one reason that the paint may not apply is that you have to have the paper slanted at an angle to write/paint like they did in medevial times, so put it on a slanted painting desk or writing desk then try it.
Your local natural history museum or (kill-)shelter might get regular supplies of roadkill for further experiments. My local natural history museum employees taxidermists to add recently deceased animals in the style of the existing research collection and do maintenance on the collection but they get much more than they use (measuring all, preparating only the most intact specimens)
I wonder if the beaver fur struggled because beaver fur is kind of hydrophobic? Since they're around water all the time I'd imagine they have kind of a different fur type than say a squirrel.
Oh 100%, I agree that totally makes sense. It was a lot of fun to play around with what I had on hand, although I'd love to know how the miniver brush would compare.
I would think that would mostly be due to the oils the beaver's skin exudes, so from a processed pelt, that wouldn't be a factor- but I could be wrong. Certainly the size, flexibility and surface texture would all play some role. I know Japanese brushes are made with multiple types of hair- to take advantage of different factors.
Morgan is so lucky with such thick hair, I have serious envy. That little bit she cut is about the sum total of my whole hair as it’s decided to fall out again. Sucks. Her confidence with her hair is a lovely thing to see.
@@ilonaniinemae4735 endless saga. In short, I live in England, so access to specialists is difficult, Im broke so can't do it privately. , my body hates me, Ive previously had delightful things like chemo, and at least three of the medications I'm currently on list alopecia as a 'rare' side effect.. .... the medical response is basically well, would you rather be dead? Problem is, mental health department doesn't see it that way. So in summary, it pretty clear why, and unfortunately no. But thanks for your interest! I just want Morgan's pretty hair😭
I legit had no idea what kind of animal a sable was, and I'm a flippin artist! 😂 Granted my media of choice are photography and jewelry, so not too much painting going on, aside from coating metal in flux before soldering it, and those are just the cheapest of cheap animal hair brushes, usually horsehair, because if you use synthetic ones and have to reapply flux once the metal is hot the synthetic fiber will melt. Been there, done that... 😬 Genuine Sable brushes are supposed to be very good for watercolors with a good water absorption level and springy responsiveness. (I used to adore art supply catalogs and reading the descriptions of all of the different products, from brushes to kilns and everything in between) I knew sable was the name of a color and thought the brushes were called that because of the bristle color...I was half right. 😂 I think they use ermine these days because they are easy to farm and similar to sables. I've seen everything from hog hair (large wash brushes), to rabbit, horsehair, squirrel, weasel/stoat/ermine, to even a few exotics. Iirc, I think fine detail brushes are made from squirrel or a blend of squirrel and hare. Don't quote me on that though I could be totally wrong. 😅
I mean, I did just do the seasonal Furminator groom on 3 of 4 cats, so I've got handfuls of the stuff...😂 Our female cat has lots of rough guard hairs while my oldest has a dense plush coat like thick rabbit fur, and my youngest has a very smooth, sleek, thin coat (he's the one that doesn't need Furminating). I could make a brush apiece and compare them...hmm...
And this is why speciality brushes are so darn expensive! To lay all the hairs to avoid the ‘seperating’ and ‘twisting’ you showed is quite the skill Thanks for trying it out 🎨🖌️
Hi Morgan, you might want to prepare your brushes first by removing any natural oils. Soap usually helps. That’s why your hair one works nice because you remove the oils when washing your hair.
Gouache cracking when dried is common. Typically you will add water to the gouache and let it sit for a bit so the paint can moisten more before you load the brush.
My most brush obsessed friend insists (Read "insist" as "lengthy sermons while standing on a fruit crate".) that the best brushes are made from the hair at the end of the tail of an animal. (This guy never passed a roadkilled critter whose tail he did not clip - this includes skunk. Yes. skunk.) He says that these brushes hold more ink and trail more smoothly. As his work is superior, it could be that the quality of his brushes is a factor. (He also says that using hair that has been cut on the end that is used against the working surface should be avoided as it does not draw ink properly.) But, one should allow that he is obsessed.
Also, a farmer friend of mine told me once that if you can kill a skunk WITHOUT it shooting musk first, something in the musk mixture is actually extremely valuable to perfume-makers. The stuff helps perfumes stick better to skin... without the awful odor they use. 😂
My art teacher was very particular about which brush to use for which paint and the kind of result needed. I admit the high price brushes did make a difference and they were made of some kind of fur or hair.
Course Hog hair for oils, squirrel and sable for watercolours. Different shapes and lengths produce different brush strokes, not just thicker-thinner lines. Egg tempera - egg yolk plus pigment - needs very fine brushes to lay down lines of paint in one direction and then 90° crosswise in the next layer, after the first one dries. That has to be repeated until the desired result is obtained. That was used before oil paints. Looking at the continued brilliance of many 800 year old paintings, it's worth the time and effort on major works.
That’s a brave dude! I drove over a freshly deceased skunk on the way to work one morning with my heater vents going and three days later and half a bottle of Febreeze later, I managed to get in my car without gagging.
I remember in first and second grade, my friends and I used to make little paint brushes with pine needles, and we would find little brown and red and white soft rocks, crush them, and make paint with a bit of water! Sometimes, if the rocks were really soft, you could just use them like a crayon. There was a lot of natural slate around our school, so we used little slate slabs as canvases 🤣 We could draw on each other with our rock paints, too! I had forgotten about that memory!
I was the ringleader of rock "paint" at my school playground, until we got in trouble because crushing rocks was "dangerous." I still remember it fondly though! 😅
Morgan trying to make watercolor paint and paintbrush’s, and then getting very confused/concerned about how they’re working is a mood. Also, for keeping the hairs from falling out, you probably want to blunt the end of the brush inside the ferrule and add a thin layer of glue on them before putting the brush together. Also watercolors need a LOT of water when activating them and a very saturated brush to hold the colors
The very best part of this video is that you don’t spend any time at the beginning justifying why you want to do this. Of course you want to. And of course we want to watch. Fantastic and informative as always.
Ruth Goodman did a very nice demonstration of brush construction in Secrets of the Castle if I remember correctly. There’s an entire episode on castle decor, pigments, dyes, brushes, tiles, soft furnishings, etc. If anyone wants that additional information.
Just from experience of using commercial gouache and watercolor tube paints, I think the paint cracking as it dries is not too uncommon, and has more to do with the water content and the speed it dries, as well as the pigments themselves. Different mineral pigments do often behave differently as you paint with them, also.
Egg white is a traditional mixer for the ground pigments and is what is used when painting icons, mainly because they are painted as were painted a 1000+ years ago and egg white was the binder for the crushed minerals in those times. Fascinating to see them paint an icon from beginning to end, and they begin by actually crushing the minerals themselves then mixing them with the egg white and applying them.
