International Artist – August-September 2019

W

e all have our favorite brushes—

ones for big, calligraphic marks,

ones for tiny  ne details, others for

precise, geometric shapes, some for

big even washes—the list goes on and

on. When I think which brushes I’d

consider my favorites probably the

last one to come to mind would be

the hake brush, but it probably does

more work than all my other brushes

combined.

It never gets dipped in water or

paint, but is used dry directly on the

painting.  is is probably not the

intended use for such a brush, but

I  nd it works like a magic wand for

smoothing out washes, getting

rid of blooms, adjusting

the intensity of washes and generally

keeping things under control. Let’s

look in more detail at what this brush

is and the tricks it can perform.

(^110) http://www.InternationalArtist.com
The Humble Hake
John Lovett discusses techniques for using a hake paintbrush
John Lovett

WATERCOLOURAUSTRALIA

WORKSHOP

WHAT IS A HAKE BRUSH?

The traditional Hake brush has a raw wooden handle and fine,

soft goat hair bristles bound and glued into a split in the wood.

They tend to shed hairs initially, but a couple of gentle washes

usually gets rid of most of the loose hairs. There are pig bristle

brushes that look similar to the goat hair hake, but they will not

perform near as well.

The brushes are designed for producing large, even washes,

but, for me, their real value comes from using them dry.

I always have a piece of old towel to constantly dry the hake

bristles, as once wet they will no longer soak up moisture and

smooth out problems.