As part of their program to guarantee supply of the special fibres needed to make the best paint brushes, da Vinci present the CHUNEO professional quality brushes for oil and acrylic colours.

This new synthetic fibre has a very similar structure to the famous Chunking bristles, which are becoming more and more expensive. These are intended to be the New Chunking – CHUNEO. 

 
High quality, natural bristle brushes feature irregular “flags” on the tips of the fibre (left), which is now replicated with the new synthetic CHUNEO fibre (right).

Traditional Chunking bristles are extra-long, and feature a special tip: split ends, or “flags” which hold pasty colour close to the end of the brush. After a decade of research, da Vinci have managed to mimic this construction with a synthetic fibre – CHUNEO. This ensures the same mark-making abilities when using oil and acrylic tube colour. While most synthetic brushes have a very clean shape, CHUNEO are by design “bristly” with the individuality of each hair providing varied track-lines of paint.

 
CHUNEO is well suited to scumbling (left), layering and blending (middle), and even with rough treatment on rough surfaces CHUNEO keeps its shape.

CHUNEO brushes are strong yet flexible, allowing excellent response to paint application as more colour goes on. Its strength is perfectly suited to working over dry layers of primer or paint, for both dry-brush (scumbling) and thick paint (impasto) techniques. Especially in oilpainting, the benefit of CHUNEO over a traditional bristle is that while natural bristle is too strong for wet-in-wet painting, tending to wipe back and muddy successive layers, CHUNEO allows a subtlety for more delicate brush-work in layering-up, and can be successfully used with thicker colours from start to finish. Instead of laying oilpaint down with a bristle brush then swapping to a softer brush, like a black sable for continued layering or blending, a CHUNEO is both strong and subtle enough to be used throughout the whole process.

 
The strength and special construction of CHUNEO gives the smaller sizes fantastic control for detail and subtle mark-making.

The strong fibres of CHUNEO give great control to the smaller size brushes, allowing you to carry and deposit tube colour in exact portion and position. Very subtle edging and shading is easier than with the more uniform shaped synthetic brush ranges, due to the strength of the fibre and flags on the tips.

While traditional bristle brushes are great for oilpainting, acrylic paint tends to stick to the bristle and is difficult to clean off, especially around the ferrule. The CHUNEO is great for both oil and acrylic colour as it is a synthetic, making it easier to clean than traditional bristle. These new brushes, therefore, can lend a new effect to acrylic painting techniques. The robust nature of the CHUNEO fibres is apparent in all these applications, even on rough surfaces, and unlike traditional bristle, they don’t lose hairs.
 

 
Like tradition bristle brushes, the CHUNEO requires shaping after being cleaned. Simply shape the brush by pinching and twisting the washed head so that the fibres sit back in position.

CHUNEO Synthetic Bristle Brushes are available in round and flat shapes for painting, and mottlers for area work.

Round brushes are the original Renaissance painting brush shape. They hold the biggest reservoir of colour, and vary from large, blunt-ended glazing brushes to ultra-fine detail brushes. They can be used for large areas and fine detail. Rounds are great for scumbling.

Flat lettering brushes were popularized by the Impressionists in the 19th Century, who used them for bold strokes and dabbing effects to describe dappled light. Today, flat brushes are popular for many painting techniques.
 

 
Mottlers are used for spreading colour and paint media across large areas. They are great for priming and applying gels in collage techniques.

Of course, traditional bristle brushes such as the da Vinci MAESTRO-2 series will continue to provide an important painting tool for the professional oilpainter, due to its unique strength and spring. The CHUNEO adds a new painting tool, one that offers a cheaper, more versatile, and also vegan option to both oil and acrylic painters.

Remember to care for all your brushes by cleaning and conditioning with da Vinci Brush Cleaning Soap. It’s a special oily soap that will clean out paint and replenish natural oils in the brush head, and it last for ages!

You can also watch a video between our brand ambassador Evan Woodruffe discussing the CHUNEO brushes with da Vinci’s Markus Giel here: