The best acrylic paintbrushes are essential if you're planning on painting with acrylics. This kind of paint can be hard on brushes as its texture means it's -tricky to clean off once dry, and you want your brushes to last. This means that although you can buy brushes with natural hair, the best paintbrushes for acrylic paint are normally synthetic because they're tougher.
Below, we've selected the best acrylic paintbrushes based on our own reviews carried out by artists. We've tested each of these brush options with a range of acrylic paints and different approaches to evaluate their performance, durability and versatility. We've picked out options that I think are suitable for artists with different levels and styles – see the questions section at the bottom if you need pointers on how to choose.
You'll want to also ensure that you have the best acrylic paints (student or professional). If you haven't decided which medium to work with, see our guide to the differences between acrylics vs oils, and check out the best watercolour pencils, too. Finally, you might want to consider one of the best easels to support your work.
The best acrylic paintbrushes available now
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Best for texture
Quality: professional
Firmness: very firm
Top of our list of the best paintbrushes for acrylic paint, Princeton’s Aspen brushes are an excellent synthetic substitute for hog hair, and they suit acrylics as well as oils. I find that as they're designed to emulate hog hair, they're very springy and much firmer than other synthetics while not as scratchy as hog, and I find they feel smoother laying down paint. These brushes are more likely to leave brushstrokes, making them the best acrylic brushes for a more textured approach, and they're easily robust enough to handle heavy acrylic paint and mediums. They're also a good choice if you prefer more expressive brushwork as they're quite hardwearing.
Best to emulate natural hair
Quality: professional
Firmness: quite soft
Winsor & Newton’s Monarch brushes are a synthetic version of an animal hair brush that does a good job of emulating the feel of mongoose hair. Compared to natural hair, these brushes have a little extra firmness, which helps with pushing thicker paint around, but they're still quite soft. They're very high quality and they hold their shape well, which I found results in a nice, crisp edge when painting. It's easy to blend paint smoothly with these brushes as well. The bristles are tightly packed, helping the brush retain its shape and hold plenty of paint. These are the best acrylic brushes for responsive blending and detail work.
Best value
Quality: intermediate
Firmness: medium
These acrylic brushes offer a solid, mid-range synthetic brush that's a little firmer than most, but still soft enough to blend paint well. It has a smooth feel when painting, rather than being springy, and I've found that they don't leave much in the way of brushstrokes. I find these to be quite durable. The brush tip comes to quite a fine point and holds its shape. I also found these surprisingly good at holding paint, which combined with the long handles, made it easier to pull longer brush strokes with precision. They're the best acrylic brushes for anyone looking for a smooth painting surface, and they offer great quality for their price. They can be hard to find in the US.
Best for fine details
Quality: intermediate-professional
Firmness: medium
Royal and Langnickel’s Majestic brushes are mostly aimed at watercolourists, but they're robust enough to work as paintbrushes for acrylic paint. They are a little firmer than most synthetic brushes, but they're still flexible and come to a fine point. This makes them excellent for adding fine details. For their price, this range tends to run a little bit on the small side. However, the brushes are quite hardwearing, and the large sizes hold their shape especially well. This makes them strong enough to deal with thicker paint, though they perform well with washes too. I find these to be the best acrylic brushes for all-around use, suiting a variety of painting approaches.
Best for students
Quality: student
Firmness: quite soft
These are my pick as the best acrylic paintbrushes for students. They actually have a more professional feel than most student brushes. For a start, they have a long handle, which is useful for more expressive mark-making. The bristles are quite soft and suit a smooth application of paint. This softness makes them less suitable for use for textural work with very thick paint or mediums. Also, over time these brushes can start to lose their shape, and they aren’t likely to last as long as more professional ranges. All in all, though, this is a great brush range for keen students and anyone looking for an affordable long-handed brush range.
Best for beginners
Quality: student
Firmness: quite soft
Royal Langnickel’s soft grip brushes are a great cheap-and-cheerful option for anyone starting out. These brushes are affordable and typically perform well for their price range, being a decent choice for making clean strokes. The bristles are quite soft, and the soft grip is comfortable to hold. Whilst they don’t hold as much paint as other brands, they typically come back to a decent point after cleaning, and they're flexible enough to feel quite responsive. I find they tend not to last as long as pricier brushes and the handle is short, but they're a great brush for acrylics for students and beginners.
What brush should I use for acrylic paint?
Generally, the best paintbrushes for acrylic paint are synthetic rather than natural brushes since synthetic brushes are tougher, so they can cope better with the medium. All of our choices in our picks of the best acrylic paintbrushes are synthetic – some emulate the feel of natural hair but offer a firmer brush.
When working with acrylics, we recommend using a selection of different shape and size brushes – large brushes are useful for applying broad areas of colour quickly. Brush texture is worth considering too. Soft brushes suit blending and produce a smoother paint surface, while firmer brushes leave expressive marks and produce more textured effects.
How should I clean the best acrylic paintbrushes?
Whichever option you choose as the best paintbrushes for acrylics for you, it's important to clean your brushes thoroughly after use. Acrylic paints can be particularly hard on paintbrushes and they're difficult to clean off once dry. Whilst a lot of brushes suitable for oils work with acrylics, both are hard on brushes in different ways. Cleaning undiluted acrylic paint from brushes is similar to oil paint, but you just use water rather than spirit or oils.
Clean off as much paint as you can using a clean cloth or paper towel by wrapping the cloth around the ferrule of the brush and squeezing it with your thumb and forefinger. Work up towards the end of the bristles and repeat as many times as you need. You can use water in a jar or brush-washer to clean as much paint as you can from the bristles, and then use a brush cleaner for a thorough clean (see our complete guide to how to clean paintbrushes for recommendations).