Isn't life with cats interesting? We got two new kittens last week. It's like having toddlers that climb. Thank you for telling us your kitty's name! Is she named for anyone like your doggos?
Razor toed drunk ninjas. That's kittens, and good luck with the new masters! They'll learn their roles soon enough. 😂 I have a taskmaster, an emotional and anxiety support, a migraine alert and pur therapist, and our one female, the self appointed clown and mood booster. Ever seen a cat wear your shoes? She slid one front leg into each slide and laid down with her legs in my shoes and just stayed there and looked at me. I don't care how grumpy or pain cranky you are, that's delightful and has to bring a smile to your face.
When my cat was a kitten, she'd find a shopping bag or a bra, slip the handle/strap around her neck and race around the house with the bag/bra streaming out along her back like a cape, making turbocat mrrrrrrr's. Most hilarious thing ever.
Making your own brushes out of your hair (or someone else's hair) is still the recommended way to get really REALLY fine lines, so I'm not surprised your hair performed well! Wild that it went well even though your hair is curly; I would have assumed that would pose more problems, but it looked like you just kind of got used to the "handed-ness" (curl direction?) of your brush!
AND Charlie from The Stitchery's latest shenanigans!! ❤❤❤ I'm enjoying a binge-fest while I clean up my sewing area and complete a few quick projects. 😊
Even better because the AFL ( Australian Rules Football) Grand Final is on today - which I have zero interest in, unlike my H! Now I have an awesome bunch of new vids to watch & help me tune out the footy, whilst doing some sewing today
The scratchieness of the beaver hair brush reminds me of dry brushing with a hogs hair paintbrush. Hogs hair brushes are very usefull. So maybe that brush just needs to be used for different uses. 😊 Really enjoyed your adventures in brush and paint making.
my wierd mind : *pictures wild lapis lazuli frolicking in a meadow* i've always been obsessed with both lapis lazuli and ultramarine blue, now i know why
I recently went to Provence in France and visited the ochre valley in Roussillon and it was remarkable and so vivid! If anyone visits that part of France I’d really recommend it for seeing ochre pigments in the wild!
There's an area outside of Calhan, CO, called the Paint Mines. Lots of local tribes did, and still do, use the area to get LOTS of different color pigment rocks with which to decorate their goods. It was an incredible visit!
using more honey would probably have stopped the cracking, but it would have kept your paints from drying too. oxides (in my experience) tend to be drier pigments and my professional paints crack a bit too.
omg this is bringing me back to fourth grade, when my friends and i ripped the eraser out of a pencil, cut off a bit of my hair, pressed it into the back of the pencil with the now-empty metal eraser shell, and dubbed it the Hair Brush. then we went around weirding everybody else out with it lmao
I use the modern brushes, and it's still a good idea to clean them then reshape them using brush soap and conditioner. Even watching modern brushes get made they still add a conditioning kind of agent to help it maintain shape. I wish I could remember what it was!
If you're into gardening, you can also grow and harvest a ton of period pigments! madder for read, woad for blue (same pigment as indigo but from a different plant), brazilwood, and a ton of others. some flowers even give you pigments too, I think coreopsis, marigold, and others too!
You could make fabric dyes with those botanicals too. Which might be more useful for the delightful Morgan's needs. But wouldn't that be fun? A paint and dye garden.
@@peglamphier4745 I have plans to do exactly that! I mostly spin and dye yarn/hand knitted things, and I've been wanting to expand my garden as such for years now lmao. Just waiting til I have more space :)
I cut my own hair typically once or twice a year and often tie a chunk before cutting it and have definitely thought how my hair feels like it would make for a good make-up brush, so this is a great video to watch! I've never committed to crafting with my hair so it's all just ended up in the garden as mulchy compost. :)
I just love your personality, my goodness! Obviously I'm very interested in your historic DIY and sewing content, but what makes me come back to EVERY video is your personality. I can't even describe it, but my neuro-divergent brain feels the wholesomeness and gets soothed by your attitude and calming voice. If I'm struggling with over-stimulation or other issues that come up for me, your videos help me to quiet my brain down (no idea if that makes sense to anyone but me :D ) Just genuinely happy and grateful that you are sharing your skills, interests and personality with us.
Depending on what effect's you're looking to create, I've seen brushes made from the tips of feathers for fine work. Human hair works well, if you've got a long haired cat or dog that would be fine too. I'd imagine that more stiff hair would be good for stencil brushes...
I attended the Yidaki: Didgeridoo and the Sound of Australia exhibition in 2016. One of the artists painting in traditional style used reeds and sticks, sometimes gently chewed on as brushes, For fine lines a few hairs from the dogs tail tied to a stick with a bit of human hair were used.
This is so cool to see done!! The ratio of bristle length to stiffness has a lot of effect on how it handles paint at varying viscosities, I can confirm, being trained for working in watercolor, acrylic and oil paints. The thicker your paint, or more gummy/sticky, the stiffer your bristles may need to be. Longer bristles are better for thin lines, once the stiffness is accounted for, and I do think mink and beaver may be a little hydrophobic still, which might also factor in. Squirrel fur might be available through any game processor in your neck of the woods... Oil paints are to this day made more or less the same way you made yours- with oil, maybe a little gum arabic, and fancy dirt!
I really recommend the book Color by Victoria Finlay, for more about the history of different pigments! I had to read it in school and it was a really fun read!
Really interesting! Gives much more appreciation for their painting skills when using such brushes! The “scratchy” effect would be great if you’re painting animals and want to paint fur texture. Also I think gouache cracking when it dries is quite normal. The only gouche I’ve used is white (to add some opaque highlights on a watercolour). I squeezed some from the tube into a little tin, so it was more portable, and that cracked too when it dried. Oh, and I’m glad your hair sacrifice turned out to be a good brush, despite the curl.
I think the curl might work to her advantage in certain situations? Kind of like a stub nib fountain pen - which helps me write better calligraphy. 🤷🏻♀️
If you’ve not played it I can’t suggest highly enough the game Pentiment, I really think you’d get a kick out of it. It’s all set in medieval Germany about a journeyman artist, and designed to look like an old illuminated manuscript. Lost of lovely details about monastic art and peasant life. Also it’s a murder mystery so it’s fun too. x
A local (to me in Vancouver BC) artist, Caitlin Ffrench, does a lot of work with natural pigments from plants, dirt, rocks, etc. She'll collect soil samples from different locations and turn them into paints or dyes. Really interesting to see the range of colours she creates just from what most of us would see as brown dirt.
Do you know 'Atomic Shrimp'? Sounds like you might enjoy his channel. He recently did similar experiments with clay. Made a number of different little objects, testing different 'foraged' clays and natural addititives, just to see what would happen.
As a hobby watercolorist, I loved this! I've seen videos of folks making Kolinsky sable brishes and just seeing those and this, you understand why good quality brushes are so expensive.
