Brush (painting)

“ Try always to do as much as possible with one stroke of the brush; paint has a vitality when the touches are deft, that much handling and continual touching kills. Look carefully at the shape and variety of the tone you wish to express, and try and manipulate the swing of your brush in such a way as to get in one touch as near the quality of shape and gradation you want. Remember that the lightest part of your touch will be where the brush first touches the canvas when you are painting lights into a middle tone ”

“ The crossing of the brush work in every direction, giving a look of atmosphere, is naturally often used in painting backgrounds and also such things as the plane surfaces of sky and mist, &c.
It is often inconvenient to paint across the form when softness is wanted. It is only possible to have one colour in your brush sweep, and the colour changes across, much more than down the form as a rule. For the shadows, half tones and lights, besides varying in tone, vary also in colour ”

“ It must be laid on very evenly, very rapidly, and after once being painted in and yet moist, a full brush must immediately be used, to let an additional quantity freely and fully drop in; when dry, it will be perfectly even and equally dispersed. ”

“ And he could give the solidity of a ledge of rock or the lightness of a floating cloud much better with a broader brush. As he grew in art his brush continued to broaden. His work became more sketchy, his brush freer and fuller, and possibly before he died he may have heard his work referred to as “impressionistic”—heaven save the word! ”

“ It is usually more convenient to paint down where the colours can be laid in overlapping bands of shadow, half tone and light, &c. Nevertheless, if this particular look of softness and fleshiness is desired, either the painting must be so thin or the tones so fused together that no brush strokes show, or a dry flat brush must afterwards be drawn lightly across when the painting is done, to destroy the downward brush strokes and substitute others going across, great care being taken to drag only from light to dark, and to wipe the brush carefully after each touch ”

“ The painter needs a set of at least three brushes, 1 in., 1 1/2 in., and 2 1/2 in. in size, for varnishing the inside surfaces of bodies, these to be used for no other purpose. Then, properly, he should have a set of brushes for putting on first rubbing varnish coats, consisting of a 1-inch chiseled badger hair brush, and a 2 1/2 in. and one 3-in. bristle brush. ”

“ Should paint, varnish, leather-bound whitewash or wall brush be found that has become loose from shrinkage, take a tablespoonful or so of water, open the brush and pour the water into the center. This will swell the parts and make the brush as firm as when first made.
New brushes when first put in work are apt to shed any loose bristles that have not been fastened when made, and while such loose bristles are always cleaned out before the goods are put up for market, not all such loose bristles or hair can be cleaned out, and such are sure to come loose when the brush is first used. ”

“ A color mixed for one place will never do for another, so don't try to paint another place with it. Have the patience to proceed slowly, and mix the color specially for each brush-stroke. On the other hand, don't be niggardly with your paint. Don't use less paint than you need. Mix an ample brushful and put it on; then mix another, and use judgment as to how much you should use each time. The variety of tone and value which comes of mixing new color for every touch of the brush is in itself a charm in a painting, aside from the greater truth you are likely to get by it. ”

“ Loose Painting.—Sometimes it is necessary to lay on paint very loosely in order to get vibration of warm and cool color or of pure pigment in the same brush-stroke, or to let the under paint show somewhat through the loose texture of the paint over it. Too much of this sort of thing is not to be desired, but its effect in the right place is not to be obtained in any other way. The paint may be dragged over the canvas with a long brush charged with color more or less thoroughly mixed, as seems most effectual, or it may be flipped into its place, or it may be hatched on with parallel strokes. ”

“ Vehicle of the subtle sentiment to be expressed in form, the brush must be so fashioned as to receive and transmit the vibrations of the artist's inner self. Much care, much thought and skill have been expended in the manufacture of the brush. ”

“ Where there is a sharp point the central hairs are much longer, and consequently when the brush is drawn along and pressed so that all the hairs are touching the canvas, the pressure in the centre, where the long hairs are situated, is different from that at the sides. This has the effect of giving a touch that is not equal in quality all across, and the variety thus given is difficult to manipulate. I should therefore advise the student to try the blunt-ended round brushes first, as they give a 116much more even touch, and one much more suited to painting in planes of tone. ”

“ Where a lot of color is required, as for skies, the colors are mixed in pots, and to get the various tints the painter dips his brush first in one pot and then in another, and in this way puts in a sky of perhaps a dozen different hues. ”

“ I believe—the treatment of the sky and foreground shows careful repainting, and while the mechanical process of the brush, shown by the over and under painting, the dragging of opaque color over transparent, may produce certain translucencies which the more forcible and direct stroke of the brush—one touch and no more—fails to give, still the whole composition lacks that intimacy with nature which one [32] always feels in the smaller and more rapidly perfected canvases. ”

“ For the fact is, that while we moderns have always learned, or tried to learn, to paint by drawing, the ancients learned to draw by painting--or by engraving, more difficult still. The brush was put into their hands when they were children, and they were forced to draw with that, until, if they used the pen or crayon, they used it either with the lightness of a brush or the decision of a graver. ”

“ The vehicle painter requires a brush made scientifically, by the outlay of honest workmanship, and of material that is wholly above suspicion. A brush that has simply the price to recommend it is usually an unreliable article and worketh evil, like a thief in the night, unexpectedly. In making choice of a brush for putting on priming, lead, and roughstuff, and for such other features of general use as require a round or oval bristle brush, the painter may properly look at the filling of the tool. Deception, if practiced at all, is usually placed where it shows the least. ”

