights when you want to work faster and larger.
What to buy
- Elan angled brush set, five short handled synthetic nylon brushes for watercolour, gouache and acrylic at the table.
- Elan fan brush set, four long handled synthetic hog brushes for oils, with rounds, filberts, flats and brights available in the same range.
- Elan twelve piece set, synthetic sable, with rounds, flats, a cat's tongue and a script, if you want the whole shelf at once.
Everything for painting, including the paints and canvases these brushes were made for, is in the painting collection.
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