Very nice video about an interesting topic. I am a Sumi E artist by trade and have done tons of research on the brushes and how they are made and used. In my trade the floppiness of the brush is actually respected and viewed as the brushes contribution in the composition of the piece. I study art as a hobby and was fascinated with how many medieval paintings have lasted being made out of tempra paint. These days we view it as a subpar medium just meant for elementary school projects, but it apparently has quite the longevity.
21:26 funnily enough, the only asmr that I love listening to is paint-making asmr where they make paints and then using those paints they make some sort of art.
I think you would really like Michel Pastoureau's books about color. He's a historian and specialise in symbolic systems like heraldry, sigillography and my personal favorite: colors. He published several books, each one about one specific color (blue, black, green, red, yellow and white) and talks about the history of the pigments in painting and fabric dyes in europe. It's very well writen and fascinating!
Great video as usual! On the opacity: I have been to a calligraphy + gouache pain miniature workshop and it was absolutely normal to use layers to build up opacity, letting it dry in between layers :)
Wow, porphyry is super swank and hard to come by if you're not in Italy, though part of the reason it was expensive was that due to it being extremely hard and hard to work with, so a random smallish slab that you looted from a Roman villa can just sit there looking fancy. But even in Italy in the 1400s having porphyry in your floors was a sign that you had a lot of money to spend on decoration. eta: Oh, Cennini's from Florence, that tracks
I believe it was ancient scholars in Japan who used the end of their long braided hair (or queue) for calligraphy. Also red barn paint was made from rust and casein, a milk by product.
Modern gauche takes a lot to master so I think you did a relatively good job. Also, I need to cut 4-6inches off my hair and I was thinking about things I could do with it!
Those wild rocks are so hard to tame. You can leave food out for them. Sit and try to have a picnic with them. You can even pet them. Never do they get domesticated though 😕
😂😂 OMG, I just watched a Strange Aeons video about Tumblr Clown Husbandry so I was already in a headspace of "tumblr takes a joke and runs with it" - making up histories of different species of clown, and guides for taking care of your pet clown, people asking for advice on feeding and _proper enrichment!_ 😂 - So your comment about rocks IS ABSOLUTELY SENDING ME!!!!!! Thank you so much! You're awesome and I hope you know it, internet person! 😁
Neat. A decidedly different book I found suggested large twigs and twine or fiber for various materials for a brush. Then again, they also suggested oak gall and acorn shells(?) for ink/pigment (they, um.. they apparently have a 'scent' to them as they boil, suggest ventilation, and seem to take a forever to extract... XD ). Not unreasonable, considering, but try at your own peril, I guess... :v The mystery/possible-beaver fur brush, after being cut, seems rad. Nice scratchy, scrawbly marks. Very expressive. :3
My mother tried the gall ink thing, can confirm it works great! Can also confirm that the boiling process stinks like something up and died😅 I really love that ink though, because compared to inks I bought it's much lighter, it's the only one that won't go all the way through modern paper!
I just know this comment section is going to be GOLD!!! THANK YOU, Morgan, for coming up with such a creative idea and making such an awesome community!
Fun facts about pigments! The ground up lapis lazuli you mentioned was extremely expensive, so artists would save it for the most "special" areas of the painting, such as the garments of the highest ranking nobility. That's where we get the term "royal blue" from. That's also why the Virgin Mary was frequently depicted in blue robes, because she would automatically be the highest ranking person in most paintings. Another source of red pigment was the crushed up dried bodies of certain insects. There were Polish and Turkish/Armenian variants that (I think) could be harvested once a year and required a ton of pigment to get a good color. One of the lesser-known (today) resources that Spain exploited from the Americas was a different insect variety that could be harvested several times a year and had a more concentrated pigment, thus greatly reducing the price of red paints and dyes. The Old World version was called carmine, and the New World version called cochineal, but they're both the same chemical. It was also used to make pinks and purples. Cochineal is still used today in some cosmetics and food colorings, but it has to be used with care and labeled because some people have severe allergic reactions to it. Conch mollusks produce a purple pigment. This was also extremely expensive to extract, which is why purple is also associated with royalty. (Caveat: I know conch pigment was used in dye, but I don't actually know if it was used in paint.)
This was so interesting & fascinating to watch. Every time I cut mine or (my kids) hair, I have often wondered about making paint brushes. You answered all my questions. ❤
I have spent the summer in Ketchikan, giving wildlife and totem park tours to cruise ship guests. One piece of information that we share is that the historic paints on totem poles started with salmon eggs chewed into an oily paste, then mixed with various minerals that were available at the time. Black was charcoal, iron oxide for red, copper oxide for the blue, sulfur for yellow, and finely ground seashells for white. Nowadays they just pick paint from the hardware store.
Squirrel hair is my favorite watercolor brush. You can load it with a lot of pigment and it can also make beautiful sharp controlled lines. It is the brush I take with me into the field.
I think part of the problem you were having is that you weren’t using enough water in your paint, the juicier it is the better it will flow. And also with the beaver brushes they might perform better as they are worn in and get roughed up, I believe you can also gently run the dry brush across sandpaper and it will rough up the fur on a microscopic level and make it hold more paint, and thus flow better
It looks like the furs you had were muskrat and mink. I was once given an old muskrat coat that I used to make some smaller winter stuff like removable cuffs n stuff. It's a very interesting fur texture.
If you ever look at "long line brushes" like the ones for car painting details or some calligraphy ones they sometimes have a "curved" shape (like your hair one) which helps for steady lines, so that may be why you got the best lines with your hair!
I got a say, you're one of my comfort channel. I've been having a pretty bad day, and your video helped me relax quite a bit. Thank you for your amazing content!
In Pahari miniature or mughal art, we make brushes from squirrel hair and many of those are intendedly made from hair with a curl (like your human hair one) the curl helps with getting good lines and specific stroke techniques.
Very neat- make me want to make my own brushes now LOL For proper science though, you can't test multiple variables at once- you need to stick to one each time. Like using your experimental brushes with commercial paint first; that tells you how the brushes perform- and commercial brushes with your paint to see how the paint performs; THEN for fun, see how your two self-made things do together. You're right to repeat though since absolutely you'll improve over time and get the various 'feels' for things.
That made me slightly frustrated as well 😅 Not that I'm planning on making either brushes or paint myself, so it doesn't really matter, but I was genuinely curious about the result!
I find it really hard to get a consistent line with just about any type of commercial paintbrush, particularly if you don't want a diluted look because more wateryness helps produce a fuller spread. This is impressive. The opaqueness of your watercolor is impressive, too. Every time I watch your videos it reignites my passion for crafting. Thanks!
So in order to keep the pigment from drying you need to add a "non-drying oil" like flaxseed oil. Guache is water activated colour, so it dries quite quickly. If you are not using mixing oil that doesn't dry, you'll end up with all the paint on your mixing palette.
