What’s in the Box!? Popular Watercolor Paint Brush!
AN EASY GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL ART TOOLS
Paint Brush Anatomy | Paint Brush Types | Popular Brands | Paint Brush Tips
Welcome back to my official blog guide, “What’s in the Box!?”
And today we are going to approach the topic of watercolor paint brushes.
Today we will be going over some of the most popular watercolor paintbrush brands on the market right now. This list is based off of the trends I have seen in the online art community, but also some of the brands I would recommend or brands that I use or have used in the past. This is by no means an extensive list and I suggest doing further research if you don’t find what you are looking for here.
Please keep in mind that this lists consists of both natural and synthetic brush options primarily including natural and synthetic kolinsky sable, as well as natural and synthetic squirrel because these are the current favorites.
Silver is a brand that started in NY in 1991 trying to bring quality artist paint brushes into the US. Since then they have developed various lines of brushes for oil, acrylic, watercolor, and mixed media.
They are best known for their Black Velvet line which are made from a mix of synthetic and natural squirrel hair and sell round, oval, script, square wash, dagger or striper, and a selection of round travel brushes. You can also find their line of quill brushes which are made from the same combination of both synthetic and natural hairs.
A blend of natural squirrel hair and black synthetic filament combines to provide excellent carrying capacity with control, spring, and precise pointing. Black Velvet brushes are full bodied, with a wonderful snap. Use them with watercolor, silk painting, inks, dyes, acrylics, and gouache.
A polished black ferrule crimps the hair and is fitted to a gloss black handle. Enjoy a wonderful range of styles and sizes.
PRINCETON
Princeton Artist Brush Co. started in Princeton, New Jersey in the 90’s, and sell a wide range of vegan artists brushes including oil, acrylic, watercolor, mixed media, and a variety of specialty brushes. This company started with the goal of creating the finest synthetic sable in the industry and ended up with their Aqua Elite Series 4850 which sport a synthetic Kolinsky Sable. This line includes angle, dagger, fan, liner, round, mop, mottler, oval, quill, rigger, round, travel, and square wash brushes.
Princeton Aqua Elite Series 4850 Brushes feature Princeton's NextGen synthetic fibers that are almost indistinguishable from natural Kolinsky in appearance, performance, and durability — at a more affordable price.
Qualities of these brushes include maximum color-holding ability, excellent shape retention, fine points and tapered edges for precise details, and comfortable handles for lengthy painting sessions.
PRINCETON
However, their arguably best known line of brushes, and my personal favorite, are their Neptune paint brushes which sport their unique and groundbreaking fully synthetic squirrel hair. They even claim that their synthetic squirrel out performs the natural version. On their list of brushes that they sell: square wash, dagger, mottler, oval, quill, round, script, and travel brushes.
When Princeton set out to create a synthetic version of Squirrel, the company developed a brush that may actually outperform the natural version.
Neptune is Princeton's thirstiest brush ever, delivering oceans of color to the sheet. Featuring the latest synthetic fiber technology, the Neptune's multiple-diameter filaments are configured to replicate the smooth feel of natural Squirrel, with enhanced snap and resilient strength. Experts in natural hair have been incredulous that the Neptune brush fibers are actually synthetic.
Princeton is proud to offer Neptune in a beautiful range of shapes that includes hand-tied Mottlers and Quills. The beautiful sea glass handles of the Aquarelle brushes are the signature of the line.
ROSEMARY&CO.
Rosemary&Co is based in England and started over 35 years ago by Rosemary who has dedicated her life to manufacturing artist quality brushes. Rosemary&Co have the largest range of travel brushes that I’ve been able to find selling oval, round, mop, square (or flat), dagger, and quill, among others. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this not all products are available to ship to the US, as the US currently has bans on certain products so do keep this in mind, but I still wanted to share this brand with you due to their large collection.
Rosemary & Co have a wide range of watercolour brushes available. We have a selection of natural hair watercolour brushes and synthetic watercolour brushes. Our most popular range for watercolourists are our Pure Kolinsky Sable brushes.This range is made from the finest quality Kolinsky Sable Hair. There is no doubt Kolinsky Sable is the favoured choice for many professional watercolourists as this hair tapers to a finer point, holds the most pigment and wears down well.
Our Pure Red Sable range are also a great choice for watercolour painting, a pleseant extra to your watercolour brush arsenal. The Pure Red Sable hair also taper well, wear down well and have a good snap, but nevertheless will always be a great second place to the Kolisnky Sable Hair. Truthfully, it's not until you try the two brush ranges side-by-side that you will feel the luxury of using a Kolinsky Sable Brush.
PENTEL
Pentel is a very successful writing and art supply manufacturer who have been around for over 70 years, but are best well known for their writing utensils. Once in a while they produce a product that shakes up the art industry standards and their Aquash Water Brush has become one of the more popular brands today. Their products are inexpensive making them an easy ‘yes’.
Ideal for sketching and drawing, the Pentel Arts Aquash Water Brush has a durable nylon tip that holds its point for better stroke control. Available in a variety of tip sizes, this versatile brush loads easily with water, inks, or fluid colors. What's more, the soft, easy-to-squeeze barrel has a shape that prevents it from rolling off surfaces.When filled with water, the Aquash Water Brush is great for use with pocket watercolor sets when painting plein air.
GRACE ART
There isn’t a lot of information available for these brushes, but they are a very cheap alternative that work wonderfully for what they are, and are honestly all you need if you don’t want to invest in more expensive brushes. In total it offers a set of 12 brushes: 6 rounds and 6 flats in sizes: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. As far as I can tell they are only available on Amazon.com.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading!
I’m MK and this is Draw Daily!