Today's going to be a quick one.
We're going to be comparing a natural hair brush a squirrel brush in particular
to a synthetic brush and actually see how much of a difference there is,
which is better, which should you buy?
Is there really a difference?
So there's a million different types of brushes out there You
can't possibly compare all synthetic brushes with all natural hair brushes.
So I've chosen a particular brand, a brand I haven't used before
called Escoda Spanish brand.
And I've chosen two brushes.
One is a squirrel brush called Acuario.
That's my best Spanish, because Australians like to extend their vowels
. We say Aquarioooooh, and the other one is a synthetic brush.
called Ultimo.
Now, as you can see they're, they're pretty similar in size.
Um, they're both size 18.
Let's have a look at what kind of point these come to.
So if we look at those two points, Um, you can see maybe the,...it's close.
Maybe the natural fur brush comes more to a point the squirrel
brush.The length of the handles.
Just comparing the two here.
The synthetic brush has a slightly longer handle.The belly.
This part here in the synthetic brush could possibly be a bit
wider than the natural fur brush.
Very close though.
Let's give them a little bit of a test run.
I'll be testing things like the snap.
I'll explain that in a minute, the water holding ability, the water release, the
kind of brush marks it does, or they do, and also just the general feel of it.
And then, um, we'll just see what, you know, how they compare.
So the first test I'm going to do is just to see how much water it holds.
So I'm just going to dip both brushes into my container here of water and I've,
I've dirtied the water so you, could probably seeit a little bit easier and
then we're going to lift the brush out and just see which one stops dripping last.
And I guess that's kind of a test about which one holds more water.
So let's have a look here we go.
The Aquario, the question is, does that make that much of a difference?
Let's do what we call the snap test.
Now the snap test is basically when you do a hard brush mark, how far
the hairs curl over and whether they bounce back into, into position or not.
So we'll just give this a little test.
Oh, I might use a little bit of color here
some beautiful Opera Rose.
And we'll just do a quick mark and we'll have a look at that now, hoping
that you can see that from that mark, that the brush has kind of hasn't
flicked back to the original position, but you know, it's not too bad, but
you can see it's on a bit of an angle.
That's the, it's the natural brush.
That's a squirrel brush.
Let's try it with the synthetic.
And there's the synthetic and you'll see that it flicks back
nearly to itsoriginal position.
Not quite.
Just to show the extreme.
This is with a lot of water taken out of the hair of the brush.
So you'll see that this is the squirrel brush, the natural hair
brush and see how far that's bent over compared to the synthetic.
Now, of course, you're not going to be painting that dry generally,
but that just gives you an example I've exaggerated it there.
The question is how important is that?
Some people actually like the brush to flick back to its original position,
because it's just easier to do the next brush mark, I guess if it stays bent
over too much, then it can be a bit awkward to do your next brush mark.
But I think.
Um, if you're using squirrel brushes or natural fur brushes,
uh, you kind of get used to that.
I'll say that again in English, you kind of get used to that anyway.
Um, and it's all got to do with the pressure that you put on the brush.
And usually when you use a squirrel brush, you tend to
use it in a more gentle manner.
Less pressure if you like, because it releases the water quite well, which
brings us to our next little test.
What's the water release like in these, and is there a difference?
So what I might do here is I'll mix some paint and then we'll just
say how many brush marks we can do until it starts to dry out a bit.
So we'll start with the synthetic brush and , I might use this ah, this is
such a beautiful color and we'll mix enough because we want to use the same
kind of consistency for both tests, because that can make a difference.
And then I'll just start doing brush strokes
and I'll try and keep the pressure the same when I do it for each now this
is, as I said, the synthetic brush and.
Yeah, I've got to say it's, it's pretty good at the moment.
look at that always all those brush marks still hasn't run out.
You can see just now it's starting to break up a bit starting to
give us what they call crackle.
This broken look, where you can see little white dots because there's not
enough water running out or not enough paint running out to fill up a little.
Little, um, bumps in the paper.