Most modern mixing mediums also contain some sort of oil, so the paint doesn't dry too quickly in the mixing phase, but it doesnt blend in with the water once you reactive the paint.
My uncle used to do a booth at a renfairtype festival in my hometown about paints. Obviously no lead white. They used a chalk. And for a bunch of colors they used blueberries/bilberries which was so much fun. Because it changes color depending on what you mix it with. Some colors were so hard because they used cheap materials because well, they weren't making money and didn't want to actively loose money. I remember green being hard as well as light blue because the blue berrycolor mixed with the white chalk made a light purple-ish color.
It helps if you apply a little wax in the brushes so the point stays slick and the hairs stay together. Also, different furs have different adhesion to water, so natural strand are more water bond and better for watercolor, while sinthetic or less porous fur are better for thick aplication that need less water, such as oil and gouache (if you want the opaqueness)
I used to paint a lot and be obsessed for brushes. In my experience the longest they are the harder is to control them, i always prefered tiny brushes whit veeery soft "hairs". If you want to make strokes you shoul cut tem to an angle, kind of outwords to the center (like a rose button), but keeping it medium/long. For painting a bigger space very short, uniform and straight.
Morgan, you’re killing me! I suggest using more water with the pigments and mixing it inside the shell. It will make the pigments show up much thicker and coat the brush
On the subject of neat paints! The traditional colour of swedish houses is the same kind of reds that you favor, and it came to be from a mining by-product. Falu red from the mine in Falu. The paint is made by making what is essentially a big batch of white sauce. Water, linseed oil, rye flour and pigment. I have used animal hide glue for repairs. As seen with Morgans adorable cat, our darling animal companions thinks that the glue smells like candy. I was handling hot liquid glue in a syringe, having my cat trying to steal the syringe was a stressful experience that I do not recomend. I know next to nothing about brushes or painting, but what I do recall is that we want maximum similiarity between the bristles in our brushes. Thickness, length, bounce etc. Which from what I saw was not the case for your animal pelt ones?
The maybe beaver brush looks to be a bit similar to hog hair brushes, the bristles are noticeably stiffer than say squirrel hair brushes, but i think the main issue you've got with those brushes is the hairs were all different lengths. Part of the reason the synthetic brushes were so much smoother is that all the long bristles are right next to each other, the taper is artificially perfect, whereas you can see the maybe-beaver brush, the long hairs are separated by shorter hairs so they keep splaying open when you put pressure on them.
I always enjoy these videos, whether I intend to be creative or just entertained. Being the human mom to generations of cats, it amuses me to see a cat "help out" when the human's attention is fixed on items that are not cat food, cat toys or of course THE cat.
Fly fishing has a tool that stacks hair to the same length and great techniques for wrapping the fibers and holding them together. Suppliers also have all kind of furs to cut hairs off of. It would be interesting for you to look into.
I love Clara so much! Please give her forehead kisses from me! ❤️ Ps. As an artist i can confirm that lines are harder to paint. The end result can seem so simple but the amount of work and experience that goes into finding the right tool, material, and technique to achieve to look of the line you want can be ridiculous. Painters who work in very fine lines forever impress me. I currently follow one painter on Insta whose technique is so satisfying to watch: its a long bristled brush with no taper and a rounded tip, so it can hold a lot of paint, and the artist draws it along the paper at a sharp angle so its mostly the side doing the work. It gives a nice consistent long line.
As someone who can get lost in the most unlikely rabbit holes, it's lovely to see Morgan get lost in the marvel of how paints are the same and different, and how and why they've changed.
I appreciate you doing all this experimenting, because I've wanted to know but I'm too lazy to do it myself. Plus my kids would not be able to resist trying to use my brush on everything in the house.
One day I’ve gotta try this with horse hair! I’ve seen quite a few people mix paint and they never seem to mention the suction. The honesty is refreshing!
This was such a fun and informative video. I love it when you do these little sciences to satisfy our curiosities. Also the Clara bloopers at the end are adorable
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one reason that the paint may not apply is that you have to have the paper slanted at an angle to write/paint like they did in medevial times, so put it on a slanted painting desk or writing desk then try it.
I heard that modern brush bristles are coated in starch, corn starch in particular i believe, to make them stick together… try that!
Your local natural history museum or (kill-)shelter might get regular supplies of roadkill for further experiments.
My local natural history museum employees taxidermists to add recently deceased animals in the style of the existing research collection and do maintenance on the collection but they get much more than they use (measuring all, preparating only the most intact specimens)
I wonder if the beaver fur struggled because beaver fur is kind of hydrophobic? Since they're around water all the time I'd imagine they have kind of a different fur type than say a squirrel.
And since the author had such strong feelings about which fur was best, we know that the type of fur matters. So cool to watch and think about.
Oh 100%, I agree that totally makes sense. It was a lot of fun to play around with what I had on hand, although I'd love to know how the miniver brush would compare.
I would think that would mostly be due to the oils the beaver's skin exudes, so from a processed pelt, that wouldn't be a factor- but I could be wrong. Certainly the size, flexibility and surface texture would all play some role. I know Japanese brushes are made with multiple types of hair- to take advantage of different factors.
I believe it is a tradition in Japan that a babies first hair cut they use the hair to make a writing brush that you take through life with you
@@spoplehughesthat sort of cool idea! I dont know how well it would last but yeah
Morgan never hesisting to cut her hair is honestly inspiring.
Morgan is so lucky with such thick hair, I have serious envy. That little bit she cut is about the sum total of my whole hair as it’s decided to fall out again. Sucks. Her confidence with her hair is a lovely thing to see.
@@dees3179 Have you seen a specialist to know why your hair is falling out?
I bet Morgan was the kid who cut her own bangs when she was three.
@@ilonaniinemae4735 endless saga. In short, I live in England, so access to specialists is difficult, Im broke so can't do it privately. , my body hates me, Ive previously had delightful things like chemo, and at least three of the medications I'm currently on list alopecia as a 'rare' side effect.. .... the medical response is basically well, would you rather be dead?
Problem is, mental health department doesn't see it that way.
So in summary, it pretty clear why, and unfortunately no. But thanks for your interest! I just want Morgan's pretty hair😭
"I am going to do the red first, because I am obnoxious" 😂
You're not obnoxious. You are consistent and on brand 😊
Modern-day natural material brushes are often made from Sable. Utility brushes are sometimes made from horsehair. I’d suggest using cat hair, but…
😂
Sable is the best for water based paints like gouach because of their water retention.
