Artist Brushes on a Budget

09/13 2009

When I first got into decorative painting about 9 years ago, I went out and dropped about $150 on all kinds of brushes, most of which I have never used. I really didn’t know what to buy and I went on recommendations from books and what I thought I might use. I wanted to share which brushes have become my favorite and what you should spend your money on if you’d like to get started. The three places I buy my brushes are Dick Blick Art Materials, Wal-Mart, and sometimes a craft store like JoAnn, Michael’s or AC Moore. I purchase my nicer artist brushes from Dick Blick (http://www.dickblick.com/.) I prefer the Windsor Newton Monarch or Dick Blick Masterstroke brushes.
My favorite place to buy brushes, however, is Wal-Mart. I love these cheap-o Loew-Cornell brush sets for under $5.00. I only use about 4 of the brushes from the set, but they are so cheap, it doesn’t matter. These brushes hold their shape, have a nice “action” or bounce, and they hold paint well. The down side is that the purple paint on the handles starts to peal off after a lot of use and even the entire brush head sometimes pops off, but…these are cheap-o brushes from Wal-Mart, so what can you expect? I buy several packs at a time and can normally use one brush about 15-20 times…sometimes more. This is a great pack to buy if you want to give painting a go.

The four brushes I have with me on every job are the following…a Windsor Newton Monarch size 4 Filbert and size 4 Flat, A Loew-Cornell 4136 size 1 liner (from the cheap pack) and a Princeton Preferred Synthetic Liner in a size 10/0 (from JoAnn.) I use a lot of other brushes as well, but these are the ones I use most.

Keep checking my blog for more “Seeds of Wisdom – Tips & Tricks” about decorative painting, home decor, furniture repair, finding great stuff on the cheap and a lot more! Future posts will include Decorative Painting 101, European Motifs, Basic Strokes, My Favorite Resources, and more. I really enjoy comments, questions and seeing my follower’s list grow, so keep it up!

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Comments

The Little Red Shop says:

09/13 2009 at 2:37 pm

I just checked out your slide show. Very cool!

: )

Julie M.

Champoeg Rendezvous 09 says:

09/13 2009 at 7:45 pm

Thank you so much, I am so looking forward to your upcoming posts. I have a night stand in my SUV waiting to be transformed.

NJ Painting Contractor says:

09/14 2009 at 1:40 pm

You do beautiful work, and I agree about the brushes and other painting tools – I too have a lot, but use only a couple.

Decorative Painting Ideas

Let it Shine says:

09/15 2009 at 1:00 pm

Excellent post! (I use the same inexpensive flakey handled brushes, but I love them)