- These brushes are vegans.
I mean they're vegan brushes, they don't eat anything.
Hi, this is Eric from Cafe Watercolor.
This is going to be a two-part miniseries about brushes
and brush strokes.
I thought I'd take this chance to introduce you
some of my new brushes.
They are all synthetic brushes from Escoda.
I am slowly trying to move to use all synthetic brushes
instead of animal hair brushes.
I am not a vegan myself but this is good to know that
no animal is harmed for my painting.
Another reason is that synthetic brushes
are generally cheaper than real animal hair brushes.
So this video is going to be a review
on some of the synthetic brushes I have.
I will compare them to the real animal hair counterparts,
give you the price differences at the time
I record the video and my final thoughts.
Next week. I will be using these brushes to talk about
how to make different brushstrokes.
So make sure you subscribe and hit the bell icon
so you don't miss my next video.
Okay, let's get started.
Okay, so let's compared the mop brush first.
Here, we have real squirrel hair brush.
They are Escoda Aquaria, I got them as a set
from Joseph Zbukvic's set and this too is Escoda Ultimo,
they are the synthetic squirrel hair brush.
So they look very, very similar and they actually perform
very similar as well.
So I'm going to do a little bit of a test and show you guys
how they perform on top of each other.
So this is what I'm going to do, I'm going to mix a color,
so I'm going to use the wonderful Mission Gold
cerulean blue here and I'm going to hold my brush like this
almost like a chopstick like that so that I can
dip both brush into the bucket and also to paint
so hopefully they will get almost equal amount of paint.
So, here we go.
So I'm going to do a stroke like that.
Okay, so these two are from the Escoda Ultimo
and these two are from the Aquario.
So these two are the mark
made by the synthetic squirrel hair brush, these to stripe
are made by the real squirrel hair brush and as you can see,
they are very very similar, they're almost exactly the same.
So if anything, I will say judging by the bead,
the squirrel hair brush might pick up
a little bit more water but just a little smidge,
I don't think it's that much different actually.
So these both are really really good brushes
and as you can see, they're both very soft and I can use
the tip of the Ultimo and do a little bit center line
and stuff, it holds a very nice tip and so does the Aquario.
The Aquario is a little bit older by comparison
but it still performs very very well.
So these two brush, they're both very similar.
Here's a kicker though, the Escoda Aquario,
the number 14, number 18, this set cost $92.15
at the time I record this video on the Jackson's website
and the Escoda Ultimo, I didn't bought them as a set,
I bought them separately but the size are the same (talks),
number 14 and number 18.
And number 14 Escoda Ultimo is $20.55 and the Escoda Ultimo
number 18 is $23.83 at the time of recording this video.
So these two brush add up together is around $45,
so $45 compared to $92, this is around half a price as this
and they perform just as good
as the real squirrel hair brush.
So this is really really great deal and for the quality
of this brush, I really love it.
So I'm still using this a ton because I already got them
but after I get the most out of it,
after they're out of commission, I'm pretty much
going to move on to just using Escoda Ultimo from now on
because they are such great brushes
and they're synthetic brushes
and they are a lot cheaper as well.
Now move on to the synthetic Kolinsky brush,
these two are Escoda Versatil.
This is number 10 and this is number 14 and at the time
of this video, Escoda Versatil number 10 is $11.65
and the number 14 is $13.13.
So they are both very very good brushes as well.
So the counterpart of Escoda Versatil is the Escoda Reserva.
This is the real Kolinsky hair brush.
So I'm going to compare these two brushes together.
So same thing, I'm going to mix a color,
I'm going to use red this time.
So again, I'm going to load up both brushes.
So, I'm going to do the same thing.
So right off the bat, you can see that Escoda Versatil
has a finer point than Reserva.
Now, the Reserva arguably is a little bit older than that
but the hair is softer than the Versatil.
So I'm going to paint them together.
Okay.
Okay, both of them run out.
Okay, so again, very, very similar, however,
I think the Versatil actually holds just a little bit
more paint than the Reserva.
Now let me use the synthetic one to do some different type
of brushstroke, some thinner lines.
