Liner brush work There are several styles of liner brushes used in wood craft painting. What I use is a small #1 or #2 China Doll style. This brush has about 20 – 30 hairs total and is 1/2″ long from the ferrule to the brush tip. The number (#1 or #2) is the total hairs used, China Doll is its short liner length style.
A China Doll is loaded the same way we light-loaded the flat shader. Place the liner in the paint puddle then pull the brush out into the palette. Work this several times on all sides until the brush is evenly coated.
A properly loaded China Doll is belly just a small bit at the center but have no glob or puddle of color on the tip.
You can pull the straight line or joint line as below with a China Doll. Begin with the brush on its tip slightly away from the line, curve into the line while applying a small amount of pressure. When you hit the line about one half of the bristle length will be in contact with the wood. This uses the long length of the bristles at the belly to create the straight line.
As you finish the line curve away from the line while lifting. You will get an even coating of paint with no side ridges, a straight line, and very little if any bleeding of one color into the next.
This is a photo of my #2 script liner. This brush is 1″ long but still has the 20-30 hairs. Its made for decorative painting where you need extra long lines created with one stroke. All of the curved lines shown have been made with just one loading of paint into the brush. You don’t need a script liner unless you intend to take up tole painting and that is another tutorial for some future day.