I legit had no idea what kind of animal a sable was, and I'm a flippin artist! 😂 Granted my media of choice are photography and jewelry, so not too much painting going on, aside from coating metal in flux before soldering it, and those are just the cheapest of cheap animal hair brushes, usually horsehair, because if you use synthetic ones and have to reapply flux once the metal is hot the synthetic fiber will melt. Been there, done that... 😬
Genuine Sable brushes are supposed to be very good for watercolors with a good water absorption level and springy responsiveness. (I used to adore art supply catalogs and reading the descriptions of all of the different products, from brushes to kilns and everything in between) I knew sable was the name of a color and thought the brushes were called that because of the bristle color...I was half right. 😂 I think they use ermine these days because they are easy to farm and similar to sables. I've seen everything from hog hair (large wash brushes), to rabbit, horsehair, squirrel, weasel/stoat/ermine, to even a few exotics. Iirc, I think fine detail brushes are made from squirrel or a blend of squirrel and hare. Don't quote me on that though I could be totally wrong. 😅
I mean, I did just do the seasonal Furminator groom on 3 of 4 cats, so I've got handfuls of the stuff...😂 Our female cat has lots of rough guard hairs while my oldest has a dense plush coat like thick rabbit fur, and my youngest has a very smooth, sleek, thin coat (he's the one that doesn't need Furminating). I could make a brush apiece and compare them...hmm...
Badger is another one, often used in cosmetic brushes.
And this is why speciality brushes are so darn expensive! To lay all the hairs to avoid the ‘seperating’ and ‘twisting’ you showed is quite the skill
Thanks for trying it out 🎨🖌️
I love Clara the Cat! She just wants to help you ❤️
She is gloriously helpful, for my mood if nothing else ❤️
Cats out here like, "Look Mom! I'm helping!" 😂 My boys are always up in any new business.
Hi Morgan, you might want to prepare your brushes first by removing any natural oils. Soap usually helps. That’s why your hair one works nice because you remove the oils when washing your hair.
Definitely worth a shot!
There are zero oils left on the fur hairs. The tanning process strips all that away.
@@MorganDonner❤
Gouache cracking when dried is common. Typically you will add water to the gouache and let it sit for a bit so the paint can moisten more before you load the brush.
Oh so it really did get better as the experiment went along! Neat! 😄
Same with water colour, it's just when it dries it shrinks a bit so it cracks, think of it like mud turning back into sand in the desert :)
My most brush obsessed friend insists (Read "insist" as "lengthy sermons while standing on a fruit crate".) that the best brushes are made from the hair at the end of the tail of an animal. (This guy never passed a roadkilled critter whose tail he did not clip - this includes skunk. Yes. skunk.) He says that these brushes hold more ink and trail more smoothly. As his work is superior, it could be that the quality of his brushes is a factor. (He also says that using hair that has been cut on the end that is used against the working surface should be avoided as it does not draw ink properly.) But, one should allow that he is obsessed.
Your friend sounds absolutely fascinating!! Thank you for sharing their opinion! 😊
Also, a farmer friend of mine told me once that if you can kill a skunk WITHOUT it shooting musk first, something in the musk mixture is actually extremely valuable to perfume-makers. The stuff helps perfumes stick better to skin... without the awful odor they use. 😂
My art teacher was very particular about which brush to use for which paint and the kind of result needed. I admit the high price brushes did make a difference and they were made of some kind of fur or hair.
Course Hog hair for oils, squirrel and sable for watercolours. Different shapes and lengths produce different brush strokes, not just thicker-thinner lines. Egg tempera - egg yolk plus pigment - needs very fine brushes to lay down lines of paint in one direction and then 90° crosswise in the next layer, after the first one dries. That has to be repeated until the desired result is obtained. That was used before oil paints. Looking at the continued brilliance of many 800 year old paintings, it's worth the time and effort on major works.
That’s a brave dude! I drove over a freshly deceased skunk on the way to work one morning with my heater vents going and three days later and half a bottle of Febreeze later, I managed to get in my car without gagging.
I remember in first and second grade, my friends and I used to make little paint brushes with pine needles, and we would find little brown and red and white soft rocks, crush them, and make paint with a bit of water! Sometimes, if the rocks were really soft, you could just use them like a crayon. There was a lot of natural slate around our school, so we used little slate slabs as canvases 🤣 We could draw on each other with our rock paints, too! I had forgotten about that memory!
That’s very cool, either a teacher inspired you by telling you about cave paintings or you discovered ancient art supplies by yourselves xx
I was the ringleader of rock "paint" at my school playground, until we got in trouble because crushing rocks was "dangerous." I still remember it fondly though! 😅
Didn't know that "making a medieval paintbrush out of human hair" is what I'd be watching tonight, but I'm so here for it!!
Morgan trying to make watercolor paint and paintbrush’s, and then getting very confused/concerned about how they’re working is a mood. Also, for keeping the hairs from falling out, you probably want to blunt the end of the brush inside the ferrule and add a thin layer of glue on them before putting the brush together. Also watercolors need a LOT of water when activating them and a very saturated brush to hold the colors
"Wild rocks"
I understand precisely what you mean, but it made me grin all the same😄
The very best part of this video is that you don’t spend any time at the beginning justifying why you want to do this. Of course you want to. And of course we want to watch. Fantastic and informative as always.
Ruth Goodman did a very nice demonstration of brush construction in Secrets of the Castle if I remember correctly. There’s an entire episode on castle decor, pigments, dyes, brushes, tiles, soft furnishings, etc. If anyone wants that additional information.
Hurray for the exploratory fun of art, crafting and science used in the making of these brushes. 😊
The exploring part is absolutely my favorite part of art and craft!
Just from experience of using commercial gouache and watercolor tube paints, I think the paint cracking as it dries is not too uncommon, and has more to do with the water content and the speed it dries, as well as the pigments themselves. Different mineral pigments do often behave differently as you paint with them, also.
Egg white is a traditional mixer for the ground pigments and is what is used when painting icons, mainly because they are painted as were painted a 1000+ years ago and egg white was the binder for the crushed minerals in those times. Fascinating to see them paint an icon from beginning to end, and they begin by actually crushing the minerals themselves then mixing them with the egg white and applying them.
Isn't life with cats interesting? We got two new kittens last week. It's like having toddlers that climb. Thank you for telling us your kitty's name! Is she named for anyone like your doggos?
Slightly for Clara Oswald of Doctor Who, but mostly we just liked it 😁
Toddlers definitely climb lol. Or, at least mine surely did!
Razor toed drunk ninjas. That's kittens, and good luck with the new masters! They'll learn their roles soon enough. 😂 I have a taskmaster, an emotional and anxiety support, a migraine alert and pur therapist, and our one female, the self appointed clown and mood booster. Ever seen a cat wear your shoes? She slid one front leg into each slide and laid down with her legs in my shoes and just stayed there and looked at me. I don't care how grumpy or pain cranky you are, that's delightful and has to bring a smile to your face.
When my cat was a kitten, she'd find a shopping bag or a bra, slip the handle/strap around her neck and race around the house with the bag/bra streaming out along her back like a cape, making turbocat mrrrrrrr's. Most hilarious thing ever.
