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Thursday, April 5, 2012

It's all relative...brush sizes, that is!

People often ask me about what size brushes to get for a class...and I have to admit it's wildly relative, if you're talking round brushes!  I just suggest getting the biggest you can comfortably work with, for the large size...you can move a lot more paint without having to reload, and it will help avoid niggly work and hard edges where you don't want them.

Manmade brushes are very much improved...I haven't had a sable in YEARS.  The best of them hold lots of water and a good point...and no worries about breaking the bank or losing your brush!

This shows the largest waterbrush, on the right...and as you can see, it's not very large.  That's a #6 next to it.

But look...here are a couple of #6 brushes!  One's Loew-Cornell stain brush an the one below is a Princeton.  Hmmmm...

And here are two #8 brushes...with a #6, all of the SAME BRAND...
 I really like Loew-Cornell brushes, by the way...their Ultra type is wonderful!

And here's a Grumbacher #12 with a Loew-Cornell #8.  Doesn't appear to be a lot of logic here, does there...

Happily, most flat brushes are sold by width.  You can get a 1/2", a 3/4", a 1" or larger and you know pretty much what size it's going to be...it may be longer or shorter, it may have a better edge, but at least you know it's probably going to be a 3/4" if it says so!

12 comments:

  1. Very helpful post...thanks, Kate ~

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  2. Thank you Kate...I had no idea!! I always assumed they were all the standardized!! Amazing!

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  3. I wish they sold flat brushes by width here (Germany) but I have yet to see anything besides size 2/4/6/8 etc. here. *pout*

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  4. Glad it was helpful...the first time I noticed that I was astounded! And Mercy, I'm surprised, thanks for the heads up! I assumed you got the same brands there that we do...or maybe they have a different protocol for you. Are the flats standard within their range?

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    1. I don't know if they are standard, since I've only really just started doing watercolor. (I was signed up for your free course, btw, but haven't done much with it yet.) I haven't seen Loew-Cornell or Grumbacher here. Jax, store-brand, and Da Vinci are what I see most. Oh, I JUST found one type of brush that's by measurement on the website of my pet art supplier, it's W&N rotmarder (red sable?), way out of my price range.

      What the print catalog of this art supply place (700+ pages!) does do that's nice is print true-to-size photographs of all the brush heads, round and flat. Not for the sets, but for the individual brushes.

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  5. I'm glad you shared this...it certainly makes no sense, the brush sizes.

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  6. Thanks for the great article Kate!

    For synthetics I quite like the Black Gold Dynasty brushes sold by Daniel Smith. They have lots of spring to them and aren't spendy. My "magic" brush, though, has always been a Robert Simmons white sable #14. Don't know why, it just never gets a wash wrong for me.

    I'll have to try the Loew-Cornell brushes though. Next time I'm at the art store I'll pick up a few to experiment with. :-)

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  7. Oh yes, I like the Black Gold, too, though I only have the travel brushes.

    And glad you all enjoyed the post!

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  8. I too found this out the hard way. I bought a Princeton #12 round brush in Chicago only to return home to find it was identical in size to my existing Winsor-Newton Sceptre Gold #10 round! Standards would be nice... :(

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    1. Yes, Princeton seems to run a bit small...I like them, but if you need a 12...

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  9. http://www.dickblick.com/info/brushpdf/brushsizing.pdf

    Here's an interesting chart of Dick Blick's brushes. As they say here, these are THEIR sizes and not standardized. The chart is interesting, though.

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