In my last blog (and accompanying Youtube film review of brushes ), I ended up recommending Rosemary and Co. Spotter Red Dot.  But since then I’ve painted almost exclusively with my beloved pure sable Winsor and Newton series 7 sable paintbrushes .

Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes with hand lens

Sable

Sable brushes are not, in fact, made form the hair of the Sable.  These creatures live in Larch woods, and are a type of marten, latin name Martes zibellina. No.  The sable used to make watercolour brushes comes from the Kolonok, or Siberian weasel Mustela sibirica.

As a life-long vegetarian, I survived for many years without even thinking properly about the link between animal welfare and my paintbrushes.  But following from a chance remark on one of my Youtube videos, I decided to look for synthetics instead. These weasels are voracious predators of rats and other vermin, but can also be pests to poultry farmers.  Their fur has long been used to make brushes for artists and calligraphers.  But I think I should try to move away from Kolinsky sable brushes if I can.

What other synthetic options are out there?  Recommendations and suggestions have come in thick and fast since then, and I’ve managed to get my hands on some of these brushes, and tested them.

The set-up

I need to illustrate the Common Knapweed, Centaurea nigra subspecies nigra.  As before, I’ll use a different test brush on different leaves.  And hope for the best!

I’m working on Fluid 100 hot press watercolour paper.

In all cases, I test a size 1 brush.  This is my default brush size and is perfect for my botanical illustration and natural history work.  I’ve ordered all these brushes (except the Rosemary red Dots) through Jackson’s art, a UK based art materials shop.  It should also be pointed out that I haven’t been asked or paid to review any of these brushes, so (hopefully) that makes my reviews un-biased.

Here are the four brushes I’m reviewing.  Left to right: Da Vinci Casaneo, Rosemary & Co Red dot Pointed, Jackson’s Kite S561 and Princeton’s Neptune Script.  Links to all brushes in the text below.

The price I use for my Series 7 number 1 is a full discount price, not the full retail price of £17. 10 (2021 price).  And these prices fluctuate a lot, with the brushes sometimes being as little as £5.80 each.

Princeton Neptune script

The first synthetic I’m trying is the Princeton Neptune script.  This is a synthetic squirrel, rather than a synthetic sable.

Princeton Neptune Script

First sight is alarming.  It has an extremely long point, longer than any brush I’ve worked with before.  Somewhere in the back of my mind the term “rigger” springs to mind.  Is this the correct name for these long, fine-tipped brushes?  After a little internet trawling it seems my hunch is right.  Click here for more on rigger brushes, and how to use them.

However, despite my misgivings, on taking off the cover and using it I’m pleasantly surprised.

The tip is extremely fine, and doesn’t degrade or blunt at all for the whole time I use it.  The synthetic squirrel holds a lot of paint, so you don’t need to keep refilling the brush.  Thin lines build up next to one another without merging.  Crisp edges are easy.  Thin defining lines aren’t at all problematic.  This brush is great!

Princeton Neptune Script with leaf painted with the brush behind

My problem is the feel of such a long point.  This is pronounced when I’m mixing colours.  (Please don’t tell me to have a special rubbish-y brush for colour mixing.  I know I should do, but when I’m working to dead-line I just don’t have time to keep switching brushes!)  Saying that, if you have a slightly more leisurely approach to your watercolour painting, it’s a great idea.  Nothing trashes brushes faster than mixing colour with them).

Mixing colour with the Princeton Neptune Script

The action of the brush on the page is lovely.

Because the tip is so very fine, perhaps it takes a little longer to build up areas of colour, and to my eye they look a little washed out when I’m done.  Perhaps because each line is so very thin you do actually end up with less pigment on the page?

But for crisp detail, the Princeton Neptune Script is great.

Close up of the tip of the Princeton Neptune Script brush

This brush retails at £4.90 – £6.10.  My regular Series 7 no. 1 size brush retails (with a hefty discount) at £5.80, so this one is slightly cheaper.

