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For most painters, the perfect paintbrush is an essential tool that helps bring their work to life. Whether you are working with oil, acrylic, or watercolor paints, having the correct brush will help you execute your creative vision with ease.

But with so many artist's paintbrushes on the market, it can be difficult to understand where to start. From different shapes and sizes to synthetic or natural bristles, there are a lot of choices to be made. However, once you get a handle on the different usages of these brushes, you'll be able to expertly make your selection.

To help you get started, we've broken down some of the common types of paintbrushes that artists use, as well as put together our favorite paintbrush sets to let you experiment and discover what works for you.

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There are many different paintbrush shapes to select from. What you decide will depend not only on your medium, but also on the painting techniques that you use. Some brushes work better with heavy body paints as opposed to more fluid pigments and others are the opposite. There are brushes that will help create fine lines and others that are used to provide texture. To understand what will work for you, let’s take a look at some of the most common brush shapes.

Photo: Stock Photos from Cafe Racer/Shutterstock

Bristles come in different lengths—long, medium, and short—depending on the shape of the brush and its use. In general, medium or long bristles work well with fluid paints and, depending on the shape, can be used for fine detail or coverage. Short bristles can be particularly useful when employing techniques like stippling or if you want complete control over your brushstrokes.

No matter the length, bristles are made of different materials—natural or synthetic.

Natural brushes are divided into two categories, soft hair and hog bristles. At the high end, soft hair brushes are made from sable, while camel hair brushes are on the lower end, but aren’t actually made from a camel. Most often these bristles are made from ox, pony, goat, mongoose, or badger. Instead, hog bristle is stiffer, sturdier, and can hold a lot of paint.

Synthetic brushes are typically made of nylon or polyester. Not only are these more cost-effective, but they are easier to clean. As a downside, they don’t soak up quite as much pigment as natural brushes and aren’t quite as soft.

Now that you have a handle of the types of paintbrushes available, let’s take a look at the best paintbrush sets to help you get started painting in style.

Blick Scholastic Golden Taklon Brushes, set of 5 | $12

Liquitex Basics Brushes, Set of 6 | $7.34

Utrecht Natural Chungking Pure Bristle Brushes, Set of 4 | $31.76

Richeson Grey Matters Bristle Oil Brushes, Long Handle, Set of 6 | $39.29

Richeson Plein Air Travel Brushes, Set of 7 | $44.69

Da Vinci Casaneo and Cosmotop Spin Synthetic Brushes Wood Box Set | $68.31

Old Holland Kolinsky Sable Brush Easel, Set of 12 | $182.99

Escoda Grafilo Kolinsky Tajmyr Sable Brushes, set of 6 | $236.27

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7 Watercolor Mediums That Will Transform the Way You Use the Paint

9 of the Best Paint Palettes for Mixing Your Favorite Types of Pigments

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