@SomethingImpromptu

3 months ago

I can justify having a few big ones for washes (a 1.5 or 2 inch hake brush for the really big ones, a good mop of whatever sort one prefers, & I eventually got a decent quill brush that kind of spans the gap between rounds & mops, which ended up taking the place of a lot of the larger rounds for my regular use)… Or a flat wash brush can also be nice if you prefer it over the imprecise edges of a hake brush.

A single good number 10 or 12 round or long round (such as those in the Princeton Aqua Elite line) can have a sharp enough point to cover all your round needs from the size of that quill brush down to pretty small sizes, so it’s really diverse enough that you don’t need a bunch. If you like filberts or flats then you can probably justify a few of those, but you certainly don’t need them in every size, & I personally only go to them for pretty niche jobs. I know some people use a flat for practically everything in watercolor, but at least so far I haven’t found that to suit me. That Aqua Elite number 12 round & quill are my go-to mid size brushes (great versatility & water capacity).

As far as smaller ones, I do like to have a variety for detail work & finer texture. I got a cheap variety set of these white rigger brushes online, & they’ve served me wonderfully (they go from a 3 down to a 000)… I also have one of the smallest rounds… I believe it’s from the Velvetouch line— maybe the 20/0— so small that it only holds a couple drops of paint at a time— but for any job too small/precise for my riggers, it does the job (a fine script liner would also work & maybe hold more water, but working at that scale I WANT the control of very little water in the brush at a time, or else it can flood out & displace pigment.

And then I use a couple of more specialized brushes. If you use a lot of granulating pigments & like to “erase” & fix things, a scrubber brush can be useful. If you like them, a cat’s tongue, dagger, or sword brush can be nice, though I’ve only tried them with acrylics… That’s really about all the ones I use very regularly. If people like to use them, a fan maybe, but you can splay the bristles of a normal round or flat to achieve the same effect. My main recommendation is simply to start slow/small with just a few, & to really learn & think about what kinds of hair you prefer for what purposes before investing in a ton of brushes you’ll never use, only to realize you need to buy them all over in a different material. I really like softer synthetics, & sable, but for certain kinds of wash/mop/hake brushes, goat or squirrel hair is also really nice (the synthetic imitations can work fine too though). They add up quickly, but if you are intentional & targeted & look for deals & don’t buy brushes you don’t need, you really don’t need the top of the line for every brush niche— there are very, very passable brushes (like those Velvetouch & Princeton ones I mentioned) that work great, & if you take care of them will last a LONG time, which you can find for as little as a few dollars a piece (the Aqua Elite line gets pricier, but just one or two for your main brushes will carry you a long way, & they aren’t the price of REALLY fancy ones).

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