The Best Paintbrush Sets

Buying Guide for the Best Paintbrush Sets

Why buy a paintbrush set?

Why buy one paintbrush at a time when you can buy a paintbrush set that gives you a variety of paintbrush tips with one purchase? A great paintbrush set will include go-to brushes as well as tips you may have never tried. Changing up your creative habits can foster more creativity and variety as you paint.

What should you look for in a paintbrush set?

• Skill Level: Lacking the proper tools to do your work can be frustrating. This is true for children as well as older, highly skilled painters. Look for paintbrush sets that offer the quality and design you need based on your skill level. For example, simple and basic paintbrushes will work for beginners, but high-quality, more niche paintbrushes will often be required by expert painters.
• Sizes: Brushes are assigned numbered sizes to indicate thickness, length, or width of the brush hairs. However, there’s no standard numbering system, so there is variation from brand to brand. What may be most important for beginners is the shapes of the brush ends. Look for paintbrush sets with a wide variety of tip shapes, including round, linear, flat, fan, and filbert, to name a few.
• Handle: The quality and design of paintbrush handles are tailored to the needs of the intended audience. Short handles can give you more control over the brush, allowing you to paint with more precision. Rather than the traditional straight handle, some are curved to improve ergonomics and create greater comfort and control. Finally, look for paintbrushes with waterproofed handles. If you wash your untreated brushes after each time you paint as you should, the wood will eventually deteriorate, so look for handles with UV coating.

How should you maintain your paintbrushes?

Wash your paintbrushes after each use! Clean them with mild soap and water immediately after use and manually reshape the tips. Avoid scrubbing because you may inadvertently loosen or even remove hairs. Be sure to set the brushes tip-side up in an empty cup or glass or horizontally on a cloth. Otherwise, you may end up with stiff bristles tinged with the last paint you used.

Our Picks for the Best Paintbrush Sets

Pros: This paintbrush set includes brushes with 12 different tips good for acrylic, watercolor, and gouache painting. The quality of the nylon bristles secured by rust-resistant aluminum ensures that the brush hairs spring back into form with each stroke. The wooden handles are short to give you greater control so that you can achieve the detail you want. Choose from filbert, angular, flat, wisp, detail, and fan bristles to create the effects you want.

Cons: The ferrules are a bit loose on some brushes, and they aren’t ideal for professional use.

Bottom Line: This quality set of paintbrushes suits kids’ crafts and face painting as well as it does for more experienced painters’ needs. The brushes are easy to clean with soap and water.

 

Pros: The BOSOBO paintbrush set comprises quality brushes for painting wildlife, portraiture, model cars, rocks, and nail and body art. The amazing range of projects you can tackle with these brushes correlates to the myriad paint types they’re made for: oil, watercolor, acrylic, enamel, cel-vinyl, and gouache paints. Structurally, these brushes are built to last. The blue, wooden handles are waterproofed with UV coating, the double-crimped ferrules are made of quality nickel, and the nylon hairs are flexible. To boot, the set comes at a budget-friendly price.

Cons: Many users report that this paintbrush set is good for beginners, but not advanced painters.

Bottom Line: There will be no fighting at your household over who gets the filbert brush because this paintbrush set comes with two of each type. With 20 brushes total, the whole family can get into painting. These brushes are great for various ages and skill levels.

 

Pros: This set of paintbrushes truly excels. The design of each brush makes for a durable, attractive, and high-quality instrument for professional painters. The long, kiln-dried hardwood birch handles have been treated with seven layers of UV-cured paint and high gloss for durability. You won’t need to worry about hair loss, as each brush has double-crimped anodized aluminum ferrules. Additionally, each brush is imprinted with the brush shape and size number for easy identification. You get four premium chunking hog hair bristle brushes and 11 synthetic brushes for acrylic and watercolor.

Cons: As this paintbrush set is made for advanced painters, it comes at a higher price. If cost is an issue, you may want to look at other options.

Bottom Line: Included in this paintbrush set are four flat paintbrushes, one fan brush, three round brushes, four filbert brushes, one angle brush, one rigger brush, and one wide brush. With a lightweight carrying case made to keep each brush safe, it’s safe to say this is a one-of-a-kind paintbrush kit.

 

Pros: This is not your average paintbrush set. You get 15 paintbrushes with different tips, including fine, linear, flat, angular, filbert, dagger, round, and fan. The no-shedding nylon brush hair has the flexibility to allow strong absorption that retains its original shape even after multiple washes. Kids and adults can hold the brushes comfortably. In fact, they’re great for amateurs, professionals, and those in-between for face painting, nail art, gouache, watercolor painting, and more. Plus, it comes with a convenient carrying case and brush holder with a paint tray, two palette knives, and two sponges.

Cons: These brushes aren’t quite at a professional level.

Bottom Line: This is a great set. Its carrying case doubles as a pop-up paintbrush holder. You can easily swap from one brush to another while you paint or use it as a drying stand. This convenient option should serve you well.

 

Pros: This paintbrush set is great for those who end up with back and neck pain from adding painstaking detail to figurines, paint by number masterpieces, or miniature figures and scale models. The short-handled ergonomic brushes are easy to hold for detailed painting thanks to their wide curved shape right at the spot where you’d naturally hold the brush. Paint the tiniest details with no hand wiggling. The detail paint brushes come in a variety of sizes and shapes (round, flat, linear, angle, and filbert) for creating just the right effect on whatever art piece you’re working on. Other qualities include heavy-duty ferrules, high-quality nylon bristles, and waterproofed handles.

Cons: The synthetic bristles aren’t the best quality and won’t last forever.

Bottom Line: If you’re a ceramicist, a model car enthusiast, or one of those enviable artists who can paint tiny messages on rocks, consider this paintbrush set. It’s ideal for the finer details.

Final Thoughts

Painters young and old, new and professional deserve the best brushes to give freedom in their artistry. We’ve gathered some reliable options for painters of various skill levels.