Tips on Oil Painting - Measuring Oil Painting Brushes

Oil painting brushes come in all different sizes and are made for all different purposes. When it comes to measuring the size of brushes it becomes quickly obvious that there is not a consistent standard throughout the industry.

Sizes of brushes are usually given in terms of numbers. For certain brands and certain sets of brushes these numbers can run from 1 to 24, 10 to 100, or 0 to 30, and many other variations.

Some smaller brush sizes are numbered as 0 (or 1/0), 00(or 2/0), or even 000 (or 2/0). A 00 brush is one size smaller than a 0 brush. Similarly, a 000 brush is one size smaller than a 00 brush or two sizes smaller than a 0 brush.

Because of the lack of a common standard it is very well possible that you will find that the actual size of two like-numbered brushes is not the same. The actual size depends on the manufacturer and has also to do with the fact that some brushes are manufactured in countries that use the imperial system of units and others in countries that use the metric system of unites. The only thing you can count on is that, within the same set of brushes, higher numbered brushes will always be larger than lower numbered brushes. Also, the brushes of a particular series or set will generally be properly sized relative to each other so that these sets will include all the sizes you need to create your paintings.

The best and really the only thing you can do is to physically inspect a set of brushes either in an art store or if you buy on the Internet look at actual size pictures of the entire set of brushes.

One system of measuring brushes in actual measuring units such as millimeters or inches that is in fairly widespread use proceeds as follows:

* Measuring the Diameter of the Brush Head - In this measuring system the diameter of a round brush head is measured at the top edge of the ferrule. The ferrule is the metal ring that holds the brush hair in place on the handle of the brush.

* Measuring the Depth of the Brush Head - When you lay a flat brush on the table, then the depth of the brush head is the vertical height of the brush head measured at the top edge of the ferrule.

* Measuring the Width of the Brush Head - The width of a flat brush head is the length of the hair at the top edge of the ferrule measured across the hair. For the flat brush on the table you measure the horizontal width at the top edge of the ferrule. Of course, the width of a round brush is the same as its diameter.

* Measuring the Length of the Brush Head - The length of the brush head is the length measured from the top edge of the ferrule to the tip of the hair along the center of the brush head. For the brush on the table you measure the middle line segment that starts at the top edge of the ferrule and ends at the tip of the brush head.

Brushes should always be measured when dry because when they are wet they expand and therefore they will yield larger measurements. Also, do not confuse the width of a particular brush head with the width of the stroke of that same brush. The width of the brush head is fixed once and for all but the width of a brush stroke varies with pressure, the kind of paint used, the angle of the brush head, and the flexibility of the brush hair. It is, for example, very easy to produce a brush stroke that is much wider than the width of the brush head.

The brush head measuring information we just described is probably much more than you will ever need or want to know. However, it’s a good thing to go through this at least once in a life time.

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