'Rigger' brushes

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

Most painters use some combination of round and flat brushes to paint in oil or watercolor. There is quite a range of options in terms of size and shape. These are great for painting large areas and even some small sections in a painting. For details, I rely heavily on rigger brushes. 

The rigger brush got its name in the days of sailing ships, when artists painted the ships rigging. A rigger or liner brush is a thin brush with long bristles, often made of sable. These brushes come to a sharp point but can have a flat or square tip. These rigger brushes have a longer tuft than rounds and do not belly out, enabling artists to paint with consistent stroke width. In addition to defining a ship's rigging, these brushes are great for painting fine tree branches at the end of a limb, grasses, or grass-like effects at the edge of a field. 

Recently, I did an ocean scene with an anchored lobster boat (See "Cool Cove" from Wednesday, July 29th and "At Rest" from Wednesday, August 19th). I used rigger brushes to detail the wave patterns and create perspective, as well as to depict the quality of the surface of the water. As seen in the above photograph, I make use of riggers in sizes 4, 6 and 10. All of the doodling and watercolor sketches in the above image I made by using a rigger brush or brushes.