In this video I'm going to have
a look at some paintbrush basics. Hello and welcome everyone to
another Brushstroke Painting Guide! So, in this video, as you heard from the intro, we're going to be looking at some paint brushes
and this is really following on from the last couple of fundamental videos I've done, in
terms of paint thinning and wet palettes. So, if you've not had a chance to check
those out, then I'll put a link up at the top here and a link in the description below.
Because they're definitely worth checking out. But in terms of this video, what I thought would
be quite a good idea is just to cover off some of the basics, in terms of brush use;
How to load them How to maintain them while you're painting
A bit about brush control, maybe And then finishing off with just how
best to clean and care for your brushes. Now, for this video, I'm going to talk
specifically about this one type of paintbrush, which is an artist's watercolor brush.
Now, there are other types and shapes of brushes, that we use in miniature painting, and they have
different advantages and purposes but for this basic overview, of how brushes work and how you
should be using them for painting, I thought it was easier just to stick to the one brush type.
And I'll cover the others in later videos. Okay, so let's start right at the beginning and
take a look at the different parts that make up a paintbrush and how a paintbrush works.
Beginning of course then with the handle, and then on the end of the handle you have
the silver part which is called the 'ferrule' and the ferrule is then used to
attach the bristles to the brush. And it's when we get to the bristles that these
things start to get interesting because that's where the paint brush actually does its work.
And then there's two areas of the bristles that we're interested in. So, the fatter
part at the back of the bristles is called the 'belly' and that's where
it holds the majority of the moisture, for the brush to work, and then at the point
at the very end, we call the 'tip' and that's the bit that you need to be focusing on in
terms of applying the paint to the model. So, no great shakes there then,
that's all pretty standard stuff. But it's when it comes to the
bristles, that you start to have some decisions that you need to make.
Do you want a brush with natural bristles? Synthetic bristles?
or even a mixture of the two? Is there even a difference? Well yes, actually there is a difference and
that difference is in terms of the behavior and the characteristics that each bristle gives.
Natural bristles, for example, have a unique shape where they're fatter in the middle and taper both
to the base and the tip which helps them soak up a greater amount of paint and deposit it smoothly.
They also have microscopic scales and cavities along each bristle, which
makes them very absorbent. It's all these natural characteristics which
then add up to make a bristle which is perfect for forming a very sharp tip and will continue to
maintain that sharp tip whilst painting because the natural fibres will have a tendency
to 'snap back' to their natural shape. And then the final characteristic of
a natural bristle, is its strength. Which again is thanks to its shape, but
also because it's so absorbent when it's wet it's incredibly strong and this
is magnified all the more when they're tightly packed together as a paintbrush head.
Which means if they are correctly maintained and cared for they are incredibly long lasting.
So, what's the downside I hear you ask? And unfortunately there is a downside
and that is they can cost a lot of money. Now especially if you go for the
highest quality Kolinski Sable brushes, you will find that compared to other
brush types they are very expensive. But! on the plus side, if you maintain
them they will last for years. And I can vouch for that because I am still
using brushes which are at least five years old. By contrast synthetic bristles are man-made
polyester filaments, which modern technology tries to mimic the characteristics of a natural
bristle, by making them taper towards the end and including cavities along each bristle,
to make them as absorbent as possible. And that actually does result in quite a good
smooth delivery but as of yet they're still to match the performance of a natural bristle.
Synthetic bristles also struggle to replicate the natural bristles ability to 'spring back'
and hold a tip and unfortunately they are prone to the tips splitting and 'hooking'. And, with
them being polyester, they don't respond to the brush soaps and conditioners that a natural fibre
does and as a result they're not as easily saved. So their lifespan does tend to be shorter.
All of which though, is offset by the fact that they are an awful lot
cheaper to buy in the first place. Now, I am very much aware that obviously a lot of
what I've just said there is quite subjective and you need to make your decisions yourselves
in terms of what's the best brush for you. So my advice would be, if you are
just looking to start out painting, then the best thing for you to do is to try
as many different types of brushes as you can. From as many different brands and
find out which one suits you best. Now for me obviously, I do prefer the
Kolinsky Sable brushes because I find that the paint goes on an awful lot
smoother and I can control it and I like the flex that they have in the bristle.
So if you do decide that you are the same, then I can highly recommend the brushes
that I use and I'll put a link up in the top and in the description below for more
details if you want to try those out. :o) Okay then so let's take a look now
at how to load your paintbrush. So you've thinned your paints and you
want to start painting onto the model and you'll be pleased to know there's
only really four things you need to bear in mind. The first one is you need
to think about how a paintbrush works. So what it does, is it stores the moisture in
the fatter part of the bristles which we now know is called the 'belly' and then when you
apply the tip of the bristles to a surface, like your model, it transfers that moisture and
the paint, down through the bristles onto the surface. In a very similar way to how the ink
flows through a pen via the nib. And to ensure that that transfer process works as efficiently as
possible it's important to ensure that your paint bristles are DAMP before loading any paint.
