I’m new to Bob Ross painting, and painting in general. I have the brushes that came in the master kit and bought a couple extras, but I don’t know the difference between them. Can someone explain natural vs synthetic, plus the sizes and types I’d find useful? Bonus if you can give me brands so I can shop for something specific. I’d like to have a couple two-inch and one-inch brushes - the less amount of time spent cleaning brushes, the better. Thanks!!

LCLeonard Bob uses 4 different types 95% of the time:

  1. 1 inch brush
  2. 2 inch brush
  3. Fan brush
  4. Liner brush
  5. and his majesty - pallet knife
    All brushes require very thorough cleaning (it does not mean beating! and scrapping them about the metal mesh!) to extend their lives as they are very expensive. You can read about cleaning on the forum here.
    Those brushes are groomed in some special way that allow Bob Ross technique.
    Liner brush is the weakest brush overall (no matter what brand it is) as it hates cleaning in the thinner only and requires a wash in the oil to remove the paint accumulated near ferrule. Oil can be even cheap cooking oil or baby oil. Also water and soap have high efficiency to remove the paint.

So in terms of quantities - get 2 of one-inch brushes, 1 two-inch brush, 2- fan brushes and liner brush.

Only liner brush does not really require to be BR brand and you can find cheaper analogue brush, just remember to have it with long bristles. Liner brush I have is synthetic and with proper care and cleaning it last for 6 months (20--25 paintings) approximately. I tried another cheap brand and it was finished after 5 paintings.

Do not buy more at beginner stage unless you feel technique (30-40 paintings). Then you can start searching for the brushes as you will be understanding more of their behaviour.

Other brushes:
Round brush
Blender brush

They are not required for some time, you will find only little quantity of episodes with them.

Need to mention about canvas size for all those brushes: Minimum is 16 by 20 inch (40x50 cm). The smaller will not be suitable for those brushes.

Natural brushes allow rough texture and brush strokes, synthetics allow quite smooth application of paint. All brushes will wear with time and bristles become damaged beyond any repair. More thoughtful you are with care about your brushes, less often you need to replace, but replacement is inevitable.
In general minimum is to keep two brushes of the same type one for dark colors and another for light colors, this will reduce amount of cleaning required during painting and will keep reasonable amount of cleaning after painting. Don't forget you can wipe on the towel and go in for the next color with that brush.

In short what you have in a starter kit shall be sufficient for your first 5-10 paintings.

    @Felix - I do not understand what happens but i do not select bold font of this size? What is wrong can you help?

    Sunnylady I think this happens when you use "- - - - -" to separate the paragraphs. I've removed it for you

      Felix Thank you! I did not think to coneect --- with the font! Appreciate quick help!

        Thank you sooo much!! I really just needed a good breakdown of brushes. I just finished painting four yesterday and can get a few more in before I’m gonna need to start looking at stocking up on extras. I did try a synthetic brush I had on part of a tree yesterday and wasn’t a fan of the “smoothness” for that section. I like the roughness of natural bristles. Outside of BR, so you have any other brands you like that seem to hold up well? No local stores here carry BR, so while I can just order some, I’d be curious if there were any others that were considered good.

        Also how you store your brushes when not in use is important too, the can get misshapen and these are the tools of your craft.

          LCLeonard I honestly cannot really say much about the brands. I got my 1 inch brushes in USA, but now I am in Russia and they do not sell BR brand here.
          I got my two inch brush from builders store and first it painted half of our house walls, it does not allow to make trees in BR method, and I use it only for blending.

          I also started painting with Bob and loved natural bristles in the beginning. I got first fan brushes in USA as well. I cannot say what brand it was as info got removed from the handle. It was level 1, cheap brush from Hobby Lobby store. But what I will need to say I did not find a good brush to replace the fun brush in Russia when it had it to be replaced.

          I kept searching and learning and I got more small size brushes, filbert, flat, angled flat. I found a brand that is available in some stores here. It is called Pinax. They are from China. I like it.

          With time I progressed from natural bristles to synthetic. They give me what I need now in painting. If you check photos attached to my Honey bliss (yacht) you will see the brushes I used there.

          if you are in the Europe - check JacksonArt online store for brushes as your starting point. If in the USA check Michaels, Hobby Lobby stores and of course Bob Ross website itself and Amazon. If you do not have any of that go to your local store and see what they have. I found my liner brushes in office supply store in Russia and they are only 1.5 USD and they hold a while, so I buy every time I go by and I have 5 new ones. If I suddenly have to travel I am stocked up for a while.

          I think inspect BR brushes what you got in the kit, and how thick they are, check what you have in art stores. Check what you have in builders stores and make your choice. Very often there is balance of money vs quality vs what the brush can do vs what you prefer to paint. Thus a lot of trial involved here.

            For just coverage, I have some cheap ru of the mill brushes for the liquid white and other things that don’t have a technique as such to them.
            im scared my 1 inch BR brush is ruined with blue oil which is still coming out.

              7 days later

              @Mrs C#1035

              I doubt it's ruined. It probably looks like my 2 inch BR brush. I did some paintings that required a lot of phthalo blue and the bristles are all stained. The brush is perfectly usable though. It took me a while to catch on that just because a brush changed color doesn't mean it still has that paint loose in the bristles. There's two ways to make sure the brush is good to use - you can clean the brush very well in new mineral spirits/thinner. If the thinner is still clear after cleaning, there's no more paint (even though the bristles are stained). Also once the brush is dried, rub it on a white paper towel. If nothing blue comes off, you're good to go. I use my now-blue brush in titanium white all the time and you'd never know the bristles ever had blue on them.

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