I spent $300 to answer your top paintbrush questions | Ultimate Brush Guide

Paintbrushes can be expensive, so it's essential that you don't make any mistakes. Which Sable hair brush is the best, winsor & newton, DaVinci, Raphael, or something else? Are the Monument synthetic brushes worth it? and how do you clean your paintbrush? all of these questions and more are answered in this week's video. so whether you're an advanced painter or a beginner painter, you can go on to paint better miniatures with this ultimate paintbrush guide.
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Lyla Mev The Mini Witch creates beginner miniature painting tutorials and easy-to-understand guides for Warhammer, dungeons & dragons, and more. My favorite things to paint are sisters of battle, display quality miniatures, and focusing on having fun.

[JohnFBowen]

I've found that, coupled with a rare "boiling water" trick, one thing that works wonders on hooked tip synthetics is "Green Stuff - Brush Repair Gel". After painting, I thoroughly clean/soap the brush > form the tip with the gel > let it sit overnight. They last a *lot* longer and reset back to a very usable state.

[terrencemiltner]

Thanks for the rundown. I appreciate the overview of brush levels. I was already doing that to a degree. But that idea of a silverware organizer is one I will be looking at creating. The idea of how to store wet and drying brushes is also helpful. Thanks for the video.

[richardellis]

I went plant-based a couple years ago and now only use synthetic brushes. The ones I'm really impressed with, enjoy using and would recommend are the Tamiya Modeling Brush HG 🙂

[VerboseSparrow]

"I wear clothes while miniature painting, and I'm sure you wear clothes while miniature uh huh. I definitely wear clothes. 100% didn't paint Mortarion entirely in my underwear. Who would do that? Weird.

[clubjer]

I work primarily in oils so my "go to" are Army Painter, Princeton Aqua Elite and Velvet touch. When I do use acrylics I find Monument Hobbies Pro Sable work quite well.

[robertdean]

I’ve been using Winsor Newton Series 7 for a while now. I used to use a 4 level hierarchy of brushes when I used all synthetics, btw, slightly out of order so that it rhymes: “Old brush, New brush, Dry Brush, Glue Brush”. The Series 7s with care have been lasting me a long time, so I buy cheap synthetics for the scut work rather than waiting for a sable to wear out.

[huffinLeeroy]

+Respect for summarising within the first couple of minutes your final thoughts - hate the baiting of waiting til the end of the vid...it actually encouraged me to watch the whole thing.

[philurbaniak]

👍👍thank you Lyla! My take on this is: the best brush is either a) the one you find easiest to use, b) the one which is most appropriate for the job or c) the best one you can afford to waste! And 100%, brush care = value 😁👌!

[Ciddy]

Had too many bad S7 and now the 8404 is my go to. Have many AO but just don't get on with them at all.

[Lamefoureyes]

Lylaaaa! It finally clicked for me how water has to be behind paint for it to flow off of the brush! All of a sudden it became very natural to control the amount of moisture by re-wetting or dabbing much more frequently.


I think I was stuck in the mindset of "all of the paint needs to go on the model or it's wasted", so I was afraid to rinse my brush out, but your explanations and practice made it click.

[benmiles]

Raphael is all I can afford but I love them. They are fantastic.

[testaccount]

Love the content! I've always wanted to see a video on when to use and how to use certain types of paint - when/how do you use glazes, when/how do you uses washed, etc.

[velveteenv]

Best brush according to Dana is the one in your collection that still has a point.

[Glitch_]

I used to love Series 7 brushes but have found that the QC of them has nose dived in recent years. I remember receiving a brand new size 1 brush that didn't even have a tip on it.

Which is why I moved over to Artis Opus Series S (as i like a longer brush) which I have never had a bad experience with (so far). Only thing I have noticed with them though is that you will burn through an Artis Opus brush quicker than a Series 7. But they are cheaper so that offsets the life cycle for me.

[universeturtle]

I almost never used my Winsor Series 7 brush until I had to paint the veins on Mortarions wings and his eyes. That brush could do it all from super tiny stipples for eyes and the ability to paint crisp clean lines for inches on end.

[DarkMatters]

That was a huge pack of useful information, thank you so much, Lyla! Btw, how have I missed you reaching 100K🤯 Congrats!

[steveisaak]

I use, for inks, washes the monument hobby brushes that are synthetic. They have lasted me for quite some time, but I also watched and used the video by artis opus on brush care that helped tremendously.

[PartisanGamesLtd]

Thanks for clearing up the storage debate, I've been telling my customers for years to store their brushes in the protection tube bristles down.

[FFXIForge]

I bought a set of sable brushes from a company in Australia called Back to Base-IX last year and I love them! They also have the feature of unscrewing and storing inside the handle for travel, which is great for me. They're not terrible expensive, either.

[lhiannan]

My favourite sable and synthetic brushes come from Broken Toad. They haven't let me down with anything I've worked on. The sales can be tough to get, but the synthetic/fugazi brushes are easier to pick up.