Picking paintbrushes

So this week I thought I would talk a little about paintbrushes: what I use to paint with as well as bit of the ethics of paintbrushes.. yes it is something to bare in mind if you are concerned with animal welfare and easily overlooked.

For painting there's a pretty simple rule to follow: larger brushes for larger areas, smaller brushes for finer details. Obviously it is quicker to fill in large expanses of canvas with a larger brush, which can hold more paint, than use a small brush that's better suited to finer mark-making.

I have brushes that I use that were acquired when I was in art college about 9 years ago that are still good to use. These are larger brushes that see less demanding use than my small brushes which need to be replaced fairly often as they start to fray.

If there is one type of brush I would recommend it would be a fan brush (see above). These are made for blending and create softer-looking areas which works fantastically for creating softer 'out of focus' backgrounds and helps bring your subject more sharply into view because of the contrast.

A note on animal welfare. 

Many art paintbrushes that are suited to oil points are made with animal hair. Hogs' hair is commonly used for large art brushes as well as for DIY and seems to be a by-product of the meat industry or can be harvested in some cases(unfortunately it's not that clear). This may be an issue to people, such as vegans, who do not want to use animal products at all. I do have hogs' bristle brushes from college but now the uncertain nature of their origin would mean I would be reluctant to buy them in future.

More of an issue for me as an animal painter are the finer detail brushes. Many are products from fur-trapping and fur-farming, a practise that I personally am not okay with. Animal hair such as sable and kolinsky sable comes from martens and weasels so it is important to check your brushes if you don't want to accidentally purchase an animal hair paintbrush. 

There is an alternative in the form of synthetic brushes. I always make sure to use these  brushes although as they are plastic-based they are more quickly eroded through the mediums used for oil painting. Currently I use the synthetic Pro Arte brushes and have just picked up an acrylix one to try out.

Please don't think that this is a blog post where I tell you what you should do though. Ethics are a personal thing and people have their own priorities and reasoning; but awareness is different. I think it is important to be aware of the circumstances around what you are buying as a lot of information simply isn't readily available when you are buying products, from chocolate to paintbrushes and much more. I just hope this makes you more aware of the surrounding issues so that you are able to make an informed choice.