da Vinci Watercolor Series - Petit Gris Pur Brush Set 5358-2 Brush Set - Traditional Quill - Series 418 Sizes 1 & 4 - Pure Russian Blue Squirrel for Mop & Wash Techniques

My first professional watercolor brushes - I don't know why I waited so long to buy these. There is a HUGE difference between these brushes and the cheap ones I'd been using before. ** One of the biggest differences is how much water these brushes hold - they hold a lot! ** They are also very soft, so they bend easily when you apply the brush to the paper. You can get some neat effects by applying the brush in different ways to the paper - for example -- rolling the side of the brush around on the paper creates some neat effects. ** Super easy to rinse too - just shaking the brush in a cup of clean water rinses out the watercolor - I'm not sure about other people's experiences, but it took a lot more work to rinse my old cheapo brushes. ** The brushes keep a nice point. I just reshape the point after rinsing and blotting the brush. I'm uploading a photo of my first painting done with these brushes. (Arches cold-press watercolor paper...paints are QOR, M Graham, and Daniel Smith) **Update 11/1/17** These brushes are still great, but I've found that for some of my paintings I prefer watercolor brushes that are a bit springier. I bought a variety of brushes from Blick, and really like the Catalyst by Princeton. They're pretty cheap, but have a great amount of spring. I also like the da Vinci Cosmotop Spin brushes...they also have some spring to them. However, nothing yet compares to the water carrying capacity of the da Vinci series 5358.

Excellent size 50 brush for watercolor. Perfect for wetting large areas on the paper. It is very well made and super soft.

These are by far the best watercolor brushes I've ever owned. They hold a truly incredible amt of water & paint. So much in fact, that there's a bit of a learning curve.They also come to a nice point. I had to roll the brushes on a paper towel after dipping them in water or paint to avoid flooding the paper. I wish I had more of them. The German hand made quality is obvious. Amazon has them at a good price too.

As warned by others, the #80 brush is not as advertised. Instead you get the #20 and #50, which is what I wanted anyway.

Love, love , love these brushes. They hold a ton of water and pigment. Fabulous for washes. They have excellent points and hold them fairly well. This I did not expect from a wash brush. My instructor played with them and has been coveting them. The large brush holds so much it takes a little practice. But, I found these brushes made water control much easier for me.

the da Vinci watercolor brushes hold a lot of water, easily flows the paint and can cover a lot of area. They are easy to handle, make many kinds of marks using the side of the brush, the point of the brush and different strokes with pressure. A couple size brushes is all that is needed to do the whole [painting.

Used this type brush as a kid in art school for ink washes Good toy now.

I am surprised to learn that these mixed hair brushes perform very similar to sable brushes do. Good spring and form the sharp point reasonably well. I use the no. 4 brush a lot for mixing watercolors and do the color pre-testing so I don't need to worry about to wear down my expensive Kolinsky brushes. For the no. 18, I found that it performs more effectively also more versatile than my Isabey #8 cat tongue squirrel brush for the wash work. The only negative thing I can tell is that a few hairs on the large size 18 brush are not attached well as you can see in the photo. In practice, that causes no issue though.