“ The first-class brush is distinctively the brush that shows good quality—uniform quality—from center to outside. Other things being equal, the brush that is made up uniformly as to its bristle equipment will develop a good point, and all carriage painters are alive to the importance of this virtue in both paint and varnish brushes. ”

“ A new brush will not allow of proper application or spreading of the paint. Work out well under the brush to insure proper binding and a smooth, even coat. Do not use a paint which has to be flowed on to hide the surface, as this will leave a spongy coat without proper binding. Bring the body and trimming color down together. ”

“ After the body is completed by the wood-worker, the painter gives it a thorough dusting inside and out, and proceeds to prime it. Pouring from the can a small quantity of filler with an ordinary paint brush, perfectly clean, or one kept for the purpose, and not used for paint, he coats over a portion of the body, the back, or one side, taking no great pains to spread it evenly, he may daub it on, then immediately wipe over and rub in every part with rags. This rubbing with rags spreads the priming evenly, and forces it into the pores. ”

“ The design having been drawn upon the surface with a lead pencil, the ground, if it is to be colored, may be laid on with some color, or mixture of colors, which will harmonize with the decoration. As it is impossible to paint it smoothly with a brush, or to do it by any of the methods in use for over-glaze painting, the ground must be “dabbled” on, either with a small blending brush, or better, a sponge, which has been cut to the proper shape and size, and which may be fastened in a quill and used as a brush. ”

“ The fan brush, such as here illustrated, is a useful brush, not to paint with, but to flick or drag across an outline or other part of a painting when it is getting too hard and liney. You may not want it once a month, but it is very useful when you do want it. ”

“ Small brushes called tools are numbered from 1 up to 10, the latter being the largest. Brushes are generally used in sets, as, for example, in painting a body or gear, a large brush for laying the paint would be used, and a small tool for cleaning up around the moldings, nuts and bolt-heads. It would be an almost endless task to illustrate and describe all of the many varieties of paint and varnish brushes, and a few of the principal ones only will receive attention here. Russia is the great bristle growing country, and her exports reach as high as 5,000 tons of this commodity every year. ”

“ The process lends itself to the accomplishment of almost any degree of finish by the use of subsequent washes of thin colour in the shadows. It is better, as a matter of technique, in any kind of fresco painting to always employ the brush strokes in the direction of the lines of the form, and not across it, as is often done in oil painting ”

“ The application of the varnish to either paper or wood work requires some care. The painter is apt to try to get over the work too quickly by taking too much in his brush at once, and this is certain to lead to nasty running or tears. The best way is to dip a little more than the tip of the brush into the varnish, to apply it almost in the same manner as paint across the work, and then to finish by lightly stroking the surface all in the same direction with the tip of the brush, so that the varnish flows and the brush marks are obliterated. ”

“ The criterion of good workmanship is, that the paint be laid evenly and the brush marks be not observed. In laying off, the brush should be laid into that portion of the work already done, that the joining may not be perceived. Every coat should be perfectly dry, and all dust carefully removed before the succeeding one is laid over it.
In the third painting some approach is made to the finishing color. Thus, if the finishing color is to be lavender, the third coat should consist of white, slightly tinted with that color. ”

“ Add a little water to a color when it is being softened down, but with very great care. Two shades on a leaf or petal can be softened into each other by brushing the leaf with the hard brush the way in which the pile runs most easily, and then the contrary way. Sketch in the stamens, veins and fine lines of the design with a crow-quill pen after the painting is dry. When all the work is done, take a smooth, soft hat brush and brush it gently over the work so as to raise any part of the pile that may have been flattened. ”

“ A good house painter's brush which has been in use some time is the ideal tool, and if you can borrow or hire such a one do. A wide, flat hog, say three inches wide will do, but it will not hold the colour that a house painter's brush will, and the constant filling of it adds to the labour of painting. ”

“ For laying fine color no better brush can be had than the camel's-hair brush, called by some mottlers, by others blenders, and again by others spalters, each term, however, is foreign to the American painter, and the camel's-hair brush is by far the most appropriate, and most commonly used. ”

“ Oval Varnish or Paint Brush. As the under parts of a carriage are not rubbed with lump pumice-stone, the same as the body, the paint must be applied with greater care, and the 000 oval brush will work best, laying the paint smoothly and leaving but few, if any, brush marks. The chiseled brush should always have preference over a partly worn one, as the bristles are as a rule softer upon their extreme ends. ”

“ The ordinary paint brush for general work is made either from selected Russia bristles, or with an inferior gray center, inclosed by fine white bristles. Carriage and wagon painters usually select the best Russia bristles, and the size known as 0000 is used for rough-stuff and foundation coats, while the house painter would choose a larger one possibly. ”

“ Never soak a brush in water before using it in paint. Animal fat circulates in the capillary tubes of all bristles and hair, and if water is soaked into these arteries, the spring and elasticity of the brush is not only destroyed, but it speedily becomes a very much water-logged tool. To swell up a brush which for some cause has become dried out and shrunken, part the bristles so that the end of the handle is exposed, and pour in a small quantity of water, say three or four teaspoonfuls. ”

“ Camel's hair color brushes may well have a little paint, one-half oil and one-half turpentine, dropped into the heels of them. These brushes, used in japan ground colors, need to be kept suspended in water. Change the water frequently and make sure that it is clean. A brush keeper such as is recommended for varnish brushes is one of the best possible keepers for color brushes. It insures cleanliness. And vehicle painting without cleanliness is like unto a landscape painting with the beauties of nature left out. The brushes kept in water do better in rain water than in hard water. ”