Kite S561 by Jackson’s

This was the most expensive of the brushes I tested.  It’s a synthetic sable and cost more than my Series 7 brush (£10.30), so I was expecting good things.

Jackson’s Kite S.561

Imagine my surprise when the Kite S561 simply didn’t work out that way.  The tip of the brush is ragged, and blunt.  It has a slight hook.  In the hand, it feels the same shape and weight as a Series 7, but it’s not performing like one.

Jackson’s Kite S.561.  Looks perfect but somehow…isn’t.  The right had side of the leaf behind has been painted with this one.

The lines it leaves are thick and unpredictable.  No matter how I twist the brush in the paint to “sharpen” it to a point, it remains blunt.  In fact, I have to stop using it as it’s compromising the Knapweed illustration.

I’m disappointed.  It could be a dud brush.  But for the high price, I would have expected something far better, especially when the other synthetics on the market are priced so much more competitively.

Close up of the tip of the Jackson’s Kite S.561 brush

Rosemary and Company Pointed Red Dot

I’m feeling optimistic with these Red Dot brushes, brought direct from the company (Rosemary and Company)  Not only do they come recommended by the excellent botanical illustrator Polly O’Leary, but they’re the sister product to the Red Dot spotters that I reviewed and liked most in my last blog.  They’re synthetic sable.

Rosemary & Co Red Dot Pointed brush

Initial feelings are fabulous.  The brush looks and feels a lot like my Series 7.  It has plenty of bulk to hold paint, and the point is tiny and crisp.  This remains undamaged by mixing paint.  Each brush-stroke delivers a little more than the Neptune script, so the colour builds up swifter and more saturated.  So far so good.

Close up of the Rosemary & Co Red dot Pointed with leaf painted with it behind

Then, after about 10 minutes, the brush starts to change.  The tip loses its definition.  I feel almost like the barrel of the brush swells, and seems to hang really low behind the tip, threatening to leave extra unwanted brush marks.

On the plus side, the “barrel” or well holds a lot of paint, so I don’t need to keep going back to my paint-box to top up on paint.  The tip doesn’t become completely compromised, it’s still pretty sharp.

It’s not a disaster, but it’s certainly no longer nearly as good as when I first used it.  And less enjoyable than the the Red Dot Spotter.  But like I say, I know a lot of excellent botanical illustrators swear by these brushes.  I don’t want to be too hasty in writing them off.

Price wise it only costs £2.75 though.  So perhaps I was unlucky and had a “bad brush”.  These things happen.

Close up of the tip of the Rosemary & Co Red Dot pointed brush

Da Vinci Casaneo 5598 Round

The Da Vinci is another synthetic squirrel, this time a Kazan squirrel.  I had to look up “Kazan squirrel”.  It seems to be a normal squirrel (although whether Red or Grey I couldn’t establish) from the Kazan region of Russia.  So we continue.  Anyway, it’s another synthetic.

Da Vinci Casaneo brush with leaves painted with it behind and below

My initial response to this was not brilliant.  The brush had a tiny hook at the tip.  Not enough to make it un-useable, but not a good start.

I’d forgotten the useful tip I’ve been given about removing hooks from the tips of synthetic brushes:

It has come in from Rebecca, who left this suggestion in the comments section of my last watercolour brush blog .  “Hooks that develop on synthetic bristles can often be remedied by dipping the bristles about half way into a cup of water taken off the boil. Take care not to get the ferrule or upper bristles wet with water this hot or it may affect the glue. The timing varies from 10-30 seconds based on the brand and size. Gently reshape the tip on your thumbnail after heating. While I don’t expect that is an annoyance one would want to deal with during a long painting session, it will at least restore the brush to a usable condition for lighter tasks.”

I started using the brush and it’s fine.  The hook hasn’t thickened the line width, and the point remains tight.

After a few minutes though, it seems to develop some sort of lateral compression.  The brush looks as if someone has squeezed it between thumb and finger.  This leaves me feeling nervous.  It feels like the brush could do something unexpected at any point, being this odd shape and with the little hook.

