Hogs Hair Brushes: why?

[warwulf]

I’ve read a few older posts about hogs hair brushes. I bought a set of them a few years ago but only used them once. They are too stiff, leave marks in the paint and are hard to use in anything for details.
So I humbly ask, what do you use your hogs brushes for and what brand do you use? Why do you prefer that brand?
As one who uses almost either synthetic or sable exclusively, I’m trying to expand my horizons.
Thanks!

M

[Delofasht]

Hog hair brushes provide a more textured look to strokes, some people like myself really like that look. If you want a smooth look with details that are tiny then a hog probably isn’t for you, but they can be quite good for laying down a lot of color for spreading out with a softer brush too.

- Delo Delofasht

[WFMartin]

And, because of their stiffness, hog hair brushes can be put to use in spreading a small amount of paint out into a very thin paint film.

Hog hair brushes are usually a bit too stiff for me, so I like something between a sable, and a hog’s hair brush in terms of their stiffness. I usually use some sort of stiffer synthetic brush. Many of the synthetic bristle brushes have varying degrees of stiffness, and it is quite easy to check them out for stiffness as you purchase them in an art store.

I generally tell my beginning students to buy soft, synthetic bristle brushes, suggesting that the very stiff, natural bristle brushes tend to “plow up as much paint as they apply”. I feel that they are quite difficult for a beginning student to use when “getting their feet wet” learning oil paint for the first time.

But, as I mentioned, stiff, bristle brushes do have their purpose, and that is for spreading full-bodied paint, using very little medium.

wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

[Dcam]

I find them useful when I do “drybrush” work on a textured ground.
scubba dub dub.

Website: www.artderek.com
DEMONSTRATIONS:https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1363787
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1343600
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1431363

[Don Ketchek]

If hog bristle is too stiff for you and you prefer softer sable, then, by all means, there is no reason to use hog bristle. I use synthetic “hog” bristle because I prefer stiffer for my initial application of paint as it allows me to move more paint around quicker and easier. I may use sables occasionally when I need softer, more blended strokes.

Don

[OK]

Hog Bristle Brushes are the most versatile of all the brushes that’s why they are so popular.
Brights and Long Flats will make just about any mark you need, from the thin narrow stroke using the flat tip to the pinpoint using one of the corners. You can vary the width of the stroke by twisting the brush, taper the intensity of the stroke by lifting the brush, the possibilities are endless.
The more dexterous you become with the brush the more life you can give to your painting.
Stand back and use the length of the handle so you can see what the brush is doing.

Dave.

“What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?”
— Allen Ginsberg
Are you ready for a Journey?
PS Critiques always welcome but no plaudits or emoting, please don’t press the like button.

[Delofasht]

Dave gives great advice there, read a book recently all about brushwork and how to handle a brush, I suggest everyone give it a read, do the exercises if you want, but understanding the what and why of brush handling quickly improves the quality of the strokes made.

Brushwork Essentials by Mark Chistopher Weber. Quick, easy, entertaining read with some good examples of many different techniques and ways of handling a brush, obviously some things I might do differently but that is just personal taste. Still a quality read.

- Delo Delofasht

[Dcam]

Delo, I agree with you and Dave.
Especially in a “Painterly work” the use of the brush is so important. One of my favorite painting professors at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Always used to say: I like your brush moves, watch your brush moves, Your brush moves are haphazard etc.
When we asked him what he meant he said look at John Singer Sargent and others who develop a rhythm and a direction that pleases the eye.
When I see this inherent in our members posts I usually mention “good brush moves” (yep stole it from the prof.).

derek

Website: www.artderek.com
DEMONSTRATIONS:https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1363787
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1343600
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1431363

[warwulf]

Afternoon All!

Did a long look at the hogs hair brushes @ Blicks. Watched a few more videos and decided that I just bought a ****e pair of brushes. The bristles are all askew, sticking out from the ferruls, not even on the ends and so on. They were included in a 3-pack of brushes I bought several years ago so what I’m probably going to do is invest in a decent set of brushes somewhere in the near future.
Like I wrote, I want to expand my horizons and to know how these brushes work is all part of the process. Probably won’t buy a boatload, but I can definitely see getting a few of the bigger flats for background coverage, covering broad ares, and maybe a few of the filberts.
Now that I know how they are supposed to be used, it makes it easier to see the potential.

THANK YOU!! :thumbsup:

Mark

[Anonymous]

You need a nice stiff brush to pick up a gob of paint and apply it to canvas whilst not allowing the bristles to even touch the canvas, thus producing luscious, thick paint strokes, some use a stiff knife, limp sables won’t cut it.
I like Winsor Newton, Robert Simmons, but any good brush will do.

[koumk]

There are many brushes out there. Hogs, Kolinsky, Synthetic etc etc.

Only you can choose the right brush (paint etc etc etc) for you

The procedure is very simple. Trial & Error. It will cost you some more money but at the end of the day you will find what it is suitable for you

The only advise someone con give you is : Buy GOOD QUALITY brushes,(paints etc etc etc) and forget about the cheap offers.

Kostas

[Aspsusa]

warwulf, I used to think EXACTLY like you, and to some extent I still do.

I would never ever let a bristle brush come near acrylics, and I don’t understand how people can successfully use them for that. I honestly thought bristle brushes were popular simply because they are cheap and traditional.

But once I started playing with oil paints, and particularly with solvents (in my case real turps mostly), I started to gain some appreciation for why hog bristle is popular. If you dip your clean bristle brush in turps and then pat out the excess, you suddenly have a brush that actually behaves.
It will still be a bit too stiff for my liking, and will easily leave brushmarks or pick up paint from the canvas.

For the latter problems I’ve found that overloading the brush helps – I think I’ve read here the advice to “paint with the paint, not with the brush”. A bristle brush is certainly a good way to remind oneself of that.

I’m getting more and more friends with the bristles. I find that they do soften if you don’t clean them too aggressively and instead use oil to clean them. Another point in their favour is that I find them easier to clean than the synthetics.
Since bristles are usually cheaper I have less qualms about not cleaning them properly (soap&water scrubbing), and I’ve noticed that just leaving them with a bit of oil (sunflower) in them for a few days, or forgetting them standing in turps for an hour here and there, has actually made them better (=softer, personal preference).

As to brands I have no ideas. But I have noticed that even some absurdly cheap (I’m talking wholesale 2 cents each cheap) Chinese bristle brushes aren’t all that bad once you’ve “broken them in”. They are not GOOD, and will never be, but it is surprising how useful they become after some abuse.

[Author]

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