Sable watercolor brushes

This is a great brush at a reasonable price. I have $200.00 brushes but I use these daily

These brushes work great on any surface. The set has a great range of sizes. They are smooth, retain a great amount of water and pigment and dry without kinks. I haven't lost any bristles in my paint or on my paper. Much higher quality than any synthetic hair paint brushes I've bought.

First of all, let it be known that I held back from giving these three stars (or less) because I think it is clear that these are budget brushes. On a level playing field, if a W&N Series 7 or Raphael 8404 is a 5 star, then these are probably a 2. That said, these are a fraction of the price, so I don't think anybody is expecting them to compete with those other brushes. So, with that caveat, I'm giving these a 4. With that out of the way, let's talk about the brushes!I draw and ink comic art (would call myself a cartoonist). I purchased these because I was looking for not great, but decent enough, brushes with natural hair for spotting blacks (filling in large areas of black ink), so I'm not wreaking my good brushes while slopping down tons of ink. Before these, I used some cheaper synthetics that I have - but those don't hold ink like sable brushes do - and it becomes tedious if you're filling in a particularly large area. (if you're wondering why I even bother when I could just use a marker, or fill digitally after scanning, it's just so the original can look the best that it can - hey, I'm putting the time into it, might as well keep it looking good!). For that purpose, these worked out pretty good, but if course I have these, now I gotta see how well they perform for inking, right?Answer: not very well. While these claim to be sable, and that may be true, they are not like kolinski by any stretch. They have a completely different texture. The hairs don't lay down as neatly, in fact they feel like they want to be furry or something. I don't even know how to describe it. Anyhow, to ink, you need sharp point and it needs to keep coming back to that point as you work. You'd be hard pressed to get a sharp point out of these. If you do manage to get a good enough point, #1 it will last only one stroke and #2 often the very tip hairs don't want to let go of any ink, so you're already at a fat line before the ink starts to flow off the brush. I really worked at it, and managed to get some fine details in here an there, but generally it is hit and miss and you can't really predict or depend on how the brush is going to perform moment to moment.So far I've tried three of the sizes. #6, #2, and #0#6 - out of the pack, I grabbed this one, because I had a page with a ton of black to fill in, so why not give it a shot. 6 is big for inking, but a good size for when I have lots of black areas to fill, and this worked out pretty well for that purpose. It held lots of ink and I was able to quickly complete the work on my page with out having to go back to the ink well as much as I would have with my old synthetic. I could see right away that this brush was not going to hold a very crisp point, but for what I was doing, it had a good enough point to get into some tight corners without "going outside the lines" for lack of a better way of saying it. The only issue I had was that this brush certainly exhibited the shedding that others have reported - which was frustrating because picking loose hairs out of an inky brush... not my fave. Hopefully once the loose hairs have worked their way out this won't be a problem anymore. To give you an idea of how much, i was working on an 11x17 page that had maybe 75% black fill (dark page, ha ha), and I had about 6-8 hairs come out in the process. Thankfully non came out on the page itself, they would just sort of work their way out, i'd notice them, and then have to pick them from the brush. For poops and laughs, I did give this brush a crack at some line work, and there was really no usable point on it, but I had no expectations for that since this is a rather large brush for that anyway. Bottom line, success at what I want to use it for.#2 - This is the common size for comic inking. I busted this one out with the express purpose of seeing if these things were worth a darn for inking. Happy to report zero shedding on this one. Other than that, it was mostly frustrating trying to get any sort of use out of this brush. As noted above, it does not want to come to a sharp point. Also the hairs seem to want to come apart instead of hold tight to the shape of the brush, so the result is lines are a little rougher, and not super crisp. So, you have to work hard to get a good line, and if you do it's still a little rough. Also, suffers from the issue I described above where the ink doesn't seem to want to flow of the very tip all the time, so it is unpredictable where the line with start. In a severe pinch, you might be able to get these to work for you, but if you're after a brush for good line work, I would put the money from this set into just one good Series 7 #2 (or i'd say 8404, but you can't seem the get those these days), but really not worth the effort to get a good line, and the risk of it going totally haywire. That said, for rougher work, this could be a good brush. I'm thinking if you don't want to beat up you good brushes doing dry brushing, this is definitely a good option for that. I got some great drybrushing results with this, and it will probably stay in my arsenal for that purpose.#0 - So I thought, if the #2 is not getting me the fine lines I want, maybe the zero will. Why not, I have it, right? Let's test it out. This one was the heart breaker really. I could almost get a good point on it, and it laid down some okay lines (still rough as described above), but the point hairs on this one were really uneven -- like one or two that hung way longer than the others. Made it frustrating to work with, because it almost seemed like it wanted to be okay. This one didn't shed, but boy did I wish those annoying hairs would have shed out, lol. I might make an attempt at trimming the hairs, since I'm not super worried about ruining the brush. Suffers most the same issues as the others - rough, doesn't want to flow off the tip, etc. I would not, on-purpose, go for this brush for line work. But, if you had to, this one is almost alright. Good for drybrushing.Bottom line - if you are interested in brushes for inking line work. Don't use these. They will frustrate you and you're better off using the money for this whole set on one really good kolinski brush. My recco would be a Winsor Newton Series 7 or a Raphael 8404 (if you can find one). I'm not one of those "you gotta spend money on the best" guys, but for this kind of work, you don't want to be fighting your tools, and pretty much any brush i've tried thats not those, you're going to be fighting -- these especially.IF you are looking for a brush to do some of the rougher work that you don't want to subject your better brushes too (saving them wear and tear), these are really good brushes for that. Spotting blacks, dry brushing, etc. Great for that purpose.For watercolor work, or things where you're not super worried about getting sharp, crisp lines, these will probably be pretty decent, especially compared to synthetics.As a value, I think this set is pretty good. For not very much money you get nine brushes, plus a neat zippered case (that I was not expecting!) - so a pretty good value for the money in that regard.

very nice sable brushes, they come in a carboard tube to protect the nib

These brushes are great quality for the cost. They are easy to hold, picks up paint wonderfully and transfers to the paper great! They are even easier to clean. I like that it comes with a case to keep the brush heads safe and damage free when your not using them. Would definitely buy from this brand again.

I'm a beginner, but I've had some professional lessons years back. These are not kolinsky and it doesn't say so in description. That being said, I do have kolinsky brushes to compare to. These are perfect for smaller pieces. DaVinci kolinsky hold much more water and paint, which can be not what you want in so cases. These hold water and paint well, but not as well as kolinsky. However, their ends are cut so they have a pointy tip. So even with a bigger brush I can do larger and more detailed job at the same time. I'm fining myself using these way more vs kolinsky DaVinci - I'm doing sketch size jobs. Note that this particular set has short handles. They sell a set with long handles, but brush sizing is totally different between the two sets. I was thinking that the only difference was the length of a handle and I was wrong. See at my pic showing #2 brush from both sets - long and short handle ones. Overall very happy with these brushes. No shedding at all from two sets that I got. Can't comment on rusting since I've had them for just over a month.

These brushes are inexpensive, BUT . . . well, you get what you pay for. They're limp. If that's okay for the work you do, then they're fine, but I like a brush with a little bit of spring. These don't have that.

These are very nice brushes for sable.