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What is a brush? What is the history of the creation of the brush? What are the types of brushes and the use of each type of brush? To create better works, which type of brush should you choose? To get answers to these questions, stay with us with the article on types of painting brushes.

The use of brushes undoubtedly has a history that goes back to very distant years, but there are very few documents and information about the exact history of the painting brush.

Some information sources attribute the birth date of the brush to the 19th century. In this art, he had found his place among the people and painting was well known and developed. Much of the speculation always goes back to this period, as it is likely that the brush variety – similar to today’s form – was very high on this build .

Basic brush
Types of elementary brushes

The types of primitive brushes were much simpler compared to today’s pen, but with the passage of time and gradually, changes in their structure were created. With the improvement of facilities and the development of the industry, the making of paint brushes is also subject to many changes.

Interestingly, since the use of synthetic hair to make various brushes, interesting objects such as bamboo, a bone that is a whale’s jaw, and carved wood are used instead of brushes for painting, which did not have elastic brushes in the hair.

Some found items of brushes from ancient times
To begin with, we must go to the ancient paintings as usual, and for this purpose we must visit the caves. In caves such as Altamira in the north of Spain, images of a brush painter have been seen, which is from the existence of hair in the old form during the ancient pen era.
Brush marks can be seen in the paintings left from the Renaissance period. These signs of brush use have also been seen in the works of some prominent people such as Rembrandt or Delacroix.
There is evidence that the ancient Greeks used paint brushes to draw fixed lines in paintings. They use some types of brushes to draw them.
Iranian artists also used tools made of cat hair for writing and making pens. Interestingly, these brushes were also divided into two categories. The names of these two categories were “wheat” and “sword (spear)”, both of which were used in painting. Of course, these brushes are also used for traditional painting.
New drawing pen
New types of painting brushes

According to the evidence, around 1830 AD, new and high-quality pens entered the market. It was interesting that a little later companies in the United States began to work that had a special job in the production of brushes.

With the special skills they need, they produced the painting brush 100% by hand without the need for machines. For this, they connected the brush with glue and hand pressure. They do not use any device to do these tasks and the overall production process.

In the continuation of the article and in another section, he examined the intellectual pen of painting and got to know more about it. But to start, it is better to answer a very important question; What is a brush?

What is a brush?

What is a paint brush?

In terms of structure and appearance, the brush is actually a type of brush that is used to paint the surface. A paint brush consists of a thin wooden handle, which is connected by a clamp. This fastener is responsible for keeping the hair together. This fastener is connected to a wooden or plastic handle to make it easier to work with the brush.

It does not always make a pen from a fixed material, and the bristles of the brush may be natural animal hair or synthetic fibers. Note that the pen bristles are made of metal and the bristles are usually made of wood or plastic.

A set of other tools such as painting rollers and painting pumps, sprayers, and even the facilities of the digital world, have made human work easier for painting and coloring and have even taken the place of all kinds of brushes to some extent, but the brush is still the first word. . in painting and this lovely tool is still used in many different styles of painting.

All painters have a professional that can never take the place of a brush to implement delicate works and designs, painting with precision and painting with corners and sides and places where more precision is not needed. It is not wrong to say that the best way to transfer the inner feeling of the painter to the canvas is the brush.

Regarding the type of brush hair, it should be said that the difference in this type causes a change in the use of the brush. You should note that in general, the better the quality of these hairs, the longer the brush color will last.

This factor makes the brush spread the color more smoothly, so that this software does not leave a trace of the brush on the canvas and painting paper. This is also the property of splashing paint. A good brush has bristles or fairly bristles that have acceptable elasticity. These bristles are firmly fixed in place and are easily removed from the brush holder.

Note that all types of quality brushes have a conical shape that has this feature beautifully and you can see it with a relatively close look at them. With a little attention to the appearance of a good brush, he noticed that the density of their hand is thicker near the handle than the tip. This feature somehow increases the accuracy of drawing. Unlike

Quality hair, cheap hair brushes have a constant thickness from the handle to the tip. It should not be forgotten that having hairs of different sizes helps to absorb more color in a brush and is considered one of the characteristics of a good painting brush. Next, we will examine the types of brushes.

Classification of painting brushes

In general, the types of brushes can be examined and classified in several ways:

In terms of fiber arrangement: it is divided into fan, flat and round types.
In terms of application: divided into brushes used for oil paint and other brushes used for watercolor.
In terms of size: contract numbers are determined for different brush sizes. Among the most common and widely used brushes used in oil painting style are 4, 8, 12 brushes.
In terms of the type of hair: all kinds of brushes are made of animal hair or synthetic plastic fibers. The brushes made from otter tail hair are of good quality, and their springy and flexible tips and sharp tips are suitable for watercolor and oil painting. These brushes have a higher ability to absorb water.

Note that the production of brushes for different colors and in different shapes and sizes is done to cover all the needs of a painter. It is you who ultimately determines the size and shape of the brush for painting, and the size of the brush you choose will naturally depend on the design of your painting as well as the details you want to depict.

Soft brushes: Regardless of the shape of acrylic paint brushes, soft brushes are generally used in these paintings.

