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Posted
Yes Alan, a bewilderingly vast selection to choose from. The Rosemary & Co website is equally bewildering, many cheap enough, others very expensive. I see they do a beginners set for ALL mediums...about £20...it has good reviews, but seems too cheap. I know I'll be needing more brushes, probably I can use some of my watercolour brushes. I seem to have acquired a lot over years, and it'll be the same with oil brushes.
I suspect Reeves paints have set many people on the painting path. I really liked their cheap watercolour paints in a tin, I see they are still available for under a tenner. I used them up until about 10 years ago. They are still standing up very well colour-wise. (But then I didn't store the paintings in my garage for 4 years.)
Posted
Alan is quite right - there is no standard size for brushes (I'm not so sure there's really a standard size for trousers, either, given the wide variation between fits I've suffered!).
For oils, hogs remain the standard - black hogs, standard Chungking bristle, flats, filberts - get a good make and you can't really go wrong; though to minimize the wearing down problem, I do have quite a few: some given to me by a worthy party on this website! Others acquired over the years; the worn-down ones can be very useful for effects in grasses and foliage.
Of the synthetics, I found the Evergreen range (from Rosemary & Co) and the Ivory (ditto) excellent for both oils and acrylics - the long filbert they call an Egbert is well worth acquiring; the Evergreen rigger has just the right amount of rigidity and delicacy to enable precise marks at a distance, and I shall acquire more - because I try not to use the same brushes across media; the same make, yes, but not the same individual brush. (I'm not saying it's wrong to do so - and many people do; but I try to avoid any problems with cross contamination - e.g. I don't want any trace of oil or turps in my acrylics.)
When starting out, I'd avoid fan brushes, swords, daggers etc = they have their uses, but none that you can't achieve with more common shapes; and they can lead you up the garden path, making very specific marks which betray their use - then you think you HAVE to use those brushes for specific effects: master your common or garden brushes first, then go down the fancy route if you really want to.
Posted
I think what is important here, is knowing how to apply your paint for what you are trying to achieve. I've collected quite a few brushes from the cheap and nasty to good quality brushes as I've gone along. You are right Lewis, to gain some confidence with oils before thinking about Alla Prima, it is something to try though and as well as a challenge, it is good fun. I quite enjoy it. This painting is Alla Prima and painted with cheap brushes because I was having a mess about. I think I would have achieved a very similar result using my most expensive brushes.
Posted
Thanks for all this info. Martin, a remarkable offer, thanks a bunch. But I'm not short of dosh for all of this if I feel I need it, I don't want to buy a mass of gear all at once and not use it.
Way back in the 1970s, when I was doing oils, I did have some bristle brushes and couldn't get on with them. Lots of info brush-wise above, the few I have are synthetics and I feel they suit me more. Martin's right of course, faces and figures are my thing, so I'll have that in mind when I buy brushes.
I've done some more work on the pic I've showed you. I don't have the facility I have with watercolours...hardly surprising...it's mostly based around how I need to work. I'll have another session on this painting, then move on to the next, hopefully I've learned 'something.' My plan is to paint a half-a-dozen or so oils, I'm not expecting them to be any good. All I'll want from them is the feeling it's worth persisting with oils. I expect that to happen. It's painting. And I've done that in some form all my life.
I won't be trying alla prima any time soon, Denise. I can see how it might be fun, but it's further down the line for me.
Thanks again for the great feedback.
Posted
This is a great thread, and I too shall be bookmarking it. Good to know from Martin about stand oil for detail, from Robert about keeping brushes separate for each medium (I found to my cost using an oiled brush on a watercolour.) And like Lewis, I can't get on with bristle but maybe I'll try again. My favourites are the ProArte Bristlene range at the moment. I sent off for a couple of synthetic Rosemary's and they automatically included their lovely brochure with them.
Posted
Stand oil is usually cut with Turpentine or equivalent, to make it workable: used on its own, it's like painting with treacle. But - you can buy it ready-made, or make it yourself - the latter tends to be thicker, gloopier, richer; either way, it serves to conceal brush-marks. I don't use it much - I always have some to hand, though. Try it with darks - it can suggest depths. With whites, it can add a richness but - like all oils, it has a tendency to yellow over time; which might matter - or might not! It can conduce to that antique look, if that's what you're after...
The ready-bottled stuff is outside of any experience I can remember - if I've used it, it was half a lifetime ago, along with Copal Oil (the genuine Copal unobtainable now, though I saw a company advertising its medium as copal: bet it isn't!). It would lend itself to portraiture, but I think you'd need to be fairly proficient before trying it; certainly you would if you used my stuff for portraits: it'd be like sculpting with wax. I must try the bottled variety again some time.
Posted
For Lew and any other interested party..,
I’ve just seen the front cover layout for TA for November, (should be out shortly I suspect), and it’s promoting a feature inside on painting portraits alla prima…presumably oils but not sure!
I know Lew doesn’t want to go down that route just yet, but it might be of some interest nonetheless!
Just checked… it is oils!
Edited
by Alan Bickley