Making your own brushes out of your hair (or someone else's hair) is still the recommended way to get really REALLY fine lines, so I'm not surprised your hair performed well! Wild that it went well even though your hair is curly; I would have assumed that would pose more problems, but it looked like you just kind of got used to the "handed-ness" (curl direction?) of your brush!
I swear, this is the best day ever. ShannonMakes, Maren Sievert, Morgan Donner, AND a scheduled Rachel Maksy video ALL IN ONE DAY!??? I am THRILLED!!!
AND Charlie from The Stitchery's latest shenanigans!! ❤❤❤ I'm enjoying a binge-fest while I clean up my sewing area and complete a few quick projects. 😊
@@thebookwyrmslair6757 Ooh, sounds like a new channel to check out! Thanks for the suggestion!
Even better because the AFL ( Australian Rules Football) Grand Final is on today - which I have zero interest in, unlike my H! Now I have an awesome bunch of new vids to watch & help me tune out the footy, whilst doing some sewing today
Are we the same person? I will be watching all of these with a nice cup of tea and some Bahlsen chocolate mint biscuits
Also, Kaz Rowe!
The scratchieness of the beaver hair brush reminds me of dry brushing with a hogs hair paintbrush. Hogs hair brushes are very usefull. So maybe that brush just needs to be used for different uses. 😊 Really enjoyed your adventures in brush and paint making.
I always appreciate you wide interest in history and how you show how to make pewter, a bed, shoes and now paint! Very fun!
my wierd mind : *pictures wild lapis lazuli frolicking in a meadow*
i've always been obsessed with both lapis lazuli and ultramarine blue, now i know why
Same!! Happy bouncy blue rocks 😂 like the trolls in frozen 😊
I recently went to Provence in France and visited the ochre valley in Roussillon and it was remarkable and so vivid! If anyone visits that part of France I’d really recommend it for seeing ochre pigments in the wild!
There's an area outside of Calhan, CO, called the Paint Mines. Lots of local tribes did, and still do, use the area to get LOTS of different color pigment rocks with which to decorate their goods. It was an incredible visit!
@@thebookwyrmslair6757wow that sounds amazing! I’ll have to look it up!
@@thebookwyrmslair6757 Wow! Both of these sound like amazing places to see!! 🤯🤩🎨
@becauseimafan I'd lived in Colorado Springs - the city closest to Calhan - for almost a decade before I heard of it! It's a hidden jewel.
I love the fact you also have a helpful cat while crafting.
using more honey would probably have stopped the cracking, but it would have kept your paints from drying too. oxides (in my experience) tend to be drier pigments and my professional paints crack a bit too.
omg this is bringing me back to fourth grade, when my friends and i ripped the eraser out of a pencil, cut off a bit of my hair, pressed it into the back of the pencil with the now-empty metal eraser shell, and dubbed it the Hair Brush. then we went around weirding everybody else out with it lmao
I use the modern brushes, and it's still a good idea to clean them then reshape them using brush soap and conditioner. Even watching modern brushes get made they still add a conditioning kind of agent to help it maintain shape. I wish I could remember what it was!
If you're into gardening, you can also grow and harvest a ton of period pigments! madder for read, woad for blue (same pigment as indigo but from a different plant), brazilwood, and a ton of others. some flowers even give you pigments too, I think coreopsis, marigold, and others too!
You could make fabric dyes with those botanicals too. Which might be more useful for the delightful Morgan's needs. But wouldn't that be fun? A paint and dye garden.
@@peglamphier4745 I have plans to do exactly that! I mostly spin and dye yarn/hand knitted things, and I've been wanting to expand my garden as such for years now lmao. Just waiting til I have more space :)
This brought back so many memmories from childhood, my dad is a profesional artist and we did this a few times in the summer growing up.
I cut my own hair typically once or twice a year and often tie a chunk before cutting it and have definitely thought how my hair feels like it would make for a good make-up brush, so this is a great video to watch!
I've never committed to crafting with my hair so it's all just ended up in the garden as mulchy compost. :)
I just love your personality, my goodness! Obviously I'm very interested in your historic DIY and sewing content, but what makes me come back to EVERY video is your personality. I can't even describe it, but my neuro-divergent brain feels the wholesomeness and gets soothed by your attitude and calming voice. If I'm struggling with over-stimulation or other issues that come up for me, your videos help me to quiet my brain down (no idea if that makes sense to anyone but me :D ) Just genuinely happy and grateful that you are sharing your skills, interests and personality with us.
Depending on what effect's you're looking to create, I've seen brushes made from the tips of feathers for fine work. Human hair works well, if you've got a long haired cat or dog that would be fine too. I'd imagine that more stiff hair would be good for stencil brushes...
I attended the Yidaki: Didgeridoo and the Sound of Australia exhibition in 2016. One of the artists painting in traditional style used reeds and sticks, sometimes gently chewed on as brushes, For fine lines a few hairs from the dogs tail tied to a stick with a bit of human hair were used.
THANK YOU for switching to voiceover after the initial few glass scratch sounds! It's one of the noises that makes my skin crawl the most. 🤪
This is so cool to see done!! The ratio of bristle length to stiffness has a lot of effect on how it handles paint at varying viscosities, I can confirm, being trained for working in watercolor, acrylic and oil paints. The thicker your paint, or more gummy/sticky, the stiffer your bristles may need to be. Longer bristles are better for thin lines, once the stiffness is accounted for, and I do think mink and beaver may be a little hydrophobic still, which might also factor in. Squirrel fur might be available through any game processor in your neck of the woods... Oil paints are to this day made more or less the same way you made yours- with oil, maybe a little gum arabic, and fancy dirt!
I really recommend the book Color by Victoria Finlay, for more about the history of different pigments! I had to read it in school and it was a really fun read!
I second that; I’m a fiber and yarn dyer, and I find the book very valuable.
Really interesting! Gives much more appreciation for their painting skills when using such brushes! The “scratchy” effect would be great if you’re painting animals and want to paint fur texture. Also I think gouache cracking when it dries is quite normal. The only gouche I’ve used is white (to add some opaque highlights on a watercolour). I squeezed some from the tube into a little tin, so it was more portable, and that cracked too when it dried. Oh, and I’m glad your hair sacrifice turned out to be a good brush, despite the curl.
I think the curl might work to her advantage in certain situations? Kind of like a stub nib fountain pen - which helps me write better calligraphy. 🤷🏻♀️
If you’ve not played it I can’t suggest highly enough the game Pentiment, I really think you’d get a kick out of it. It’s all set in medieval Germany about a journeyman artist, and designed to look like an old illuminated manuscript. Lost of lovely details about monastic art and peasant life. Also it’s a murder mystery so it’s fun too. x
Also 10/10 cat naming, from the mum of another Clara. 😊
Ooh cool! I'm adding it to my list to check it out, thank you!
