shaped paint brushes

[vincegamer]

Here\'s a question:
I have a painting task that I think would be much easier with a flat brush maybe 1mm across instead of a pointed brush. I see these brushes in art stores but they usually start at 1/8 inch (~3.2mm) and get bigger. I was wondering if it would work to cut one down to the width I want. So that leads me to the question:
Do you ever cut brushes to particular shapes or buy fancy shaped brushes? or do you just use a fine point for all applications? (that\'s what I currently do)

 

[Temperance]

I like the thin square brushes for large drybrush jobs, but for most everything else miniature related I just use the normal pointed brush.

 

[Dragonsreach]

I\'d not recommend cutting paint brushes as the ferrules are designed to keep the hairs in the shape that they are set in and they\'ll just go all ratty.
I\'ve use a couple of flats for large surfaces but wouldn\'t recommend them. A good quality, sable round brush size 2 or 3 is best. That way you can get the best of both worlds a large flat area and smooth coverage.
Mostly for large areas I tend to use a size 2 Kolinsky, which is about 6 years old has little or no paint left on the handle and is very confortable in the hand.
Hope this helps.

 

[Evonine]

Another problem with cutting brushes is that even when you use a really sharp pair of scissors, the cut ends of the bristles will never be as nice as the natural ends the brush started with. This may be part of what causes them to go \"ratty\"....On artificially-haired brushes (don\'t reccommend them, btw) they bristles will actually sort of flatten at the end....and in natural-haired brushes, it can actually cause the hairs to have split ends!