What brand bristle brushes for oil paint do you recommend for serious artist?

Question

I seem to be wasting a lot of money for inferior brushes.

Answer 1

Archer. This brand was promoted by an Art teacher on PBS. As well as Divincci paint.

Answer 2

You'll find a difference, generally the more pronounced difference is with the more expensive pigments. Pigments are the actual colour in the paint. Some are man made by chemical process, such as Phthalocyanine Blue. Some are naturally occurring such as cadmium. The price of these will vary in an artists range, generally man made colours will be cheaper, because well, they're man made. the natural colours will vary on how difficult to refine and how rare they are. Earth colours are common, so should be lower priced, other colours will vary on the above factors, often topping out with an outrageously expensive cobalt violet. Manufacturers have different strategies for controlling the price point. A hobby type paint will often replace expensive pigments with cheaper ones, normally denoted by the word hue, sometimes they will bulk out the paint with fillers, these can be all sorts of additives. Generally artists paints claim not to do this. Some claim just to use pigment and oil, this is rarely true. Youmight well find that many of the hobby grade paints differ very little from artist grade when you are dealing with synthetic or man made colours Because the raw materials are cheap, there are little in the way of savings to be made. the only difference you might find is in consistency and milling. However you might find there is no substitute for an artists grade cadmium red. I would advise trying a few of your staple colours in artist grade and see how they work for you. If I were to advise you something strongly, it would be to buy big-bigger-biggest tubes of paint. It'll be a saving in the long run, and it'll encourage you to be freer and more experimental in pushing your painting forwards. I use a mixture of artist and second grade paints, I always use expensive lake colours, the best I can afford, yet for me the best sap green is the cheap Roweny Georgian, an even cheaper colour I love is Sennelier Etude turquoise. All the best, B P.S. Whilst referring to my own painting I'm talking about oil paint, but the same still applies, the real difference is acrylics use a plastic polymer binder, oils use oil as a binder

Answer 3

I love Connoisseur synthetic bristles - filbert.

To make any brush last longer:
Don't mash the paint down into the ferrule, keep it up at the tip.
Don't let it sit in turpentine, it dries out the bristle.
Clean them properly, and
After reshaping the bristle, lay them flat to dry.

Don't store them on end.

Answer 4

Hi,

I've never tried but I've read good things about Robert Simmons (sp?) and Grand Prix Silver.
I guess that Isabey must also be good.
One doesn't need to go ridiculously expensive, but indeed using cheap brushes doesn't really help. And if one day you try watercolour, you'll notice that even more.

Kind regards,

José
http://theartcafe.blogspot.com
http://sitekreator.com/hushcolours/index.html

Answer 5

If you want durability... the expensive good brushes also don't last that long. They just perform better while you have them.

I use filament brushes. The brand isn't that important to me. But I do handpick every single one. I must feel if they are right.