Anyone who’s ever watched those painting instruction shows on daytime public television knows that artists use several sizes of brushes to achieve various results. But artist brushes come in a variety of shapes and styles as well. Here are just a few of the various types of artist brushes available:

Fitch Brushes

Fitch brushes are one of the rarer types of artist brushes. Typically made from hogs’ hair instead of the traditional horsehair (or, more specifically, horsetail hair) or sable, these are generally used for oil painting – specifically where large swaths of paint are needed. These types of artist brushes were originally designed for stage design.

Foam Brushes

Also called sponge brushes, these artist brushes are exactly what their name implies: Rather than horsehair or another kind of animal hair, these use no hair at all. Instead, the “brush” is soft, porous foam. These artist brushes are often used with acrylic paint, either to wet paper in preparation for it, or to apply the paint itself. They commonly come with either plastic or wood brush handles. They also come in high-density varieties.

Acid Brushes

Acid Brushes aren’t for applying paint. These horsehair-bristled artist brushes are used to apply acid, glue, paste or other media. They commonly have long, tin handles.

Bamboo Writing Brushes

Writing brushes are traditionally used for calligraphy. These goat-hair artist brushes have been made by artisans in China for centuries, beginning in the first few years of the 15th Century, in the Houdian village, during the reign of Emperor Yongle. The best writing brushes are known for their detailed craftsmanship, but it’s easy to find functional brushes that are less ornate (and therefore less expensive).

Stencil Brushes

These artist brushes have short, stiff, firmly packed brushes. The bristles’ stiffness prevents the brush from depositing paint underneath a stencil – but when using these, it’s still best to load just a small amount of paint onto the bristles. Otherwise, you’ll risk paint running underneath the stencil. Stencil brushes are commonly used by those who don’t consider themselves artists, and are easy to control because of their limited scope.

Hake Brushes

Hake brushes are great for applying paint (or any other media) over large areas. Flat and wide with soft hair, these are also great for applying wash or gluing. Their size and shape gives the artist excellent brush control. These are made with goat hair and other natural bristles, but also come with polyester filament.

Chip Brushes