As mentioned earlier in the week, I’ve been using an extended point brush for the details in my 30×30 direct Watercolour Baroque sketches.
At the start of the month, I did this page to test different options of fine brushes. The 30×30 challenge always is a good prompt to do this, but I was also thinking about these brushes last year while doing my Lockdown Teacups project. In December I was testing a number of super fine brushes that I got from Rosemary Brushes (see here) but this month I’ve been revisiting some slightly larger brushes.
This month I started with the small dagger, then tried the tiny size 1 round before deciding that the extended point felt the best. It was not a scientific decision… just simply based on what felt the best!
This is certainly not a new brush. It was a special Christmas 2016 edition so I know exactly how long I’ve had it! The brush was also included in a brush update from August 2021.
The brush I’m using at the moment is Rosemary and Co, Series 336 Size 8 Extended Needle Point Posara. It’s a squirrel blend brush – synthetic tip and squirrel belly.
It behaves very much like a rigger but with the added benefit of a reservoir so you don’t have to pick up paint as often. My use of a ‘detail brush’ is to replace what I would normally do with my fude pen so this feature is a winner!
I also have a similar Da Vinci brush (sable/squirrel) but at the moment I’m preferring the Rosemary one.
I thought I would do a test to see how many lines I can get from a fully loaded brush.
WOW! I filled a full page of lines and could have kept going (the marks at the bottom of the page show how much was still in the belly!)
When I use this brush at the moment I’m usually changing the colour of the wash in the brush frequently, but this page has proved to me that I can get more out of it than I expected.
If you want to see this brush in action, I created a Reel on Instagram yesterday – see here. I’ll do some screenshots and share some thoughts about this sketch next week when I do my next 30×30 update.
I’m not sure if this brush will be locked in as a permanent part of my everyday kit… but right now I’m loving using it!
And oh! by the way, I really want to get around to doing some more study of The Orders of Architecture, so it was fun to be sketching the Composite Order on these pages. Maybe once I’ve finished my 30×30 Baroque project I’ll have time for that.
8 Comments
Oh this brush is exactly what I’m looking for. I love the squirrel synthetic round brush I own and I was just thinking I really need to update my liner brush to a similar mix. This would be even better.
Great price too!
HI Annette – glad it’s what you are looking for 🙂
I bought one of these from Escoda on sale because I stumbled upon it and the price was great and it was, well, an Escoda. It’s an Escoda Optimo Kolinsky #10. I think I tried it out when I first got it and thought, wow, this is really interesting. But then let it fall by the wayside because when dry, it looks very odd and I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I should get it out and start using it again. I love Rosemary and might get one or two of hers. If she offered it in a travel brush I would be right on it.
I have a large framed poster of the orders of architecture columns, plus three posters that are individual studies framed in my living room. Have had for over 30 years and I still love them and am fascinated by them.
Now I need to get that Escoda out and start playing with it.
HI Mary – have fun getting your brush out again… and nice to here about your Orders poster. I have a dream of doing a series of them one day! 🙂
Mary & Liz – this is a longshot but I’m trying to track down a MLaiuppa that was in a online conversation about a portable palette box back in 2017 (it was in the comments section on a post about the Frazer Price Palette Box). She thought what she had may have been a W&N prototype and it had a number 19783/76 on it. A friend may have that exact same palette and I’m trying to find more info for her. You can reach out to me at sharon at colorfilledcottage dot com
Prefer to not buy animal hair. Anything out there similar but all synthetic? THANK YOU. 🙂
Hi Brenda – I’m not sure I’ve seen any but will keep my eye out – some have synthetic points but still have squirrel bellies.
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