Nib of the Da Vinci Casaneo brush, showing the odd “compressed” effect

Although is paints perfectly well, the ominous feeling that it’s all about to go wrong doesn’t lift.  I feel like I’m about to screw up the illustration at any point.  I can’t relax into painting, but am hyper-vigilant, checking every stroke.  This is no way to paint.

Because of this, even though the performance is better than all but the Princeton Neptune, I turn from the Da Vinci Casaneo.

Again, it could be a bad brush.  Or just one that’s not perfect.  Which, for someone who is as tough as a critic as I am, is basically the same thing.

It’s a shame.  With a price point of £6.30, they’re not much more expensive than the price of my (discounted) Series 7 brushes.  But are less reliable.

Close up of the nib of the Da Vinci Casaneo brush

Synthetics: Conclusion

Having tried all four brushes, I’m afraid none match my Series 7.  Is this because it’s what I’m used to?  Or because it’s a superior product?  It’s hard to tell.

However, if I were to explore these synthetics further, I’d be focussing in on the Rosemary and Company Red dot range.  I truly feel there will be a brush in there that suits me and my approach to painting.  They’re cheap, and have lovely points.  And although they seem to degrade quickly, I feel there’s scope for me to use them more before writing them off.

I did think the Princeton Neptune Script brush was brilliant, and held its point wonderfully.  It’d be superb for doing tiny long hairs, say on the stem of a Wood rush Luzula sylvatica.  But I just don’t think I can get used to wielding a brush that long.  It feels too weird.  I’m a creature of habit, and habit calls for a shorter, stouter brush.  But they’re well worth a try if you’re less stuck in your ways than I am.  In terms of getting detail and during the actual act of painting, the Neptune was my favourite out of these four brushes.

And here ends my exploration of synthetic brushes.  There are many more brands out there, but I think I’m finished exploring.  I’ll stick to a more detailed investigation of the Rosemary and Co brushes.  I might play around with the Princeton Neptune and see if I can get used to such a long tip, and keep my fingers that I find the perfect solution soon.  Only then will I be able to look at a weasel full in the face again.

Weasel Mustela nivalis (NOT the Siberian weasel, but a cousin)

For a lot more detail on this set of comparisons, please check out my Youtube video (or see it, below), and don’t forget to refer back to my other earlier review of synthetic brushes, both in blog form ,  and as a Youtube film.

Although I don’t plan on reviewing any more synthetics, please do put suggestions as to which you favour or have tried in the comments section below.  I like the idea of these blogs and films being a good reference point for people on a similar journey, questing for the perfect synthetic brush.

Annotated Illustration of Common or Black knapweed showing which leaves were done with which brush

The post Paintbrushes: Exploring synthetics Part 2 appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Illustrating Lilac Syringa vulgaris

First using watercolours

When I first used watercolour, I used my Mum’s paint-box.  She was a fine artist, so had lots of posh art equipment which she always encouraged us children to use.  Her paints (a selection of browns, greys, and ochres as her subject matter tended to be broken industrial landscapes and cemeteries) were Winsor and Newton.

My first paint-box, was bought by my parents for my 10th birthday.  It was a lovely tin full of Winsor and Newton pans and half pans.  I used this until 2015, topping it up and switching in new pans.

My current watercolour paint-box

Finally the white enamel cracked from the palette.  The tiny paint flakes kept getting mixed in with my colours.  I had to replace the box itself, and I really struggled.  The mixing palettes are lovely, deep, and what I was used to!  Eventually I found a stockist of the empty tins, Green and Stone.  My quest was over.

My current paint-box (not in any way cleaned for its photo-op, I’m afraid)

As you can tell from the photo, it’s very much a working tool and is quite often shamefully grubby.  This is important, and should be avoided.  Having dirty pans of colour will effect the colours you paint with.  It’s an ongoing fight to try and keep my yellows clean.  I mostly lose.