Oh, thanks. I will check that out for sure!
A local (to me in Vancouver BC) artist, Caitlin Ffrench, does a lot of work with natural pigments from plants, dirt, rocks, etc. She'll collect soil samples from different locations and turn them into paints or dyes. Really interesting to see the range of colours she creates just from what most of us would see as brown dirt.
Do you know 'Atomic Shrimp'? Sounds like you might enjoy his channel. He recently did similar experiments with clay. Made a number of different little objects, testing different 'foraged' clays and natural addititives, just to see what would happen.
As a hobby watercolorist, I loved this! I've seen videos of folks making Kolinsky sable brishes and just seeing those and this, you understand why good quality brushes are so expensive.
Very nice video about an interesting topic. I am a Sumi E artist by trade and have done tons of research on the brushes and how they are made and used. In my trade the floppiness of the brush is actually respected and viewed as the brushes contribution in the composition of the piece. I study art as a hobby and was fascinated with how many medieval paintings have lasted being made out of tempra paint. These days we view it as a subpar medium just meant for elementary school projects, but it apparently has quite the longevity.
I knew the squirrel hair bit about making excellent brushes, high end car companies use them for pin striping
And the brushes used to pick up gilding sheets! Specifically their tail fur!
21:26 funnily enough, the only asmr that I love listening to is paint-making asmr where they make paints and then using those paints they make some sort of art.
I think you would really like Michel Pastoureau's books about color. He's a historian and specialise in symbolic systems like heraldry, sigillography and my personal favorite: colors. He published several books, each one about one specific color (blue, black, green, red, yellow and white) and talks about the history of the pigments in painting and fabric dyes in europe. It's very well writen and fascinating!
Flashbacks to the hair cutting video
Great video as usual!
On the opacity: I have been to a calligraphy + gouache pain miniature workshop and it was absolutely normal to use layers to build up opacity, letting it dry in between layers :)
Wow, porphyry is super swank and hard to come by if you're not in Italy, though part of the reason it was expensive was that due to it being extremely hard and hard to work with, so a random smallish slab that you looted from a Roman villa can just sit there looking fancy. But even in Italy in the 1400s having porphyry in your floors was a sign that you had a lot of money to spend on decoration.
eta: Oh, Cennini's from Florence, that tracks
Clara ❤
I’ll post my Rose Tyler on pet central.
Love the paint and brush experimentation!! ❤
I believe it was ancient scholars in Japan who used the end of their long braided hair (or queue) for calligraphy.
Also red barn paint was made from rust and casein, a milk by product.
Modern gauche takes a lot to master so I think you did a relatively good job. Also, I need to cut 4-6inches off my hair and I was thinking about things I could do with it!
Those wild rocks are so hard to tame. You can leave food out for them. Sit and try to have a picnic with them. You can even pet them. Never do they get domesticated though 😕
😂😂 OMG, I just watched a Strange Aeons video about Tumblr Clown Husbandry so I was already in a headspace of "tumblr takes a joke and runs with it" - making up histories of different species of clown, and guides for taking care of your pet clown, people asking for advice on feeding and _proper enrichment!_ 😂 - So your comment about rocks IS ABSOLUTELY SENDING ME!!!!!!
Thank you so much! You're awesome and I hope you know it, internet person! 😁
The complete lack of hesitation to take scissors to your hair still leaves me shooketh. But CLARA! OMG, she is so precious.
i literally thought "oh no, put an apron on you risk puttin some paint on your dress" *proceeds to mix red paint with a red dress on*
Neat. A decidedly different book I found suggested large twigs and twine or fiber for various materials for a brush. Then again, they also suggested oak gall and acorn shells(?) for ink/pigment (they, um.. they apparently have a 'scent' to them as they boil, suggest ventilation, and seem to take a forever to extract... XD ). Not unreasonable, considering, but try at your own peril, I guess... :v
The mystery/possible-beaver fur brush, after being cut, seems rad. Nice scratchy, scrawbly marks. Very expressive. :3
My mother tried the gall ink thing, can confirm it works great! Can also confirm that the boiling process stinks like something up and died😅 I really love that ink though, because compared to inks I bought it's much lighter, it's the only one that won't go all the way through modern paper!
I would try conditioning the bristles! They make brush cleaner/conditioner that works really well for shaping and sticking vristles together!
I just know this comment section is going to be GOLD!!! THANK YOU, Morgan, for coming up with such a creative idea and making such an awesome community!
Fun facts about pigments! The ground up lapis lazuli you mentioned was extremely expensive, so artists would save it for the most "special" areas of the painting, such as the garments of the highest ranking nobility. That's where we get the term "royal blue" from. That's also why the Virgin Mary was frequently depicted in blue robes, because she would automatically be the highest ranking person in most paintings.
Another source of red pigment was the crushed up dried bodies of certain insects. There were Polish and Turkish/Armenian variants that (I think) could be harvested once a year and required a ton of pigment to get a good color. One of the lesser-known (today) resources that Spain exploited from the Americas was a different insect variety that could be harvested several times a year and had a more concentrated pigment, thus greatly reducing the price of red paints and dyes. The Old World version was called carmine, and the New World version called cochineal, but they're both the same chemical. It was also used to make pinks and purples. Cochineal is still used today in some cosmetics and food colorings, but it has to be used with care and labeled because some people have severe allergic reactions to it.
Conch mollusks produce a purple pigment. This was also extremely expensive to extract, which is why purple is also associated with royalty. (Caveat: I know conch pigment was used in dye, but I don't actually know if it was used in paint.)
I kind of want a video of Bernadette painting with your homemade medieval creations now :-D
This was so interesting & fascinating to watch. Every time I cut mine or (my kids) hair, I have often wondered about making paint brushes. You answered all my questions. ❤
Your 2nd fur was mink - the first looked like rabbit -😊
I love your videos. I feel like I'm going to a class at a SCA event without the Florida heat to drown out my thoughts and learning. So cool.
furrier here, the first fur you showed is Nutria and the second one is mink.
Mink is still used to make brushes.
Getting really strong quirky art teacher vibes, and I'm living for it
I LIVE for Clara the Naked Menace!
_New catchphrase!!_ I love this! I would get a mug with something about this on it 😂
First fur looks like Musquash and the other one is Mink.
I have spent the summer in Ketchikan, giving wildlife and totem park tours to cruise ship guests. One piece of information that we share is that the historic paints on totem poles started with salmon eggs chewed into an oily paste, then mixed with various minerals that were available at the time. Black was charcoal, iron oxide for red, copper oxide for the blue, sulfur for yellow, and finely ground seashells for white. Nowadays they just pick paint from the hardware store.
Yaaay!!! I love being here first thing ❤❤❤ this channel brings me so much joy.
