The search for the perfect gift for your favorite creatives begins! Don’t worry, Princeton Brush has your back. You don’t have to be an expert on art supplies to find a gift they’ll love. Check out our favorite brushes and lines for various mediums below.

Gifts for the Mixed Media Artist

If your creative friend or loved one likes to work with mixed media, or you’re not sure which medium they use, getting them a brush that works for multiple mediums is a great start! Brush sets are a great way to gift a little bit of everything. Our brush sets come with the standard shapes that are useful for painting with mixed media. These are our go-to brush series:

• Velvetouch: You can’t go wrong with Velvetouch! These are a staple in any artists brush collection. They are our best quality brush for oil, acrylic, watercolor, and gouache. Each brush is made with different synthetic filament blends depending on the brush shape, which creates versatility for either soft blending or crisp edges.
• Select: Our Select line is made up of 29 distinct shapes and 108 individual brushes created for oil, acrylic, and watercolor artists. There’s a brush shape perfect for any technique and media.
• Mini-detailer: Our Mini-Detailer brushes are perfect for fine detail painting with acrylic, watercolor, and gouache. Made with quality synthetic sable, these brushes have a perfect point and crisp edge for accurate painting.

Princeton Brush Ideas for the Watercolor Enthusiast

All watercolor artists need paint brushes that can provide oceans of color while they create. A staple Princeton brush shape for a watercolor artist would be a round 8 or 10. You can use that shape and size for almost anything. If you’re not sure which brush series to go with, these are some of our favorites:

• Travel brushes: Give the watercolor artist in your life the ability to paint on the go! Our Neptune and Aqua Elite Travel Brush Sets are made with the best synthetic hairs for durability and performance. Our travel brushes provide an even release of color for ease of painting.
• Neptune: Neptune is our softest and thirstiest synthetic brush, delivering oceans of color while you paint. These brushes are a crowd favorite among watercolor artists.
• Heritage: Our Heritage series was Princeton’s first synthetic sable offered to artists. A perfect blend of golden taklon in multiple diameters enhances the color holding capacity and natural snap of the brush. The wash brush distributes paint beautifully and the round brushes are perfect for thick and thin lines.

For the Acrylic Art Lover

For acrylic artists it’s important that their brushes can hold their shape and move color easily. If you can only choose one brush, a filbert brush is the most versatile brush for painting with acrylic. It’s a flat brush with the tip rounded into an oval. Here are a few of our recommended brush series for acrylic painters:

• Catalyst brushes + tools: Our Catalyst Polytip Bristle brushes are stiff and extremely responsive. The tip of each individual hair has been split to replicate the natural flags on the finest natural bristle. This allows them to hold a higher volume of paint with a smooth application. Our Catalyst Art Tools are a selection of wedges, blades, and contours crafted from flexible silicone to allow artists a new form of expression.
• Velvetouch: Princeton Velvetouch Brushes aren’t just for watercolor! They’re also a great brush for acrylics. These brushes work beautifully for fine detailed work and smooth finishes.
• Summit: Princeton’s white synthetic-hair brushes are the industry standard for fluid acrylic and ink. Our Summit brushes provide a consistent release of color with greater control than most brushes. Summit’s blend of hair is stiffer than a traditional watercolor brush, but not as stiff as Catalyst which makes it just right for fluid applications.

For the Oil Painter in Your Life:

A great paint brush is the most important tool for an oil painter. A high-quality oil painting brush latches on to the oil to provide an even flow of color to the canvas. For oil painters, they need more than just one single brush. Princeton Brush sets are the way to go! No idea where to start when it comes to paint brushes for oil paint? Here are some artist favorites:

• Aspen: Princeton’s Aspen brushes combine several important benefits to artists: the brush retains its shape for control and placement of color, and paint releases and glides evenly off the synthetic hairs. These brushes can be used with all acrylic and oil paints including water-soluble oils. Aspen brushes are perfect for outdoor painting!
• Catalyst 6400 series: Catalyst Polytip Bristle brushes are another Princeton breakthrough that advances the science of synthetic hair. These brushes have the best color holding capacity and shape retention for oil painting.
• Imperial: These synthetic mongoose brushes are comparable to the original quality of natural mongoose; however, they are more durable and affordable. Synthetic mongoose performs beautifully in all viscosities of oil paint. This line of brushes has precise shapes and sizes made for fine detail.

This holiday season, give the gift of Princeton Brush! The artists in your life will thank you.

Tags:Acrylic Brushes, gift guide, holiday gift ideas, Oil Paint Brushes, Princeton brush, Princeton Brushes, Watercolor Brushes