Waterbrushes

Hello. Many watercolor artists are aware of waterbrushes, but may have not heard any details about them. Although I'm a beginner with watercolors, I started using waterbrushes right from the start because of my desire to do landscape sketching during my backpacking and camping trips. I'll soon be posting a bit about my travel kit, but for now I'm going to concentrate on the brushes themselves.

This first photo shows the relative size of the waterbrushes that I have. I tried to include some common items in the photo to give an idea about how big the brushes are. That's a 3"x5" index card, a AA battery (with a paper clip to keep it from rolling away), and a brand new drawing pencil. I hope that helps. (click on the photos to see a larger size in a popup window)

All of the waterbrushes come with a plastic cap to protect the bristles and keep them from leaking. The way they work is that you fill the handles with water, and the water wicks into the bristles to keep them moist, rather than dipping the brush into water. For more water in the bristles, you can give a gentle squeeze to force more water through to the bristles. I've not had a problem with leaking water from the waterbrushes (with one trivial exception), even though they are kept filled in my travel kit.

The three brushes on the right are Aquaflow brushes that came in a set from Dick Blick art supplies. The two on the right are brand new Niji brushes, I got these from Cheap Joe's Art Stuff. One of the Niji brushes is a "travel" size (slightly shorter but the handle is a bit bigger around) and a flat. The travel brushes come in a few different sizes, but I just got the medium to see what it was like.

Here's a closer look at the bristles.

The Aquaflow brushes (blue, green and red) are sized about like an 8, 4 and 2. Their handles are transparent but do stain a little because sometimes while squeezing the handles, some pigment is drawn back into the water when you release the pressure. This really hasn't been a problem. The bristles stain too, but again, it hasn't been a problem.

The only leaking issue I've had has been with the medium Aquaflow brush (the green one). If I squeeze too hard on the handle, some drops escape from around the refill joint and run down the outside of the brush into the bristles. Since the water usually winds up where I wanted it anyway, I note this as an annoyance to be aware of. The other two brushes don't do this, and I'm sure a quick wrap of teflon tape on the threads would stop it. I just haven't bothered.

The Niji flat is a 1/2".

The Niji travel brush is sized between the two smaller Aquaflows (about a 3?). Like all of these brushes, the bristles are stiff to begin with and until you work with them for a short time they aren't very responsive. Since this is a new brush, you'll see the difference in the next photo.

The top three lines (in green) were done with the Aquaflow brushes - large, medium and small, top to bottom. They work well and I really like them.

The next line (in black) is the Niji travel brush. You can see how unresponsive the brand new brush is to pressure, where I tried to press hard and soft in the horizontal line. Let me say though, that since I've taken this photo, the brush has relaxed somewhat and easily matches the performance of the Aquaflow brushes, so don't take this photo as representative of what it can do.

The bottom blue lines and the bottom card with the black/gray lines are done with the flat brush. Once again, I started off very disappointed in the performance of the brush but after a short break-in period it's working much better. My one complaint is that the edge does not come to a chisel point. The bristle edge is ragged when loaded with paint. That makes it easier to do textures like barn walls, but usually you have to take into account the uneven flow of paint during your brushstroke. You can clearly see this in the bottommost card samples.

Waterbrushes are a breeze to clean. Run the bristles over a damp paper towel to get off most of the pigment, then give a squeeze to the handle to finish the rinse. The water in the handles lasts a surprisingly long time. I can get several sketches out of a single fill, and the brushes are flexible enough that I can just change to another brush or swap handles (the Aquaflows are interchangeable) when one gets low.

Bottom line is that these are fun to use. There are little differences in how you paint with them compared to regular brushes but it's not hard to learn. The convenience is outstanding, and it's an inspired idea, carrying your water and brushes in one handy unit.

I hope this post gave you some information you can use. If there's something I left out or you have something to add, please leave comments.