Squirrel hair is my favorite watercolor brush. You can load it with a lot of pigment and it can also make beautiful sharp controlled lines. It is the brush I take with me into the field.
I think part of the problem you were having is that you weren’t using enough water in your paint, the juicier it is the better it will flow. And also with the beaver brushes they might perform better as they are worn in and get roughed up, I believe you can also gently run the dry brush across sandpaper and it will rough up the fur on a microscopic level and make it hold more paint, and thus flow better
I love how you investigate your creative projects
It looks like the furs you had were muskrat and mink. I was once given an old muskrat coat that I used to make some smaller winter stuff like removable cuffs n stuff. It's a very interesting fur texture.
I'm so thankful for modern acrylic paints because I'm way too impatient an artist for historical paints
The moment where you squished the glue with your finger was like the good version of ASMR
If you ever look at "long line brushes" like the ones for car painting details or some calligraphy ones they sometimes have a "curved" shape (like your hair one) which helps for steady lines, so that may be why you got the best lines with your hair!
I got a say, you're one of my comfort channel. I've been having a pretty bad day, and your video helped me relax quite a bit. Thank you for your amazing content!
In Pahari miniature or mughal art, we make brushes from squirrel hair and many of those are intendedly made from hair with a curl (like your human hair one) the curl helps with getting good lines and specific stroke techniques.
Very neat- make me want to make my own brushes now LOL
For proper science though, you can't test multiple variables at once- you need to stick to one each time. Like using your experimental brushes with commercial paint first; that tells you how the brushes perform- and commercial brushes with your paint to see how the paint performs; THEN for fun, see how your two self-made things do together. You're right to repeat though since absolutely you'll improve over time and get the various 'feels' for things.
That made me slightly frustrated as well 😅
Not that I'm planning on making either brushes or paint myself, so it doesn't really matter, but I was genuinely curious about the result!
I find it really hard to get a consistent line with just about any type of commercial paintbrush, particularly if you don't want a diluted look because more wateryness helps produce a fuller spread. This is impressive. The opaqueness of your watercolor is impressive, too. Every time I watch your videos it reignites my passion for crafting. Thanks!
So in order to keep the pigment from drying you need to add a "non-drying oil" like flaxseed oil. Guache is water activated colour, so it dries quite quickly. If you are not using mixing oil that doesn't dry, you'll end up with all the paint on your mixing palette.
Most modern mixing mediums also contain some sort of oil, so the paint doesn't dry too quickly in the mixing phase, but it doesnt blend in with the water once you reactive the paint.
This is just the kind of insanity Bernadette and Morgan are loved for!
My uncle used to do a booth at a renfairtype festival in my hometown about paints. Obviously no lead white. They used a chalk. And for a bunch of colors they used blueberries/bilberries which was so much fun. Because it changes color depending on what you mix it with. Some colors were so hard because they used cheap materials because well, they weren't making money and didn't want to actively loose money. I remember green being hard as well as light blue because the blue berrycolor mixed with the white chalk made a light purple-ish color.
It helps if you apply a little wax in the brushes so the point stays slick and the hairs stay together. Also, different furs have different adhesion to water, so natural strand are more water bond and better for watercolor, while sinthetic or less porous fur are better for thick aplication that need less water, such as oil and gouache (if you want the opaqueness)
I used to paint a lot and be obsessed for brushes. In my experience the longest they are the harder is to control them, i always prefered tiny brushes whit veeery soft "hairs". If you want to make strokes you shoul cut tem to an angle, kind of outwords to the center (like a rose button), but keeping it medium/long. For painting a bigger space very short, uniform and straight.
I have a handful of human hair brushes my Dad made for me from my own hair, they're interesting to use.
You should look up how kolinsky sabel brushes are made too. Very fascinating. I watched a 45 min documentary on it years ago
Morgan, you’re killing me! I suggest using more water with the pigments and mixing it inside the shell. It will make the pigments show up much thicker and coat the brush
On the subject of neat paints! The traditional colour of swedish houses is the same kind of reds that you favor, and it came to be from a mining by-product. Falu red from the mine in Falu. The paint is made by making what is essentially a big batch of white sauce. Water, linseed oil, rye flour and pigment.
I have used animal hide glue for repairs. As seen with Morgans adorable cat, our darling animal companions thinks that the glue smells like candy. I was handling hot liquid glue in a syringe, having my cat trying to steal the syringe was a stressful experience that I do not recomend. I know next to nothing about brushes or painting, but what I do recall is that we want maximum similiarity between the bristles in our brushes. Thickness, length, bounce etc. Which from what I saw was not the case for your animal pelt ones?
The maybe beaver brush looks to be a bit similar to hog hair brushes, the bristles are noticeably stiffer than say squirrel hair brushes, but i think the main issue you've got with those brushes is the hairs were all different lengths.
Part of the reason the synthetic brushes were so much smoother is that all the long bristles are right next to each other, the taper is artificially perfect, whereas you can see the maybe-beaver brush, the long hairs are separated by shorter hairs so they keep splaying open when you put pressure on them.
I always enjoy these videos, whether I intend to be creative or just entertained. Being the human mom to generations of cats, it amuses me to see a cat "help out" when the human's attention is fixed on items that are not cat food, cat toys or of course THE cat.
Fun video! A word of advise though : when working with powdered pigments, you should wear a mask because it can get into your lungs
Fly fishing has a tool that stacks hair to the same length and great techniques for wrapping the fibers and holding them together. Suppliers also have all kind of furs to cut hairs off of. It would be interesting for you to look into.
I love Clara so much! Please give her forehead kisses from me! ❤️
Ps. As an artist i can confirm that lines are harder to paint. The end result can seem so simple but the amount of work and experience that goes into finding the right tool, material, and technique to achieve to look of the line you want can be ridiculous. Painters who work in very fine lines forever impress me. I currently follow one painter on Insta whose technique is so satisfying to watch: its a long bristled brush with no taper and a rounded tip, so it can hold a lot of paint, and the artist draws it along the paper at a sharp angle so its mostly the side doing the work. It gives a nice consistent long line.
As someone who can get lost in the most unlikely rabbit holes, it's lovely to see Morgan get lost in the marvel of how paints are the same and different, and how and why they've changed.
I appreciate you doing all this experimenting, because I've wanted to know but I'm too lazy to do it myself. Plus my kids would not be able to resist trying to use my brush on everything in the house.
One day I’ve gotta try this with horse hair!
I’ve seen quite a few people mix paint and they never seem to mention the suction. The honesty is refreshing!
This was such a fun and informative video. I love it when you do these little sciences to satisfy our curiosities. Also the Clara bloopers at the end are adorable
The aquamarine pigment and paint is so vibrant! They are so pretty and hurt to look at!
I just bought some tiny curved sable brushes that allow some really cool calligraphic strokes.
I've always wanted to make the shell paints, but I just don't paint often enough. They just look SO COOL, though!!!