And I say DAMP as a very specific term, because you don't want the paintbrush bristles
to be affecting the thinness level of the paint that you're loading into the brush.
So for example, if the paintbrush was completely dry, actually what would happen is
those bristles would try and absorb and suck up moisture out of the paint that you're loading.
And conversely if the paintbrush was completely saturated, so it was soaking with water, then all
you'll be doing is thinning the paint down more, as you add it to the paintbrush.
So the best way to ensure that the paint reamins the same level that you've added on
your palette, is to make sure that those bristles are just damp, without any excess moisture.
And the next thing that you want to bear in mind, is you don't want to overload a brush when you're
adding paint to your paintbrush. So really what you're looking to do is just load up the first
two thirds of your bristles from the tip. And this is to ensure that you don't get too much
paint into those bristles and run the risk of getting paint into the ferrule. Because if you
do, that will actually affect the performance of the paintbrush and if you do have paint in
there that starts to dry then it will clump the bristles together and you'll find that the
tip of the brush will start to split and you won't be able to get a nice point anymore.
So definitely something worth avoiding. And on the topic of having a nice sharp tip
to your brush, that's the last point that you need to bear in mind. As you're loading your
brush you want to be twisting and forming that tip at the same time, so that you have a
lovely sharp tip to start painting with. Okay so let's have a look at that in practice.
So here I have my palette and I've got my water that I'm going to use to thin those paints down
on the palette and in addition to that I'm going to have another pot of water which I'm going
to use to rinse and clean my brush as I paint. Right, I'm going to run down my list then.
So starting off with dampening the bristles and to do this I'm going to dip it into the
water and then I'm going to remove any excess water from the brush on the back of my hand.
Now the reason I'm not using tissue to do this is because I don't want to dry the brush. I just
want to remove the excess. So this will just take the water out of it but keep those bristles damp.
Which is obviously what we're aiming for. So now I can start adding paint to my brush
by just running the bristles through the paint. Remember to only use those front
two thirds of the bristles and avoid getting any paint into that ferrule.
And then finally what I'm doing is I'm twisting the brush to make sure that
I continue to keep that nice sharp tip. So when I start painting I have
a lovely tip to paint with. Which should mean that you end up with a
lovely brush to paint with, like this :o) Okay, so I've got my paint and let's
do a little bit on brush control. So the key thing for brush control is STABILITY
and you can get that stability by working with the joints of your fingers.
So hang on, let me just put my brush down to explain.
So your finger is hinged and it moves in that direction. okay?
And that's where it's most stable and you have the most fine motor control.
So that's the movement that you should be taking advantage of to get maximum
control for when you're painting. So by holding the paintbrush low and then
using that movement to pull the brush back towards your palm, gives you that control.
And then you need to combine that with a stable platform - so, elbows on the desk and then
you make a contact point between your hands. And that can be anything from just a finger, to
putting your wrists together, maybe even tucking your elbows in to give you that stability.
But even just having a light finger contact between the two hands is enough to give you
that extra bit of stability and control. So if you keep that contact point, with the thing
that you're painting, you'll keep that control and that's what will allow you to
paint clean and smooth brush strokes. But don't forget that control is limited
to the direction of your finger bend. So you will need to turn the model to match
the direction of the brush stroke you want. And when it comes to applying those brush strokes
you want to let the brush do all the work. So you want to be applying just the smallest amount of
pressure to let the paint flow from the brush. You don't need to be applying any
heavy pressure or pushing hard, because the paint is already nice and thin
and it will flow just like an ink from a pen. And by having that light contact
will allow you to apply a nice even coverage across the whole of the brush stroke.
Now, there is one area of using a paintbrush which is really important but never really seems
to get mentioned and that's maintaining your paintbrush as you're using it.
So, what I mean by that is, while you're using your paintbrush and you're
loading up paint into those bristles that paint is constantly trying to dry.
And if you're not conscious of this, then you could let paint dry in those bristles or
on the tip and that will reduce the effectiveness of the paintbrush itself.
But more worryingly, that dry paint could come away and get
onto your model ruining your paint job. Far better then, just to get into the habit of
regularly rinsing and cleaning those bristles between loading your paintbrush. Just to ensure
that that buildup of paint can't happen and you don't have any of those problems.
