My Go-To Watercolor Brushes
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I’m here to share with you my favorite watercolor brushes. I started my journey with just buying brushes from your typical craft store like Michaels, JoAnne's and the now gone A.C. Moore. Which is a great place to start, but I’m here to tell you that you can buy great artist grade watercolor brushes for the same price. There are two brands I love. Princeton Neptune and (my favorite) Silver Black Velvet brushes.
Why the Princeton Neptune? What about the other Princeton Brushes? The Princeton Neptune brush holds water and color wonderfully! You’re not going to have to keep reloading your brush after every stroke of paint. It is a synthetic squirrel brush, but even though it is synthetic, it is in comparison with the natural hair Kolinsky brushes. And please do yourself a favor, don’t look at the price of real natural hair brushes. My only complaint about this brush is that it does not hold a sharp point. I love my detail work on paintings and this brush is hard to get those fine point brush strokes.
My all time favorite watercolor brush is the Silver Black Velvet. The Silver Black Velvet holds a beautiful fine tip to get those thin lines and crisp edges. This brush is also affordable. It is a blend of natural squirrel hair and black synthetic filament. These brushes aren’t just designated for watercolor, but also inks, acrylics and gouache. Similar to the Princeton Neptune, the Silver Black Velvet is also a thirsty brush. It is great at grabbing color and transferring it to your watercolor paper. Which helps create a vibrant beautiful painting.
Now some great sizes to start with are going to depend on what you might be painting. If you are going to be painting florals, a size 6 round brush is perfect. I do most of my painting with my size 6 brush. I also keep a larger size 8 or 10 on hand for those bigger brush strokes and a size 4 or 2 for those fine lines and details I’m trying to paint. Flat paint brushes are great for laying down water and color on larger surfaces. For example if you are painting a sky or landscape. Although you can still use a larger round brush for that.
So if you are just getting started on your watercolor journey do not be afraid to buy these brushes, even if you only see the experienced watercolor artist using them!
HAPPY PAINTING!
Products mentioned in this blog post
Princeton Neptune Watercolor Brush - Single Size 8 Brush
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