The hair of soft pens has the ability to be filled with diluted color while maintaining its overall shape. For this reason, these brushes are usually used in watercolor painting, but in any kind of precise and delicate painting (such as glaze painting with acrylic and oil paints, hatching in tempera and fresco, decorative patterns on pottery and painting on glass). can also be used. Next, we will examine the types of brushes:

Types of brushes
Types of painting brushes

To start, we go to the round brush and pointed brush:

Round brush and Pointed Round brush:
Round painting brush

According to historians, these brushes are among the oldest types of brushes. These pens are suitable for sketching, drawing details, controlled and targeted coloring, filling small spaces and drawing the outer lines of the image and creating very fine and small designs.

The interesting thing about these brushes is their ability to create thin to thick lines. To draw thick lines, just apply more pressure to the tip of the pen, and for thinner lines, you can reduce the pressure. An acceptable round brush has very neat and pointed bristles that greatly assist the painter in drawing sharp shapes and fine lines. This brush enables you to draw details and fine lines more perfectly and more accurately than ever.

Flat brush:

Types of flat painting brushes

These brushes, as their name suggests, have a large width and a small thickness. Generally, a flat brush is fairly wide, but not too thick. This physical feature is due to the arrangement of the bristles of the brush at its tip. The length of these hairs can be different. These differences make these brushes more practical.

Always remember that when buying a flat brush, look for a type of brush whose hair has a good spring state. This point is determined when the bristles of the brush quickly return to their original position if bent slowly.

The main uses of the flat brush are for highlighting strokes, filling wide spaces, impasto, drawing stripes and also drawing edges. Another very important point is that flat and long pens are very suitable for glazing.

Bright brush:

Painting brush for you

Structurally, Bright brush is actually a special type of flat brush with curved edges. The short bristles of this brush make it a great tool for scraping and removing paint. For excellent results, it is better to keep this brush at a small distance from the canvas while working to create very delicate and precise patterns.

Filbert brush, flat and oval brush with long bristles:

Philibert’s painting brush

Using the sides of this brush will give you soft and delicate lines, and using its flat direction will give you wide lines. By changing the pressure applied to the brush on the canvas while painting or making quick strokes with the rotation of your wrist, you can create special and beautiful marks and shapes on the canvas that gradually narrow.

Note that this brush is suitable for drawing clouds and trees due to its rounded corners. This brush is very suitable and practical for drawing round and soft corners like fruits and petals. In fact, from a technical point of view, it can be said that this brush is a combination of round brushes (to increase its use for drawing details) and flat brushes (because they can cover a surface).

Flat brush with bangs (Fan) with scattered hairs:

Umbrella painting brush

Most of the artists use these brushes only for making and mixing colors, but these brushes are also very useful for drawing leaves of trees, bushes, grass and most importantly creating very beautiful highlights in objects. .

The type of hair of these brushes affects their use

Is. These brushes with natural hair are suitable for softening, blending and covering, and if they are made with synthetic hair, they are more suitable for creating texture, drawing clouds, highlighting clouds, tree leaves. Note that for painting with acrylic paint, it is better to use strong and large brushes, otherwise the bristles of the pen may be damaged and bunched up after contact with the paint.

Angular flat brush or flat brush with a diagonal end:

Angled brush

In addition to its normal uses, this brush allows you to show a lot of creativity in drawing lines because of its special shape. Normally, you can draw wide shapes and lines with this brush, but you can simply turn the brush to its narrow side and create thin and delicate lines with it. On the other hand, this brush is also used for different markings.

Note that the color holding capacity of flat brushes is also different and this feature is determined by the type of brush hair and the size of the hair. A flat brush with short synthetic bristles will hold much less color than a natural brush with longer bristles. The best technical performance of these brushes in painting is to fill corners and curves. Its thin corner can be used for delicate work and its entire width can be used like a flat brush.

Liner is a thin brush with stiff bristles:

Liner painting brush

Suitable for drawing narrow lines such as tree branches, various masts, fences and animal hair and similar shapes. Due to its narrowness and precision, you can use this pen to sign after finishing the drawing.

Angle brush:

Crooked head painting brush

Sarkej types of brushes are very suitable for creating wide patterns. At the same time, you can also use its sharp tip for small parts. This feature has made the curved head brush very practical.

Sarkej brush with natural hair is very suitable for mixing color. You can also use this brush to smooth and cover different surfaces.

Sarkej brush with synthetic hair is also very suitable for creating texture. Sarkej brushes are also used to draw clouds and leaves on trees.

mop brush (eraser):

erase paint brush

This very soft brush has the ability to hold a high amount of color in its interior. This feature makes this brush used to blur a big sky in the background, create clouds, and also erase clouds.

Thorough cleaning is one of the things that you should definitely do after you are done with this brush. The possibility of messing up the colors with this brush is very high if it is dirty. So never forget to clean this brush

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Rigger brush:

Rieger painting brush

A rigger is a special brush that has thin and long hairs. One of its important features is that it is easily sharpened. There is another type of it that has an angled end. This angled brush is known as the sword brush, which we talked about in detail.

The strong and very precise tip of this brush is ideal for painting hair, arrows, tree branches, and of course signatures. From a technical and artistic point of view, Riger brushes are excellent for drawing thin lines. With the very uniform width they create, these brushes are an ideal tool for drawing brush, tree branches, or even human and animal hair. This brush is also suitable for signing on the painting.

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