The following is one approach for making paint brushes which are more environmentally-friendly than factory-made plastic handled brushes (relatively speaking).
However, the use of such a brush is limited in scope to one of the following two applications:
Making minimalist line contour drawings (e.g. a black outline of
drawings of grass or other plants.
I recommend using the spiny leaves of yucca glauca or yucca baccata as a paint-brush.
After completing a grassy background, foreground objects such as animals and/or people can be painted on a separate sheet of paper and glued on top of the background.
In the images shown above, iron oxide concrete colorant was used as paint, but this post is mostly about how to make a paint-brush, not make your own paint.
Some species of yucca have stiff leaves and other species of yucca have soft leaves.
I recommend not using yucca leaves if they look or feel floppy, such as the leaves of the soft-leafed spineless cane yucca or yucca gigantea.
Yuccas with stiff leaves (such as yucca baccata) are low-water use plants which grow easily in localities with less than 40 inches of annual rainfall or other precipitation. If you have a house, you can easily grow one in your front or backyard for a renewable supply of paint brushes.
I live in the state of Colorado, USA. I find yuccas growing wild all of the time when walking outside, but they live in California, and other places too.
