Do I need to buy brushes to practise? The shapes explained

You don't need to buy brushes to start practising. Easel by Zaweba, a free painting studio for Windows, includes a full rack of brush shapes, from round, flat and filbert to fan, rigger, mop, hake, dagger and more, so you can learn what each one does before spending money on real ones. When you do go shopping, you'll know which three or four you actually reach for.

Real brushes are not cheap, and beginners often buy a big mixed set and use two of them. Practising on screen first lets you find out how a filbert differs from a flat, or why landscape painters love a rigger, without guessing.

The brush shapes you can try

The original set in Easel covers the everyday shapes: round, flat, filbert, fan and rigger, plus a sponge, a foam pad and a palette knife. Version 1.1 added bright, mop, hake, dagger, angled, stippler and badger blender. Brushes come in sable, synthetic and hog hair, which matters because soft and stiff hair carry and leave paint very differently.

A round is the all-rounder. Press lightly for a fine line, harder for a broad one. It is the first brush most watercolourists learn.

A flat has a square end and lays down even, crisp-edged strokes. It is the natural choice for blocking in shapes, painting architecture and laying flat washes.

A bright is a flat with shorter hair, so it is stiffer and better for pushing thick paint around in short dabs.

A filbert is a flat with a rounded tip. It gives soft-edged strokes, which makes it a favourite for skin, petals and anything without hard corners.

A fan spreads the hair out in a semicircle. It is used for blending and for textures such as grass, foliage and hair.

A rigger has very long, thin hair. Loaded with fluid paint it pulls long, even lines, which is why it is used for ship rigging, branches and grasses.

A mop is a big, soft, rounded brush that holds a lot of water, ideal for wetting paper and laying loose watercolour skies. A hake is a wide, flat Japanese brush for broad washes. A dagger has an angled, pointed shape that gives lines that swell and taper. An angled brush has a slanted edge for crisp corners. A stippler dabs texture, and a badger blender softens edges in oil.

Why practising on screen helps

In Easel the brushes behave like the real thing on a real surface. Every picture starts on a surface with its own tooth and absorbency, and paint reacts to it. Brushes run dry and get dirty, so you learn to reload, and you learn to clean between colours. That means the lessons carry over. If you get used to how much water a mop wants on rough watercolour paper, or how a hog flat drags oil on canvas, you'll recognise it the first time you pick up the real brush.

You also get unlimited paper. Fill a sheet with test strokes, try the same mark with three different brushes and compare them side by side. Nothing is wasted, and Easel keeps 80 steps of undo by default, so a bad experiment costs nothing.

A simple way to learn the shapes

Pick one medium, say watercolour, and one surface. Paint a row of marks with each brush: a thin line, a thick line, a dab and a twist of the wrist. Then try one small study, perhaps a tree, using only two brushes. You'll quickly find the pairing you like.

Do the same in oil on canvas and the brushes feel different again, because thick oil stays wet and holds the marks the hair leaves. Seeing that contrast is half the education.

When you do buy real brushes

Use what you learnt to buy a small set rather than a big one. Most painters can do a great deal with a round, a flat and one specialist, such as a rigger for a landscape painter or a filbert for portraits. Easel by Zaweba is free software with no account, so you can keep coming back to it to try a shape before you buy it.