The 7 Brands of Watercolor Brushes I Have Tried: A Watercolor Brush Review - Learn with Sandra J 

"Long ones don't work because I keep hitting my face" - best line I've heard all day (I do it from time to time). Thanks for the video, I only buy synthetics now and almost always quills. Princeton Neptune and AquaElite are excellent for the price. Raphael Softaqua and Da Vinci Casaneo are my faves. Escoda Ultimo is in the mail!

The Silver Black Velvet brushes are a blend of squirrel hair and synthetic. The Anna Mason ones are no doubt sable, probably Kolinsky.

I understand about the sables and i also have a few, but, now that you have them, use them, or they really did die for nothing. Let that little critter be your spirit animal and create the best work you can. Oh, and the name of the brush is a rigger or liner brush.

I enjoyed this video very much! I learned a little about brushes and I had a good laugh as well. Thank you for brightening my day ;-)

Thank you for sharing this information helped a lot.great video.

I fully agree with you on the cosmotop spin. I’m a not very experienced painter and I thought it might be just me. But it’s very helpful to hear the same thing from somebody’s so experienced.

i thought i was crazy for not getting along with the cosmotop. i'm only a year or two into watercolor and bought a small selection of good brushes people raved about after doing loads of reading and research. and i keep picking it up to work with it and i'm always frustrated. i thought it was me just not being skilled enough (though i get along well with some cheapy brushes from the craft store way better than that cosmotop). i'm now going to just put it away and STOP the madness, so thank you for honest review. :)

I dont like the DaVinci Cosmotop too. But try the Casaneo Line, specially the 498 Series. The size 2 is one of my favorites.

I am looking for information on OVAL brushes, including Cosmotop and whoever else produces them in good quality. Any input appreicated.

I love the Escoda Versatils also. Lovely brushes. I like the smaller sizes of Silver Black Velvet brushes, however, the 1&1/2 inch I bought has no spring to it. It gets limp quickly. Don't care for that one.

I like the Silver Black velvet line too. Try out the Escoda Versatil rounds for something billed as a synthetic Kolinsky. Lovely sharp point and a delight to paint with. Find myself reaching for them often.

It's my understand that the sable brushes are made from hair that is a "byproduct" of the fur industry that raises sable for their pelts. The fur companies don't use the tails. which are discarded, and then sold to paint brush makers. The paint brush makers themselves do not kill any animals when making their brushes...they are using a byproduct of a completely different industry. That may not make much difference in your thinking...but it is a significant distinction....they are not killing the animals just to make paint brushes so you can paint a picture...if the paint brush makers did not use the hair for their brushes, the tails would be wasted and the fur industry in Siberia would still go on. Secondly these animals are farm raised...much like chicken, cows, pigs and sheep (which we get wool from). I'm not really trying to change your mind about your brushes....do what makes you feel good about yourself, but it would be a shame and wasteful to not use perfectly fine sable brushes, that have already been made. But ill be happy to take them off your hands, if you want to donate them. :)

You are cool sandra :) keep it up

Wow - I love your honesty. I live in a 400 square foot apartment. I have a desk that I use for work. Then after 5-6pm I remove my work things and it becomes my art "studio". So I totally understand not having a lot of room. Much less trying to figure out where to store my supplies. I agree about the karma aspect. The more we learn about animals the more horrified I am of what has been done to them in the name of science much less art. You probably remember the days when you could buy an actual rabbit's foot on a key chain. OMG - why was this ever okay?

i like my grumbacher goldenedge and my silver black velvets i use both often

Your Neptune wash brushes on smaller paintings use them for skys only and premixed washes for your sky you can also drop in sixe these brushes and they work very well Try a panting with an 1.5 flat. Then try a painting with an 1.5” a3/4” flat then a number three rigger I learn water colour with these three sizes and the Irish artists book water colour paint box and after the 9 lessons in the book I sold my first water colour using his limited palette of 8 colours

Thank you for NOT using animal hair brushes & thank you for sharing your likes & dislikes in brushes 🙏

You know Silver Black Velvet brushes use a combination of animal & synthetic bristles. Nice brushes but I don’t buy them anymore 🥲

Try not to feel bad about animal products you already purchased its better to use them and not let them go to waste that being said like when I was first getting started I had no idea about them being animal sourced. It took a bit for the lightbulb to come on.

