What brushes should I use?

[hyphen]

For the beginning stages [i.e. blocking] what brushes do people use? In painter & in photoshop. All input would be appreciated.

[the good war]

i use the standard 1 pixel brush without any gradient, but i enlarge it with the ] key. i do this to block in the color with 100% opacity then i take a softer brush and lower the opacity and blend from there