What type of brush hair is best for acrylic painting?

If you’re using acrylic, natural hog hair brushes are a good choice. They are naturally stiff and each bristle is split into two or three at the tip. These splits are called flags and they allow the brush to hold on to more paint and apply it evenly. Remember, hog brushes come in different shades; if they are white, you need to make sure this is natural and not bleached, which will have weakened the bristle. Hog hair comes in different in qualities.

• Best hog has the stiffest hair, plenty of flags, allowing it to carry more colour, and is extremely resilient – so the brush keeps its working edge and shape for longer. Winsor & Newton Artists’ Hog Brushes are made with the highest quality hog.
• Better hog has hair that is a little softer than best hog and will not wear quite as well.
• Good hog is even softer. This type of brush will not maintain its shape well.
• Poor quality hog is soft, weak, and tends to splay, which makes controlling the colour difficult.

If you prefer an alternative to natural hair or are on a budget, then it is worth considering synthetic brushes. Driven by innovation and our unique brush-making expertise, our synthetic brushes perform at a professional level. Synthetic brushes often have an excellent point and can carry colour very well. Winsor & Newton offers a wide range of synthetic brushes including Galeria Brushes.