So what we might do is just leave that there it's started to kind of go
a bit crackly or produce crackle after a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 brush strokes.
And then it started to really kind of happen.
Now we're using the, um, Squirrel brush and we fill , again, we fill
our brush up as much as we can.
Same consistency of paint . We'll do the same thing.
We'll try and get the pressure.
The same
2, 3, 4.
What was the other one?
8, 5, 6, 7.
8 9 10 turn my brush over see there's , look, see, see, that's
what can happen when you press hard?
Well, I would say that.
Oh, boy, they're pretty evenly matched up by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Then it starts to lose it.
Whooh I'd actually call that a draw?
Now, something you might've noticed is that when I did the brush marks
with the synthetic, um, the brush marks were much darker if you like,
that's possibly because this natural fur brush the squirrel brush.
Held a bit more water and may have added more water to the
consistency and lightened the color.
However, if that was also the case, then you would imagine that it would
give you more strokes before it started to lose the fluid hope I'm not losing
you here at the end of the day.
What I would say in conclusion, same kind of thing as the end of the day.
Isn't it.
In conclusion, I'd say that as far as releasing the paint goes,
they're pretty much the same.
I could do the thing halfway through my video now where I say, Hey, if
you're enjoying this video, don't forget to subscribe and hit that
little bell to get that notification.
But I think that's all pretty obvious.
I think I don't need to say that because.
You've probably been on YouTube before, and you'd know that
I'd want you to do that.
So I'm not going to ask it.
We can do the drip test to see how much water it holds.
We can do the water release test.
We can look at the points.
We can look at the belly of the brush.
We can do all those things, but when it comes down to it, it's how it handles.
When you do a painting, what it feels like.
So I'm just going to do a quick little sketch here
with both brushes.
Um, and just give you my thoughts of what it feels like.
So there'll be different kinds of brush, strokes, thicker
paint, thinner paint, thin lines, thick lines, washes, et cetera.
Now this isn't obviously a proper painting, but it's just to try
different consistencies of paint.
If you don't know what this is just a boat dry dock boat I do tend to
use a lot of water when I paint.
But at the same time, there are times when I want a really thick brush,
mark, you know, straight paint, basically just playing with the brush.
Look, I really, don't find a lot of difference between the two, in fact, I
would say the difference is negligible.
Now, as far as price is concerned for these two a natural hair brush
made from squirrel is more expensive obviously than synthetic brush.
So this one ranges in price.
This is the squirrel brush ranges in price from about $110 to 160.
That's Australian dollars and it depends on where you buy it.
I'll put a link below to the cheapest place.
I've been able to find it's squirrel obviously.
And they're usually more expensive than synthetic brushes.
Well, not usually always more expensive synthetic brushes on the
other hand are cheaper and this one the Ultimo is around 40 to $70.
I've been able to find online.
So there's a big difference in price.
One thing I can't test is how long they last for squirrel brushes
or natural hair brushes tend to last longer, but I don't know.
things may have changed and only time will tell how long
this synthetic brush will last.
Water-holding ability goes to the Aquario it holds when you saw the drip test.
Just a little bit more water, but I don't think that really matters.
As far as release is concerned.
They seem to be really, really similar as far as the snap is
concerned, the synthetic brush snaps back a little bit more.
And as I said, some people prefer that as far as brush strokes are concerned
. They seem to be really, really similar.
I love squirrel brushes.
They've got this beautiful, soft feel to them.
They're hold , a lot of water.
They come to a beautiful point.
They're just beautiful to use.
But I have to say in all honesty that the difference between
these brushes is negligible.
I, you know, it's got the softness, it holds a lot of water.
It comes to a point.
Look, I think the Ultimo is a great substitute for a squirrel brush.
So, you know, save yourself some dollars if you like and get that
this is slightly better maybe.
But look, I really, after 30 years of painting and I've used a lot of different
brushes, I find it really hard to tell the difference between these two.
Okay, so that's it.
What do you use?
Do you use a synthetic brush or squirrel brush?
I'd love to know.
Um, let me know in the comments and let me know what brand you use.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you next time.