All I do then, as part of my routine, is give it a rinse in the water and a quick wipe
on the side of the beaker just to loosen any paint in those fibres and then taking just a piece of
tissue. I'll draw the paintbrush back and twist the bristles just to loosen any thickening paint
that might be in those bristles and draw them out. And then it's a case of repeating
your paint loading process. So dunk it in the water, remove any
excess and start to load the paintbrush. Not forgetting, of course, to twist
your brush as you're loading that paint just to make sure you get
a nice sharp tip to your brush. Okay so that brings us on to the last
topic now for this video and that's going to be 'how to clean your brushes'.
So in this video I've mentioned that it's good practice to get into the
habit of regularly rinsing and cleaning your brushes as you're using them.
And I have mentioned that it's advisable not to get paint into the ferrule because that is the
number one cause for the paintbrush tip to split. But this is the real world and mistakes do happen,
so I thought I'd show a few steps of how I clean my brushes, pretty much after every paint session.
But I'll be honest, sometimes it's the next day, and how you can get that dried paint out of a
bristle and make your paint brushes like new. Okay, so here's an example of a brush
that I used for a paint session and obviously didn't get around to cleaning.
So it's looking quite sorry for itself. It's lost its sharp tip and it's
clearly got paint still left in it. So let's see if we can clean this up.
And the first thing I'm going to need, actually comes in the box sets of
brushes that you get from Artis Opus, but you can buy it separately obviously, and that's this little guy here!
And this is brush soap And this is going to solve all of my problems :o)
Now, if you've never used a brush soap before don't worry it's dead easy to use and it's
designed for getting dried paint and crud out of the bristles and even out of the ferrule
of your paint brushes and restoring that tip. In addition to the soap, you will also
need some clean water and some paper towel. Okay then, so what do we do? So the first thing you do is. you just get a
drop of water and you add that to your soap. And I'm going to get my brush
[oops] and okay I don't drop it because that doesn't really help :o(
I'm gonna get my brush and then i'm going to start rubbing that into the wet soap
and start to build up a bit of a lather. And as you can see that paint is already
starting to come out of those bristles. So all I'm doing is I'm continuing to work that
soap into those bristles and actually draw it up even past the ferrule, just to try and get as much
soap into those bristles as possible. And then I'm going to use the soft part of the palm of my hand
and I'm going to start drawing out that paint. 'hang on is this uh is this still in
focus? um yeah, okay, that's a bit better' Okay, so what I'm saying is, I'm going to use the
soft part of the palm of my hand and I'm going to draw the paintbrush back whilst twisting it
and I'm going to use that flow action of the brush with the soapy water to now lift out that
paint and draw it out onto the palm of my hand. Now it's really important that you just
pull the brush back in this one direction, which is obviously the same direction
that you would be using if you were painting onto the model, because
you want the paint to come off the bristles through the tip and not
force it back up into the ferrule. Now, when the paintbrush is dry it's time to give
it a good rinse out in the water and then you can wipe that off onto the paper towel.
And this is where you get a check to see how the bristles are looking. Are they
looking dirty? Do you need to add any more? Maybe just give it another quick little rinse out.
Keep checking out those bristles, see what the dirt levels are and then if necessary you can
go back and you can repeat the process again. So just grab your brush soap and then gently
start to work those bristles back into that wet soap and then really start to build
up that lather in between the bristles. And then it's just a case of drawing that
wet soap back out onto the palm of your hand. Now I use the palm of my hand because it's a
very forgiving surface. It's obviously quite spongy and it won't run the risk of damaging
the brush in any way. It's not abrasive. Just seems to be the best method
that I've found and it also means that you can keep a good track of how
much dirt is coming off the brush. Right, that's actually looking pretty good now.
So I'm going to give it another quick rinse and just check on the paper towel if there's any paint
left in those bristles? Nope, that's looking good. So now it's just a case of giving it a little
bit of a twist, just to reform that tip. And that brush is nice and clean!
And that's all there is to it. So really depending on how dirty the
brushes are, will just determine how many cycles you need to do, but just keep
working through until it's perfectly clean. One last word, in terms of brush storage, it's
always advisable to keep your brushes flat. So lie them down or if you can hang them so your
bristles point down. It's really not advisable to have them pointing up, because that can
affect the bristles and the tip can curl. So if you have a brush set, then keep them in the
box or maybe look at getting a paintbrush rack? Okay that's it for this video .
I really hope you've enjoyed it, thank you so much for watching.
If you have enjoyed it, then please do give it a LIKE
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whenever I post another video. And finally I'd love it if you stayed on the
channel and checked out some more of my videos, so if you haven't already done so I highly recommend
that you check out my Paint Thinning video or how about my latest painting video? Where you can
see all of these techniques being put to good use
