Re: [ECC] Stuart's Painting Clinic

On Sun, 7 Apr 2002, Laserlight wrote:

> > > Long bristle brushes are generally
> > > better than short--they hold shape better and hold more paint.
> 
> Beth replied:
> > I loath long bristle brushes, I must paint with crappy hand style as
> they
> > "bend" over at the tip very quickly and lose shape more quickly (at
> least in
> > my hands).
> 
> If you mean the tips curl, apparently that's a hazard of artificial
> brushes.  IIRC, Stuart was saying that a long bristle will tend to
> curve gently rather than make a sharp bend which causes the bristles
> to splay.  That's how I understood it, anyway, but Chan Faunce and
> Brian Bell might be able to give a better explanation.

I find my long brushes sometimes get 'hooks' at the tips - most of the
bristles are straight, but right at the end the hairs hook, sometimes
nearly in a 180. They don't splay, just hook around right at the tip.
(This is with a natural hair brush, not artificial...)

I do get better control with a long bristle than a short - for a
lot of fine detail I prefer a new, fine long brush over a thinner short
brush. Just depends on your own painting style and what you're used to,
I
suspect.

Trimming sometimes works - you're never going to get the same fine shape
as the original, but a brush that's been trimmed of it's hooks and
splits
will still work fine for larger work - base colours, inks, etc. When my
brushes get really wrecked, I cut them right down for dry-brushing - a
short, stiff brush works well w/ drybrushing.

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -