Creative Round Brush, Watercolour and Acrylic, No. 1 to 8

Brush numbers describe the size of the head, and a graded range is the useful thing here: the same shape and the same hair through a sequence of sizes, so moving up or down does not change how the brush behaves in your hand. Mixing shapes and brands across a set is what makes one brush always feel wrong.

Use the largest brush that will do the job. Most beginners work too small, which forces a hundred little strokes where four would have been flatter and smoother, and those small strokes are exactly what makes a wash look patchy. Rinse before the paint dries at the base of the hair, reshape the tip while it is damp, and dry them lying flat. Acrylic is the one to watch: it sets inside the ferrule where you cannot see it, and that is what stiffens a brush for good.

A round brush comes to a point and carries a good load of colour, so it draws a fine line on its tip and fills a small shape on its belly. Sizes 1 to 8 cover detail through to general painting, and if you are going to own one shape in several sizes, this is the shape to own.

• Round head — fine line on the tip, fill on the belly
• Sizes 1 to 8
• For watercolour and acrylic
• Reshape while damp and dry lying flat