Select the Paintbrush tool .
Using the right brush
Choosing the right brush or roller for your project is essential for achieving a distinctively smooth finish. Our brushes and roller are designed to work in harmony with our water based paints and help you to create the look for your home you desire with ease. Using our extensive knowledge of paint and the decorating process, we have crafted these tools to ensure that the process is as simple and effective as possible. Our helpful guide will advise you on which of our brushes or roller is the one for you, depending on your project.
Standard brushes
For use on interior surfaces, designed to work with all Farrow & Ball paint finishes.
For use with Sample Pots as well as window frames and other detail work
Ideal for doors, frames and skirting boards
Perfect for radiators, doors and small walls
Great for walls, ceilings and large areas
Great for walls, ceilings and large areas
Specialist Brushes
4″ Masonry Brush
Recommended for use on smooth and rough outdoor masonry surfaces. For use with our Exterior Masonry finish only.
Angled brushes
For use on interior surfaces, designed to work with all Farrow & Ball paint finishes.
For cutting in window frames and other detail work
Ideal for cutting in doors, frames and trim work
Perfect for cutting in radiators, doors and trim work
Roller
For use with our Estate and Modern Emulsion finishes
For use with our 9” Sleeve. Can be used with an extension pole
9” Roller Sleeve
Medium pile, woven polyester sleeve for use on walls and ceilings with emulsion paint
Rigid, heavy, gauge plastic for use with our 9” Roller Sleeve
Why our brushes?
Our brushes and roller work seamlessly with our products to give you the best and smoothest possible finish, so it’s best to use them when working on a project with our paints. As always, they are crafted using only the finest quality elements:
Brushes:
Made using 100% synthetic bristles to maintain a smooth and constant flow
Unique combination of shaped and flagged bristle tips to hold more paint, providing a smooth finish and reducing brush marks
Eco friendly, water-based formulation with low VOC content
Long bristles offer additional control for precision work
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) certified easy grip Birch handles
Easy to clean with warm soapy water
Our specialist Masonry Brush has a blend of pure and synthetic bristles to increase its durability when painting exteriors surfaces
Roller:
Our medium pile woven polyester roller, for use with emulsions, enables fast coverage, reduces splattering or stippling and provides a smooth, even finish
The handle’s wire cage and metal arm holds the roller sleeve securely in place, reducing slippage and minimising flex
Brush Handling
Handling a brush is a personal thing. It depends mostly on your experience, preferences and muscle memory. It would be inappropriate for me as a painter to tell you how to handle your brush, but I can definitely share some of my own habits. For starters, brush control and hand support, both heavily impact precision of the painting process. I found these skills worth practicing early on.
When painting, I usually hold a brush with three fingers (see pics) and control it with small movements of my fingers and wrist. This is where most of the brush movement originates from, regardless of inclination. I tend to hold brushes close to the “crimp” on the ferrule, which gives me better control over the tip. Most of the time I loosely support the handle of the brush on my hand, between the pointing finger and thumb. This decreases brush vibrations and makes it follow the movement of the hand much smoother. On occasion, in the midst of painting, I might raise the handle off of my hand to gain access to a spot that is otherwise difficult to reach (such as painting obscured eyes), but most of the time it stays in the resting position. All of this combined allows for a wide range of smooth, precise movements with which to work with.
Hand Support
Shaky hands or just unnecessary movement might render even the most professional brush handling ineffective. I always keep my wrists supported on the edge of a painting desk. This is to properly immobilize the miniature but also reduce any macro movement (breathing, elbows etc.) translating onto the brush. To make this a bit less uncomfortable for my wrists I use smooth edge covers for furniture permanently glued onto a working desk (you can learn more about this life hack here).
When in need of increasing precision even further, I like to ‘link’ my hands, supporting brush hands pinky on the hand that I hold the miniature with. Both hands micro movements synchronize and I get more control over the tip as a result.
Epilogue
Frankly speaking, the aforementioned methodology does not work the same for every painting technique. Depending on the size and type of the miniature I sometimes deviate from the norm. Some techniques, such as drybrushing or washing, might not require much precision, whereas detail heavy techniques will definitely benefit from proper brush handling and hand support.
I hope you found this tutorial interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate if you’d consider sharing my content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally, if you are looking for a professional Warhammer miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me via this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours. If you don’t see anything from me by then, please check your spam folder.
Create or modify brushes
You can create and customize calligraphic, scatter, art, pattern, and bristle brushes depending on your requirement. For scatter, art, and pattern brushes, you must first create the artwork.
Follow these guidelines when creating artwork for brushes:
- The artwork cannot contain gradients, blends, other brush strokes, mesh objects, bitmap images, graphs, placed files, or masks.
- For art and pattern brushes, the artwork cannot contain type. To achieve a brush-stroke effect with type, create an outline of the type and then create a brush with the outline.
- For pattern brushes, create up to five pattern tiles (depending on the brush configuration), and add the tiles to the Swatches panel.
Note:
You can make the brushes you create available for every new document by adding the brush definition to the New Document Profile. For more information on new document profiles, see About new document profiles.
Create a brush
For scatter and art brushes, select the artwork you want to use. For pattern brushes, you can select the artwork for the side tile, but it isn’t necessary. For detailed guidelines to create pattern brushes, see Guidelines for constructing pattern tiles. To know more about pattern brush options, see Pattern brush options.
Click the New Brush button in the Brushes panel. Alternatively, drag the selected artwork to the Brushes panel.
Select the type of brush you want to create, and click OK.
In the Brush Options dialog box, enter a name for the brush, set brush options, and click OK.
Note:
If you do not want to see a seam between the artwork pieces used to create the pattern brush, turn off the Anti-Aliasing option from Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or Illustrator > General > Preferences (Mac OS).
Modify a brush
- To change the options for a brush, double-click the brush in the Brushes panel. Set the brush options and click OK. If the current document contains brushed paths that use the modified brush, a message appears. Click Apply To Strokes to change pre-existing strokes. Click Leave Strokes to leave pre-existing strokes unchanged, and apply the modified brush to new strokes only.
- To change the artwork used by a scatter, art, or pattern brush, drag the brush into your artwork and make the changes you want. Then Alt‑drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the modified brush onto the original brush in the Brushes panel.
- To modify a brushed path without updating the corresponding brush, select the path and click the Options Of Selected Object button in the Brushes panel or select options of selected object from the Brushes panel menu (flyout menu).
You can specify different options for the different types of brushes. To change the options for a brush, double-click the brush in the Brushes panel.
Scatter, Art, and Pattern brushes all have identical options for colorization.
To customize a stroke instance for Art Brushes or Pattern Brushes, click the Options of Selected Objects icon in the Brushes Panel and set the stroke options. For art brush you can set the stroke width along with flipping, colorization, and overlapping options. For pattern brush, you can set the scaling options along with flipping, fitting, and colorization options.
