Fans and Blender Brushes

Transitioning Color with Blending Brushes: By definition, blending is a method of painting in order to delicately and gradually transition from one color to another. To continue blending, it is necessary to take a clean and dry brush with soft bristles and go back over the paint your have applied before it is allowed to dry. Never press hard, instead quickly flick the surface with the second brush.

Popular blending brushes are fan brushes. With a thin layer of bristles and a fan-like shape, fan brushes are appropriate for blending. In portraits, fan brushes help to blend the hair of subjects. Blending is made easier with a better bristled brush.

Badger Blender Brushes		Long Handle Natural Brushes		Long Handle Synthetic Brushes		Scholastic Fan Brushes
Short Handle Fan Brushes		Student Fan & Blender Brushes

This Week's Featured Products in Fans and Blenders Brushes

	Grumbacher Academy Oil and Acrylic Fan Made of student-grade white nylon synthetic fibers, Grumbacher Academy brushes are superb for oil and acrylic work. They’re soft-bristled, sleek, and ideal for any acrylic technique, including glazing, but they excel at fine detail work and applications where minimizing strokes is a must. The gorgeous blue metallic finish over a long-handled wood shaft has incredible hand-appeal ... experience one for yourself!
	Royal Langnickel Bordeaux Fan Bordeaux is Royal & Langnickel's smoothest red. Best-quality multi-diameter synthetic filaments move and control even the heaviest acrylics, while providing fine points and chisel edges. All brushes in the Bordeaux 6900 Series feature easel-length SilkTouch handles made of kiln-dried hardwood, and double-crimped , gold-plated brass ferrules.
	Blick Scholastic Short Handle Golden Taklon Fan These short-handled brushes are perfectly balanced for watercolor painting. The soft, Golden Taklon filament delivers plenty of spring and good flow. The handles are finished in a blue gloss, and the ferrules are seamless, polished, nickel-plated brass.

There are many varieties of fibers that are used for crafting brush bristles. Synthetic and natural fibers are used. Some artists prefer one over the other. Synthetic brush bristles do not have the paint capacity that natural bristles do. Natural bristles are more durable than synthetic ones. In choosing the bristles that best suit your needs; you should bend the bristles to see how well they snap back. This is a good indicator of the quality of the bristles. Selecting the type of handle for brushes is also important. Many handles are wooden while others are made from man-made materials.

Fan Brushes

Fan brushes have bristles that are positioned in a thin layer and spread out like a fan as the name implies. Common for blending colors, fan brushes are also used to paint hair, thin tree branches or grasses. Special attention and care is needed to ensure that identical brush marks are not made. This looks unnatural and fake in many cases.

Brush bristles can either be soft or stiff. Fibers used to make the bristles can be natural or synthetic. For paint that easily spreads, choose brush bristles that are softer. Harder bristles are great for thick paints and leaving brush marks in paint. Synthetic bristled brushes are often less expensive than those with natural bristles.

Naturally bristled brushes are a bit more costly but are often preferred by many accomplished artist. The most sought of these bristles is the sable. It is crafted from the hairs of a sable marten tail. Other natural bristles are made of squirrel, hog, camel, ox, pony and goat. Any naturally bristled brush tends to be more durable. Some of the natural bristles provide for more spring than others. It is important to find the proper brush bristles and handles for making confident brush strokes.