Natural Hair Brushes

Natural Hair Brushes

Blick offers a large selection of natural hair brushes for every type of painting media and every painting technique. Natural hair such as sable, fitch, squirrel, sable blends, and others can be very resilient and durable for oil painting, or soft and fine for delicate watercolor techniques or glazing. Generally made from natural bristle such as hog bristle or a blend of bristle and synthetic fibers, most brushes for acrylic painting are natural bristle brushes or a blend of bristle and synthetic fibers. These brushes usually have long handles, although short and/or extra-short handle brushes have been developed that allow artists to work closer to the painting surface.

Blick works with the finest brush makers to offer every shape and size of natural hair brush, including round brushes for creating thick or thin lines and details, filbert brushes for blending, flat brushes for making bolder strokes, bright brushes for shorter strokes, fan brushes for creating textures, and a range of specialty brushes. As a rule of thumb, natural hair brushes for acrylics can also be used with other media such as oil paints , while brushes designed for oil and watercolor paints are not recommended for use with acrylic paints. For those who prefer to use all natural art supplies, natural hair brushes are a good choice, although synthetic alternatives have been developed that work as well as or better than their natural counterparts. Access our Brush Charts for more information on types of paintbrushes, including brush shapes, fiber types, and measurements.