With so many options available on the market, how can you decide which are the best watercolor brushes? First, watercolor is a transparent medium. It continues in thin layers of color and allows the white paper to act as a source of white light for your tones. How you want to place those colors is both a personal choice and a functional device. So you want the feel and comfort of the brush to help guide your decision.

From a practical perspective, you want a brush that loads well with paint to eliminate the need to constantly dip the brush in paint or water. You want a brush made from natural hair that has a nice “belly”, wider in the center, that tapers to a good point. Some natural hair does it better than others. The best, in my opinion, is the pure Kolinsky saber. Its large belly and long, sharp hairs retain a lot of fluid. These hairs, in the best brushes, come only from the hairs on the male’s tail. So for a truly fabulous watercolor painting experience, splurge on a Kolinsky sable brush at some point. These are the best brushes for watercolor. But note that the pure Kolinsky saber was banned in 2014. The pure red sable sable is no longer available. Hence, today’s Kolinsky saber comes from the tails of Siberian weasels. Still, they are fine brushes.

You can certainly find good watercolor brushes without having to go out of your way for pure Kolinsky. These are squirrel, goat, horse, and “camel” to name the rest of the natives. Then there are synthetics like nylon, silicone, and fake this or fake. Try as many as you can until you find what works best for you and your personal style. By the way, you saw earlier that I put camel in quotes. This is because camel hair brushes are made from the hair of other creatures such as a horse, goat, or squirrel. Also, many times these mixed hair brushes are simply marketed as natural hair brushes. There is also ox, which comes from inside the ears of cows. Sabeline is ox hair that has been bleached and then dyed to look like red sable.

Other considerations when buying brushes include a well-made ferrule (the metal thing that holds the hairs in), short or long handle (watercolorists often prefer the short one), and handle material (wood or plastic). The ferrule must be attached, as well as the hairs, with waterproof glue. The handle should seal well if it is made of wood.

Your brushes will last for many years if you buy good quality and take good care of them. One more tip: brushes last much longer if you always pull and never push them on the paint surface.

There are several brands of good quality brushes. At better art supply stores, you can find Winsor & Newton, Grumbacher, Princeton, Simmons, and Liquitex, to name a few.

At our store in Hamilton, Ohio, you can see many of these brushes and touch them before you buy.