I spent $300 to answer your top paintbrush questions | Ultimate Brush Guide

What is your go to brush brand?

Lol, water is free, and I don’t mind spending a day a month boiling a bit of water to unbugger a few dozen brushes, of course, I make cheap look fancy every chance I get. You know, I'm that guy who pinches a quarter so hard the eagle screams...so thanks for the suggestion, I am absolutely going to look into those

Here's a tip nobody uses to get a perfect tip 100% of the time off a really messed up brush. Wrap it in blue tac and use it to reshape and hold the bristles inside, leave it for 10 minutes then scrap any residue off. It'll only work for a single session though.

I use, for inks, washes the monument hobby brushes that are synthetic. They have lasted me for quite some time, but I also watched and used the video by artis opus on brush care that helped tremendously.

Very useful, thanks.

maybe I have just been unlucky but the W&N series 7's that I purchsed recently were garbage, the point was knackered and the number of stray bristles made the brush look like wayne or garth's hair out of waynes world. I got the crhoincle card ones from their kickstarter earlier this year and so far for me they have outperformed W&N. Again maybe because I lost the W&N lottery with amazon ? I would go and buy more but I am a bit wary of dropping £20 per brush to get new ones again...............

OOF THAT OPENING. Straight up going for the jugular on brush care lol

Do a lot of my painting with hog bristle brushes, especially things like undercoating, drybrushing, and nearly all base and terrain work. They’re almost indestructible and as cheap as chips, and being designed for abuse by three-year-olds are at roughly my level of skill.

A neat trick for cleaning stubborn dark colours from your brush — toothpaste. Best I’ve found is a smoker’s toothpaste called Euthymol, which is so strong it will probably strip dried yacht varnish. It’s also great for getting dried paint from the ferrule. Don’t know if it damages sable as I’m a cheapskate and mainly use synthetics.

For anyone reading this I can't express enough how important it is to at least get decent brushes. For context I am a HUGE fan of budget hobbying. I make most my terrain myself and almost exclusively use cheap hobby paint (Apple barrel, Folkart ect.). But the one thing I will not compromise anymore is my brushes. I used to use cheap brushes from walmart and always wondered why my miniature paint jobs always turned out shabby and started to question my ability. I bit the bullet and got a really nice set of brushes and I couldn't believe how much easier it made my life. Once you feel the control you get from a nice brush you won't ever go back either. Good video!

Thank you for this

They're good brushes, Bront.

Into the AM underwear is actually a glorious purchase. I'm a house painter and they fit great and endure a lot of sitting and scooting!

"I wear clothes while miniature painting, and I'm sure you wear clothes while miniature painting"...... uh huh. I definitely wear clothes. 100% didn't paint Mortarion entirely in my underwear. Who would do that? Weird.

WORD on the redgrass ones, I'd swear to god that they're not really Kolinski (but red sable) Ended up hating them and relegating it to basecoating only. My daily drivers are rosemary and co series 33s though.

Thanks for clearing up the storage debate, I've been telling my customers for years to store their brushes in the protection tube bristles down.

Totally agreed! Each brush has a function and moves thru phases before they are chucked away!

From synthetic brushes I really like Milan ones.
i mean, i used several milan ones and one non-milan, so it's not like i'm specificly experienced in that matter any way.

Milan brushes are very comfortable, have nice hair, look nice and are cheap. Also, becuase they're varnished in such way you don't need to worry about destroying them by forgetting to put them out of water.

I just got the chronicle cards sable brushes from my flgs. The tube came with 17 brushes so it broke down to less than 3 dollars each. Hope I get more hits than misses?

I'm a huge fan of reaper's kolinsky brushes

I found a Japanese synthetic brush set at a Japanese grocery store in San Fransisco that was 5 brushes for $1USD a decade ago. The smallest brush in the set lasted me 3 years without any brush care outside of the basic rinse between brush loads and post paint session cleaning with only warm water. It took 2 years for the tip to curl and an additional year before the furrel got screwed. I've been trying to find a way to buy them online but have been unsuccessful in even finding them. I used the largest brushes for drybrushing and periodically still use them, though I have moved on to make up brushes bought on Amazon for 19 bucks for 16 brushes. They work well, but take FOREVER to dry between colors.

