My Top 5 Favorite Brushes!

What's your favorite brush? It's a question that of course comes with as many answers as there are artists...it's a super personal preference. However, I thought I'd share my own personal preference with you today! Here are 5 of my current favorite brushes...

Loew-Cornell Round brushes are what I use for most of my painting. Take good care of your tips and you can do main color areas AND linework with ONE brush. I love the 7000 series brushes...they have been replaced with the new 7000C series, which are the same bristles but now a wood handle instead of acrylic.  I loved the acrylic because it doesn't expand and contract when wet, loosening the ferrule over time...but the bristles are really the most important thing. So I now use the 7000C series. A #0-#1 for outlining, and a #4-#5 is my main workhorse!! When I started out face painting I assumed sable bristles were the best, because they are real animal hair, and were the most expensive. However, with experience I learned that synthetic fibers work better for face painting...they hold up to the rigors of our work and they hold their shape the best!

TAG's #12 3/4" Flat Brush is my all time fave for one strokes!  The 3/4" width is designed to fit perfectly in one stroke cakes, and their length holds just the right amount of paint, and gives me enough room to flex and really load up the brush well.

Loew-Cornell Rake Fan brush is great for applying festival glitter and pixie paint, and I love it for painting textures like fur! (as seen in my Realism book) Unfortunately Loew-Cornell has discontinued this brush too, since being bought out by Newell corp, so I am on the hunt for a good replacement. I like this one because the bristles are really stiff and spread out, and the stiffness enables me to use it for stippling effects too.

Cameleon Blending Brush I use ALL the time when I'm doing anything realistic...specifically the small one. When I first got it I thought, "woah this thing is way too small!" But it's NOT! It's perfect for those realistic drop shadows that I paint under jewelry designs, masks, etc. when I really need good control, but a fluffy, poofy brush. (You'll see me using this in my Jewelry book) The larger one is great for blending too, and I use more in my larger body paintings.

Cameleon Petal Brush is awesome for those double dip flower petals!! I also use it to create any triangular or short teardrop shapes, water drops flying off of a shark, etc.


These are just a few of my faves...there are probably 5-10 others that I use often too, but these are probably my favorites to date. What are your favorite brushes? I may do another post with some of my others down the road! Thanks for stopping by, and happy painting! :-)