Illustrating a Bryony leaf Bryonia dioica for Jersey Post

Watercolour pans

Watercolour comes in tubes or in pans.  I like the pans; it’s so quick to open the box and start painting. Pans come in  full, or half sizes.  When the pans become empty, I fill them up with paint from tubes.  This is frowned on, someone told me the paint is a different composition and the two shouldn’t be mixed.  It’s never been a problem for me, but I am willing to listen to reasons why it’s inadvisable.

Paints in pans from my back-up watercolours box.  Most are Winsor and Newton, many used.

The paint in the pans is dry, and this is a clear difference between the tubes and the pans.  However, the colours seem to be identical.

The main trick with paint mixing is to make notes of the colour mixes that you use, so you can re-create them later.  You can do this as a swatch (as on the side of the painting on the illustration below) or in written form.

Illustrating a rose

Watercolour tubes

I have lots of these tubes.  I tend to buy them up when I’m in an art shop and see them on sale, so have lots of duplicates and different sizes.

Equipment: paints: My watercolour tubes, which nominally fit into an old cigar box (they don’t fit).

Sometimes I’ll use a blob of pure watercolour and paint from it, this is mostly if I’m tackling the sky of a big landscape (Cobalt blue is good for skies).  In general, though, I simply use the tubes to top up the pans in my paint-box.

The brand I favour is Winsor and Newton.  I tend to use their professional watercolours, but their Cotman range is good too.  They’re clean, strong colours, and don’t go grainy.  Some of my W&N tubes date back 30 years or more, and the colours seem as true as the newly purchased tubes.

Some of my Winsor and Netwon tube watercolours

Sometimes I’ll put a spot of tube paint on one of the paint-box dishes, I’ve recently started doing this with Daniel Smith’s Spring Green which is a good base for mixing up realistic green hues.

The ones I use most of are the yellows.  Cadmium yellows, Naples yellow, and Yellow ochre.  This is because these get mixed up into every single green I use, and as they’re weaker colours than the blues and greens in the mix, I need to use proportionally more of them.

Illustrating Mongolian stonecrop Phedimus hybridus . You can see the heavy use of yellows, and that blob of Spring Green in the top right of the palette.

Learning your paints and your paint-box

Sometimes I make the error of filling up a half empty pan with a rather different hue, and this isn’t a great idea.  Topping up a yellowish Sap green with a very blue Phthalo green was a memorable error.  Saying that, it actually made for rather a handy colour, the two worked well together.

I tend to mix, and go on mixing until it looks right.

You learn your way around your paint box.  As the years go by you end up knowing what different colours look like, both in your paint-box and fresh from the pan or tube.

Why I can be vague on my colour mixes…

This somewhat slap-dash approach to my paints is why I sometimes find it difficult to give precise answers if asked what colours I use for a specific illustration.  Often the labels on the pans have rubbed off or are illegible.  Remembering what colour I topped up with a few months ago is often beyond me.  Sometimes (especially if I don’t to take notes) I simply forget.

Long tailed tits in progress.

I am aware this lackadaisical approach might horrify some professional and amateur botanical illustrators, and that’s totally understandable.  But I do think that sometimes people get tangled up in the details of brands and colours when they’re starting out.  Knowing more or less what each colour looks like, and how it mixes is great.  But if choosing the correct exact named hues becomes an obsession, or a barrier to just getting out some paints and experimenting, then I’m not sure how useful it is.  Perhaps I’m speaking from the luxurious position of someone whose been lucky enough to have the time to learn her paint-box and colours inside out; with less time available knowing names and brands could be more important?

Other Brands of Watercolour paint

Alongside Winsor and Newton, I use other brands of paint.  After hearing lots of recommendations, I purchased some Daniel Smith “dot cards”.  I figured they’d be a good way to test the different colours without committing to a whole (pricey) tube of paint.  I ended up painting from them, until I wore through the paper the dots were on, alongside my normal paint-box.  I wish I’d taken a photo of the used cards, they were rather pretty.

Eventually, I decided to buy a few tubes, which I use a lot. My most used is the Spring green.  It’s a brutal colour fresh from the tube, but mixed with purples, ochres, blues and yellows; it makes for a beautiful and adaptable hue.