I have the same problem with long handles. I like Silver black belt and Mimick kolinsky. I don't like nNeptunes, too compound

Michael’s has Royal & Langnickel. Fabulous and under $13 for a set of five!!!

I don’t like the Cosmo top spin brushes either - no point. Trader Joe’s 👍😁. Thank you for sharing

No one comments about synthetic brushes being plastic (vinyl is plastic) and plastic is made from petroleum. Also, think about all the microscopic plastic fibers that break off and become part of the food chain. Hmmmm.

Don't you hate it when you get two of the same thing in your cart by accident? I have even done this in stores. Why do I have two tubes of dioxazine violet LOL????

They’re in England

Silver brushes have animal hair in them too although they are really great brushes. Rosemary & Co. is in England and also make wonderful brushes and thanks to your recommendations I will now try some of their man made hair brushes as I hate using the animal hair too but it really isn't easy to find good cruelty free brushes so thank you.

I had no clue they killed the whole animal to get hairs… im glad all the brushes i have are synthetic

Rosemary & Co are in the UK - Yorkshire. Apparently the US have now banned Kolinsky imports - so once gone they won't be for sale - this as due to the cruelty involved: thank you for caring about the animals. Another synthetic range I find really good is the Raphael brand.

Try escoda fake kolinsky...worth the price and just refrain from pushing the paint onto paper rather than pulling. I have had mine for a very ,very long time. When they first came out. Is as nice as ever. My first watercolor class was with an Austrian schooled..then Italy, and her first class was devoted to caring for brushes. I still use a 55 year old wash brush( squirrel or sable...not sure )..that I even used to paint a series of pained windows at a large restraunt after her class ( without any taping...just pulled the bead of paint)...lol...sometimes an artist has to do stuff for $$$. Will be interested in your there videos.

I use Da Vinci Cosmotops and honestly if you paint like you showed here pressing way to much on the paper no wonder they don't hold point its not squirrel hair to bent while being pressed on paper...They are for detail work even the larger sizes of brush like 10 12 14 ,not for large washes and covering a lot of area.Honestly you picked the wrong brush for your style that is why the spins are not working for you my opinion maybe am wrong but.And if you compare the Da Vinci Cosmotop to the kolinsky brushes that you have that are priced 3 to 5 times more then spins no wonder that you don't like spins ofc that the kolinsky sable performs way better then any syntetics...For that money that are price of Da Vinci Cosmotops you can't find better synthetic brush on the market maybe Winsor & Newton is in the same range the rest are not...Roubloff has brushes that perform like squirrel hair but hold 1/3 of amount of water compared to natural hair witch is understandable and they are very well priced i think that is 1F10 name of what i use and they are pretty decent and hold awesome point for syntetics until you go the the size 10 witch performs more like mop then classic round...

Not to start an argument since I don’t have a strong opinion either way: but from a “sustainability” standpoint wouldn’t it be better to make brushes from animal fur than synthetic? If the animals are raised for that purpose and treated decently (haven’t done research so can’t say if they are, just a hypothetical) then killing them for the brushes isn’t really cruel is it? Much like if you raised rabbits as livestock. The synthetic brushes in the grand scheme of things are not “eco-friendly” right?

would rather see them paint not just listen to someone talk about them :/

Actually, those animals used to make the brushes are raised in captivity- and just like cows, if people stop buying natural hair brushes or beef...these animals would likely go extinct, because there are few places left where there remains enough of their natural environment to support them in the wild- so the humane thing to do is to actually buy animal products. Seriously, how is it any worse than them getting eaten by predators in the wild? I LOVE animals...but this whole 'don't use animal products' thing is really unrealistic, and a product of the minds (however well-intentioned) of people who have never really thought it through).

Who tells sable are kiilled in order to get hairs???!!....maybe China does that, but not all countries !!

It would seem that someone who is so concerned about what your brushes are made of, that you would do more research before you buy.

Wot crap is this video 😂