Funny thing. Apparently GW rebrands W&N series 7….
I personally prefer the Raphael 8404 over the W&N series 7 for the size 1 or 2. But for eyes I love the W&N brush.

Did I hear her correctly saying that the brushes lasted her a couple of weeks and those were fine? 😲 That got me thinking. I have quite a lot of brushes that I bought months and even years ago and I am still using them. Maybe I dont paint as much or I am too much of a hobbyist and use things that ought to be sent to the next life. Can't you make brushes last longer with a good maintenance/cleaning?

I enjoy watching.your Video

❤

W&N7 fish tailed on me after 2 sessions, got frustrated and never used them again. pretty poor given the cost of their brushes. use the synthetic monument hobbies brushes nowadays and I have 0 issues with those. to each their own i guess

No, I am stark naked when miniature painting exclusively

Regarding storing brushes up or down, I come from the "wet shaving" world (straight razors, double edge razors, badger/boar hair brushes for lathering) and the advice is to never store the brush bristles up when it's wet as the water and any leftover soap gets into the knot and can stay there for a long time and eventually get musty or start molding, so I always have a free hanging stand for my brush. I've treated my paint brushes the same way, except I don't have things to hang them from, so I always left them on their side until dry. Glad to see that's reinforced by W&N!

You assumed wrong.... I always go full commando when I paint! 🤣🤣



Or do I?

That was a huge pack of useful information, thank you so much, Lyla! Btw, how have I missed you reaching 100K🤯 Congrats!

I liked the video. It was nice learning about the tools i struggle to use instead of having to watch someone infinitely more skilled than me use them. Wait….thats not quite, i still like to watch good painters paint, it was just nice to hear a bit about the tools of the trade from a master of the craft. Well done Ma’am

One advantage of synthetic brushes you didn’t mention is that they don’t involve animals being kept in tiny cages and murdered for the hobby. For me that is a big plus, even if you have to change brushes more often.

Just being honest, i have five generations of gw brushes that still work as good as my newer windsor and newton brushes. I've entered a ton of painting competitions with minis pained with 20 year old gw brushes and always come in second place.

Thx yo very much for the brush advices they where very good saber hair and types is something nobody tells the newcomers about :) best buy i have done so far :)

Bruh...I use whatever brushes I got laying around...mfers act like they're painting a canvas 🙄😂

I dry them tip down and then store them tip up.

Yeah, the only problem with "sable" brushes is that the little sables are not cropped to get the coat ... and if you really want a piece of nightmare, watch a report of a sable "farm." Since then its synthetic for me despite the fact that Iam never satisfied with the performance.

what mini is that!

W&N7 were my only brushes for years and years - but lately they started to seem to have quality control issues and I was having trouble with them maintaining a sharp tip, loose/stray hairs etc. Maybe I need to give them another chance. WIth Redgrass, maybe I got a bad batch but the black (plastic?) ferrules were coming right off the handles for me!

i actually use as my main brush the black handle medium shade brush by citadel as it’s a sable synthetic mix

the windsor and newton series 7 have become really bad with the consistency of good quality the last three i’ve bought have splayed really bad they used to be so good. i will only stick with 8404 i might be unlucky i guess

Raphael is all I can afford but I love them. They are fantastic.

Appreciate you doing this review! Thanks!

I spent $21 to get your neat merch

My favorite brush is which ever one I'm holding at the moment.

Great video! Good points. Good work!

There are plenty of uses for brushes that is even worse than your dredge brushes though :P The last stage of a brush's life is 'This-was-once-a-brush, I think' stage. Stirring sticks, move paint to the palette, snow effect applicator, ammunition if you need to throw something there is always a use.

funny.... I hate winsor and newton series 7 ^^ maybe I have a lemon.

Great video Lyla! Really enjoyed it.

So help me, I must be brutal to my brushes, because no matter how well I clean them and take care of them? The points on all my brushes, sable or not, blow out in pretty short order. No matter what brand. Couldn't tell you why.

Great video. Thank you! :)