[Darla Dixon]

Thank you, Michele, for your question and thanks to all those who responded. I can't tell you how much your information has helped! I have been simply drawing up to this point and am just starting in an oil portrait painting class. We will spend the next two classes simply sketching on the canvas, so I have two weeks to pick out some brushes. I looked in the store today, and the brushes were (of course!) out of order, and a mess. All the choices were mind boggling. I'm tempted to go with Winsor-Newton, because they haven't steered me wrong yet. Although I've done very little painting so far, I have had bristles come out of brushes and get dried into the paint, and it's maddening. I'm not wealthy, but I do think that in brushes, I'll get what I pay for.