For an explanation of brush shapes, handle lengths, brush hairs, or palette knives, follow the links to the bottom of this page.

PRINCETON BRUSHES - Nice reliable brushes at good prices

• Natural Bristle Oil and Acrylic Brushes
  
• Synthetic Bristle Oil and Acrylic Brushes
  
• Synthetic Watercolor Brushes
  

FINE NATURAL BRUSHES

• Richeson's Kolinsky Sable
  
• Yarka Pure Siberian Squirrel Mops
  
• Yarka Pure Squirrel Sky Wash Brushes
  
• Da Vinci Fitch Hair Oil and Acrylic Brushes
  
• Da Vinci Bristle Oil and Acrylic Brushes
  

UNUSUAL BRUSHES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

• Italian Fresco Brushes
  
• Italian Sash Brushes
  
• Faux Finishing and Graining Brushes
  
• Chinese Painting Brushes
  
• Pure Bristle Chip Brushes
  
• German Stencil Brushes
  
• Japanese Hake Brushes
  

PALETTE KNIVES

• Richeson's Best Painting and Palette Knives
  
• Economy Painting and Palette Knives
  

  Natural Bristle Oil and Acrylic Brushes: Inexpensive but sturdy, these stiff Natural Hog Bristle Brushes are the classic oil and acrylic painting tools. Long black handles. Princeton 5200 Series. Made in China. The Art Box carries open stock.
  
  

  Synthetic Bristle Oil and Acrylic Brushes: Particularly good for long acrylic painting sessions, these Synthetic Bristle Brushes will hold up to water based media without drooping. Very well constructed and comfortable in the hand, they are wonderful for heavy oil and acrylic painting. Long black handles. Princeton 6300 Series. Made in Japan. The Art Box carries open stock.
  
  

  Synthetic Watercolor Brushes: These inexpensive synthetic watercolor brushes handle incredibly well. They hold their point, springing back again and again to their original shape. A very good value, these brushes can be used for watercolor painting, or oil and acrylic detail work. Short green handles. Princeton 4350 Series. Made in India. The Art Box carries open stock.
  
  

  Richeson's Kolinsky Sable, Series 7227: Made in Germany by a family of brush makers who have over 125 years of experience, these Kolinsky Sable Brushes are made of 60% male Kolinsky hair blended with 40% female hair. The brushes have beautiful gold metallic seamless ferrules and polished walnut wood handles. The key to making a perfect brush is to get the hair exactly the right length out of the ferrule. A bit too far and the brush is weak with no snap. Not out far enough and the brush is stiff and won't point. The greatest care is given to the creation of this fine and expensive brush. Short handles. Made in Germany. The Art Box carries open stock.
  
  

  Yarka Pure Siberian Squirrel Mops: Made of Pure Black Kazan Squirrel hair, it has the shape of a large round brush when wet. Originally these brushes were made with quills of large sea birds for ferrules. Today plastic is used and is bound with fine copper wire. This brush holds an incredible amount of color and is a real treat to use. Short wood handle. Made in Russia. The Art Box carries open stock.
  
  

  Yarka Pure Squirrel Sky Wash Brushes: Truly a magnificent watercolor tool. A flat oval squirrel brush that comes to a fantastic point. No other hair can perform as well as squirrel in this shape. The brush can be used as a three sided tool: the broad flat, the long thin side, and the fine point. You will fall in love with this great brush. Short wood handle. Made in Russia. The Art Box carries all four sizes.
  
  

  Da Vinci Fitch Hair Oil and Acrylic Brushes: These gorgeous, German made oil and acrylic brushes contain Fitch hair. Closely related to red sable, it is often called Black Sable, but is slightly stiffer and less expensive then red sable. You will love the way these brushes perform with oils and acrylics, giving you total control over the paint.
  
  

  Da Vinci Bristle Oil and Acrylic Brushes: Finally a beautiful smooth handle on a bristle brush, and the bristles all going in the right direction - amazing. It's true they aren't the cheapest bristle brush on the market, but they are only slightly higher than some of the icky ones and they feel terrific in your hand. These are the ones worth cleaning.
  
  

  Italian Fresco Brushes: A wonderful scenery brush made of pure bristle. The head has a thick oval base with a large oval sihlouette. This brush is the choice of set designers and scenery painters everywhere. The handle is extremely important for set designers. Because their work is so large and the color load so heavy a poorly made handle can cause blisters. This handle is quite comfortable even after many hours work. Made in Italy. The Art Box carries all three sizes.
  
  

  Italian Sash Brushes: These wonderful brushes come in two shapes: the pointed or bullet shaped head, and the round or domed head. Both are large bristle brushes held by copper colored brass ferrules. Bristles are anchored in place with epoxy for a sturdy brush that will last and last. The heads of these brushes are almost identical to the brushes used by the Old Masters of the 1500's. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and the Dutch greats used softened bristle wrapped around a stick. Fortunately, modern painters don't have to go to the trouble to make their own brushes. Here they are! And while the white plastic handles may not be "Old World" styling, they are certainly comfortable to hold. Made in Italy. The Art Box carries all 6 sizes and both shapes.
  
  

  Faux Finishing and Graining Brushes: The Art Box carries a wide variety of high quality Faux Finishing, Graining, Dragging and Scene Painting brushes. Used by craftspeople from theatrical set painters to interior decorators and decorative house painters, these are fine tools for specialized work.
  
  

  Chinese Painting Brushes: The Art Box carries a wide variety of Chinese calligraphy and watercolor brushes. The beautiful Ornate White Goat Calligraphy Brush works well for watercolor and calligraphy, and points well. It has a unique ornate handle with a hanging string, and is made in 6 sizes. The Chinese Soft Watercolor Brush makes a terrific student brush. Made with soft rabbit hair that holds color well, it comes to a fantstic point when wet and has a very plain bamboo handle. The brush comes in three sizes. The 5210 Series Chinese Soft White Watercolor Brush is very similar to the student brush, but is a slightly better quality and has a more ornate marbled bamboo handle with hanging string. It is also available in three sizes. The Traditional Chinese Brushes are made of a combination of wolf and horse hair. Designed originally for lettering, only the tip of the brush is used when applying color. The brush has a simple bamboo handle with hanging string. Available in 6 sizes. The Multi Head Bamboo Brush has a unique ferrule that bonds a series of heads together. The heads are made of wool and the brush is marvelous for different watercolor techniques. Available in 4 sizes.
  
  

  Pure Bristle Chip Brushes: Inexpensive White Bristle all-purpose utility brushes. Good for laying down a quick coat of gesso or sizing. Available in 6 sizes from .5" to 4" wide. Made in Malaysia.
  
  

  German Stencil Brushes: These inexpensive bristle brushes have a blunt cut brush head perfect for stencil work. Nicely shaped unfinished wood handles feel good in your hand. The Art Box carries 4 sizes.
  
  

  Japanese Hake Brushes: Made from 100% wool, these brushes are ideal for watercolor painting and work with dye. The Art Box carries four sizes with multi-headed bamboo reed handles, and five sizes with long unfinished wood handles.
  
  

  Richeson's Best Painting and Palette Knives: A selection of the finest Italian Stainless Steel Painting and Palette Knives. These knives have been hand forged by the same family for over 100 years. Each knife has a hand polished olive wood handle. Great for acrylics because it absolutely will not rust. The size and shape of the blade results in a great difference in spring and control from one knife style to the next. Made in Italy. The Art Box carries all 10 shapes.
  
  

  Economy Palette Knives: The Art Box stocks an assortment of inexpensive plastic and metal palette knives. While these are not nearly as nice as the knives above, they can give you a taste of what it is like to paint with a knife. The plastic ones are so cheap, they can almost be considered disposable.

EXPLANATIONS:

How do you discuss a million sticks of wood with fuzzy ends in a way that makes sense to a reader? Let's start by saying that there are 5 basic Brush Shapes (and a couple of shapes exclusive to watercolor):

Flats, which look like they sound, bristles arranged in a long flat squared off shape. These are good for laying in blocks of color and are usually used at the beginning of a painting to rough in the form of the painting.

Brights, the same general shape as flats, but with shorter stubbier bristles. These brushes don't hold as much paint as a flat, but the shorter hairs are more controllable.

Filberts, long flat shape like the flats, but with the square edges cut off bringing the brush to a gentle "point". This shape makes it possible to do more detail work.

Rounds, as the name implies, the bristles are drawn up into a bunch and the end of the bristles are pointed, allowing for fine detail work and smooth "drawing" ability with the paint. This is the brush version of a pencil.

Fan Blenders, have a thin layer of bristles spread out in a fan shape. The main purpose of these brushes is to gently level out or smooth colors. They are not generally used to apply paint, but to feather it out once it is on the painting. Blenders are generally used in a dry brush manner.

(For watercolor only), there is the Mop, and the Sky Wash Brush broad, big headed brushes to wet papers or lay in large sweeping areas of color quickly, such as skies, fields, and mountains.

All of these shapes are available in short handle (generally used for watercolor painting) and long handle (generally used for oil and acrylic painting).

These shapes are also available made from different materials:

Natural Chinese Hog Bristle, has a stiff course texture, is generally inexpensive, and makes a great choice for painting with heavy mediums such as oils and acrylics. Hog Bristle gets softer in water however, so if you paint in long sessions with acrylics, you may find that your bristle brushes begin to droop.

Synthetic Bristle Brushes, are man made versions of the stiff bristle brushes and are great for painting with heavy oils or acrylics. Unlike natural bristle, they won't grow mushy with water. They tend to be slightly more expensive than Natural Hog Bristle.

Fine Soft Natural Brushes come from the hair of smaller animals such as squirrel and sable (the finest). They are used to move thin, liquid mediums around on the paper or canvas. Most often, they are used for watercolor techniques, but as long as oil or acrylic paint has enough medium in it to be made fluid, they can be used for oil painting as well. Very often, the detail work at the end of the oil or acrylic painting process is done with these fine brushes. They tend to be expensive, particularly the Kolinsky Sables which use only the winter hair of the male Siberian Kolinsky Marten Weasel. For watercolor, Sable and Kolinsky Sable brushes are preferrred because of the amazing water holding capacity that they have. Water soaks up into the delicate scales of each hair and is released slowly as you paint. Synthetic hairs soak up liquid by capillary action between the fibers, but the fibers themselves do not actually hold water.

Synthetic Sable or Synthetic Watercolor Brushes can be used for all media in the same way as natural sable brushes, but they do not have the same holding capacity as the Natural Sables. They are quite a bit cheaper however, and they hold up very well for a long lifetime of use.

Palette versus Painting Knives is another issue some people find confusing. Palette Knives are generally flat, stiff and rounded, and are used to mix paint on the palette and to scrape off the palette when the painting is done. Painting Knives are usually offset or angled and more flexible. They are used to "work" the paint on the canvas and are offset to keep the artist's hand off the painting. Painting Knives come in a wide variety of shapes to effect many different techniques with the paint.

We hope these notes clear up some confusion and make your choices a little easier. Happy Painting!