Kabuki Brush Use

I recently saw a SillyFarm video using a kabuki brush but the brush use wasn't clear. Can anyone tell me (show samples) about how to work with this brush? Brush dry? Brush wet? Paint powder? Paint wet? Special type of paint? Cleaning? Techniques? What do you use it for? Is it useful enough to have in a kit? Thank you!

just like any other brush.. spray the paint with water, swirl the brush around in the paint and then swirl the brush around in the skin(like polishing a shoe.) it makes a nice even coverage very quickly.

just wash it out like any other brush.

Thank you Ashley...I'm going to practice a bit with old make-up brushes I have just to get the feel of it...then I'll decide if I should invest in a kabuki! Thank you for taking the time to answer my question!

I wonder if that big brush the men use for shaving will work the same, it only cost $3 instead $20 for the kabuki.

You can get a kabuki brush in any make up supply store or drug store. I have on from Shoppers drug Mart. and I just bought one on Ebay for $4.50.
Look around, you can get them for cheap online.

I'm so pleased to be getting feedback! I suspect a men's shaving brush would be much stiffer/harder (I actually wondered about that too!) and unless you were doing a whole body...perhaps use too much paint as well. I tried my make-up (blush) brush...found it left very untidy edges (animal fur-like), maybe the bristles on this kind of brush were too long or not thick enough. I had never heard of this brush/technique before...would users recommend it over sponges? If yes...in what cases? I see some truly incredible work done by the artists on face painting forum so your advice is extremely valuable to me and very gratefully absorbed!

I cannot find my Kabuki brush that I founf yesterday. But, with a 5 year old little girl, all my pretty things walk away alot.

You'd better get used to stuff vanishing....my kids are (boy) 26 and (girl) 23 and NOTHING is safe!
I wonder why kabuki brush work hasn't come up before in tutorials etc.? Maybe it is for more advanced painters and I should stick to brush and sponge!

I was painted for the body paint competition at FABIAC and my artists used Kabuki brushes to lay down the base coat of Paradise paints. It actually worked really well for covering large areas without very much work. I highly recommend it!

I went along to a body painting course with Maria Mormile and she introduces me to the Kabuki brush. It seems to work really well with body painting and covering large areas.
I find that you have to load them up with quite a bit of paint and you need to wash them out really well before putting on another colour.
I use it in a circular motion to apply the paint, it works pretty well. And I find it quicker and easier than using a sponge on larger areas.

I think that it hasn't really come up before because it's mostly used for body painting, because it produces a large evenly covered area with very little effort. You could use it on a face as well I think... I should try that some time.

I use a one inch powder brush instead of a kabuki. Works the same, gads cheaper and has a longer handle, which I like a lot. The short handles give me hand cramps and make my hands messier than they already get, which is a pain when getting that way from a base coat. I use it in my body painting to lay down bases.

You have to really load the brush up, and I find using circular motion is best on these. I've used them dry (for a more "air brushed" soft look) and I've used them wet for something more opaque. Because they do take on a lot of paint, I also prefer the affordability of the brushes over "kabuki" so I can have one for each color I need.

I also found that I could cover larger spaces with better opacity with a kabuki than I could with an airbrush.

Thanks everyone....I dug around and found an old, small avon blush brush which seemed the right length and density and softness of a mini kabuki. I tried again with a dry(ish) brush and just sprayed some cakes...it did seem to come out with a darker tone than I'd been getting with a sponge (though maybe my sponge loading may need some adjustment). Doing the rounded motions it gave quite a lovely coverage and when you made sure to start light and add bits of darker it make for rather lovely shading. I don't see it as being a real help with regular face designs (unless trying to cover the entire face quickly and with strong colour. I also read that these brushes should be kept as dry as possible...and if possible should only be cleaned with brushing on several wipes. I found it hard to get enough of the colour out this way to avoid the carry-over of colour but next time I paint I'm going to try it on a few designs. As a more full-bodied base it could make my face swirl designs more vibrant - but then will the paint be dry enough to do detail work on top without bleeding. I don't get too many 'gigs' but have one this Saturday and will see what results I have. I'll post at the beginning of the week whether I was successful or not...always a great leaning experience!

I used a kabuki in this face vid... made it for a bud so he could do it on vacation. I was a bit loopy that night, so be warned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMmwoDTl2NE

If you are wanting to use them instead of sponges for facepainting, you'll want to have a brush for each color family, cause they take a lot to clean out.

I love the kabuki for laying down bases for body painting or belly painting! I don't think I would like to use one for my regular face painting because of how much paint they soak up! I like to rinse my brush out between clients, and that would waste a lot of paint! If you were going to get a different brush for each color (like JBax suggested), and just keep them loaded, I guess it would work! Let us know what you figure out!