Daniel Smith tubes

I also use Daler Rowney on occasion, and have become extremely attached to Doctor Martin’s Hydrus inks.  these transparent colours are almost violent in their vividness, and are incredibly useful.  I mix them in with my watercolours and they give an extra punch that helps emulate the bright colours of nature.  The colour I use most is their Quniacridone magenta, perfect for mixing up to capture pink flowers.

Doctor Martin’s inks – perfect for the pink of a cyclamen

Other brands of watercolour paint I’ve heard about from other botanical illustrators include: Sennelier, St. Petersburg White nights, Talens: Rembrandt, Shinhan, Holbein, Schminke, and Old Holland.  I’d love it if anyone who uses and adores these ranges felt like giving a bit of a review in the comments section.

Pink flowers and Opera pink watercolour

When it comes to pink flowers,  along with the Dr. Martin’s magenta, I use plenty of Opera rose.  Now, although this is a fabulous colour, it is notoriously awkward as it’s known to fade.  Artists have tested it’s lightfastness, with varying results (Jane Blundell, and an interesting post on whether or not watercolour paints DO fade from Lee Angold.)

Lots of pigments fade with time, and watercolours are prone to become paler.  Some pigments fade more than others.  The pinks and purples and reds are most fugitive (prone to fading).  You can avoid this by having framed work behind conservation glass (or museum glass), and by keeping original watercolours away from direct sunlight.  It can be a problem though.  I once painted a Purple emperor butterfly, and put it in the window of a gallery.  Within 6 weeks the butterfly had faded to a tawdry (and entirely un-saleable) brown colour.

Greater willowherb Epibolium hirsutum

This is less problematic is you’re creating work for reproduction rather than for exhibition, but it’s worth remembering.  I bought up a batch of Opera rose from different companies recently;  I’m interested to know which brand I end up liking most.  I’m not alone in this. There’s a lot of online chat about opera rose, including rather a nice comparison of different brands video on Youtube.

Opera rose paints from Jackson’s, Winsor and Newton, Holbein, and the W&N in pan form.

One more paint…and it’s Gouache!

This last paint is for fixing mistakes.  I avoid using it on work I plan to sell, but for work that’s going to be reproduced, it can be a life saver.  Permanent white gouache.  You mix it to a thick consistency, then paint over smudges and mistakes.  It’s easy to blend in with the white of the paper.  Avoid touching it until it’s dry, it’ll clump and lift the colour from underneath.  Actually, don’t touch it when it IS dry either, the grease on your hands may dull the white.  It’s also really useful for adding delicate white hairs against a dark leaf, and it’s an important part of my tool kit.

In the plate below, done for HarperCollins Flower Guide, you can see how white gouache was used to remove the upper leaves of the Dune gentian.  This adapted plate went to repro with no quibbles.  (For more on mixing mistakes in watercolour, check out my earlier blog).

Gentian plate with alterations circled in red

I use this paint quite thick, and it’s important to thoroughly rinse the paint-box and brush when you’re finished with it or it’ll make all your watercolours paler and chalky.

Common comfrey Symphytum officinale with hairs on the stem picked out with white gouache

Conclusion

If you’re looking for comparisons of different brands of watercolour paint, there’s a whole lot of really interesting blogs and youtube videos online.  For me, my lifelong relationship with Winsor and Newton continues unabated.  They’re easy to come by, good strong colours, not prohibitively expensive, comparatively lightfast, and I love them.

…and you can easily take a paint-box into a bluebell wood!

Most of the materials and paints mentioned in this blog are readily available from art stores.  I try to shop local, but if that’s not possible, then I buy from UK suppliers such as Jackson’s, Cass Art, London Graphics Centre, and Ken Bromley.  I try to avoid the big online sellers even though they’re sometimes cheaper; it’s my (tiny) way of supporting the art stores that support me.  In the US, I believe Dick Blick is a good shop, and sells online.

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