So as you can see, you can get some really nice thin
to thick lines like that.
It has a very nice point so it's very easy to do so.
So let me try the Reserva, okay?
So you can do some nice in line as well if you use
the sharp point tip of the brush, okay?
The side of the brush.
Okay here we try the side of the brush as well.
So again, very, very similar.
The only thing I would say is the synthetic one,
the Versatil one is a little bit harder,
the hair is a little bit more resilient so you can see
by the mark it make, it has a little bit sharper point
when you just kinda press it down versus the Reserva,
it's more like a round brush, so this is the shape
of the brushstroke is a little bit more similar
to a squirrel hair brush so while this one
is a little bit sharper, but also you can see that
it makes some nice fine lines.
Both of them make some nice fine line.
So the Versatil, the edge seems to be
a little bit straighter when you're doing brushstroke
and things like that.
I think just because the nature of its hair
is a little bit harder while the Reserva, it feels,
the Reserva feels pretty good because it's softer.
So when you're painting like organic stuff,
it probably feels a little bit better, however,
Reserva is a close second,
it still feels really, really good.
You feel a little bit more resistant with the Versatil
so again, both very good brushes.
I'm not going to say they are exactly the same
but I can live with just using Versatil actually
because it's actually a very good brush as well.
So I'm just going to compare the number 10 Escoda Versatil
versus the number 10 Escoda Reserva.
So at the time of this video, the number 10 Escoda Versatil,
the synthetic Kolinsky brush is $11.65
and the real Kolinsky brush, the Escoda Reserva
number 10 brush costs about $28.07.
So again, this is half,
actually less than half the price as this.
Again, these two feels a little bit more different,
this feels a little bit softer.
So if you like softer hair brush, the synthetic brush
will feel a little bit harder on your hand but for me,
the price is a lot cheaper and also, I feel like
it's a little bit more versatile probably because
of the name, I'm not sure because you can make some nice
fine line with it but you can also paint
a little bit more rigid shape just because the hair
is a little bit more resilient so you can paint
some hard edge shape stuff a little bit easier
versus the Reserva, when you're doing that, you always feel
like you need to press down just a little bit more
to get a nice hard edge.
So I use this to paint portrait a lot and vegetations
and stuff but I can also use this as well.
So again, it's your choice but both of them
are very, very good brushes.
Another one I have is a Escoda Pearla, I already shared
this brush before when I was sharing
my painting materials and stuff.
So this is also a very good brush
but it is very, very cheap, I actually didn't check
how much it is and you can buy it in separately.
This is a number 12 one, I just wanna show you
because it's actually still part
of my synthetic brush collection.
So I like to use it for,
I'm just gonna mix these two color together.
So I like to use it for obviously as man made structure,
something a little bit harder just because the brush
is a little bit harder, a little bit more resilient
so I can get to paint some harder,
more straightforward shape man made structure
and things like that.
So these are very, very good for that.
And again, they make very nice fine point as well.
So this is great for things like maybe electric poles
and things like that and it's very, very good.
However, they do go out of commission a little bit sooner.
So they're not very, very durable, especially if you paint
with the tip a lot so I tend to replace them a lot more.
So all in all, these are all very, very good
synthetic brushes, I can do a painting perfectly fine
with just these five brushes, maybe with a rigger
or something like that but I've done painting
with just these five brushes or maybe even less,
I've done painting with probably just four brushes
just like these and if you add these four brushes together,
it's probably a little bit over $60 or something like that
so they are very, very cheap.
So think of it this way, these four brushes,
these actually cost less than these two brushes.
So the synthetic brush is obviously a lot better deal.
However, I don't know how durable those are.
So far, they seem pretty good.
I have done about 10 plus paintings with these four brushes
and they are still going strong,
they're still doing very very well.
So if you're interested in any of these brushes,
definitely check out Jackson's Art Supply,
they are a lot cheaper, their price is better than
a lot of other online art stores including Amazon.
So I will put the link down below so you guys can see
in the description area but yeah,
hopefully you enjoy these and happy painting.
I hope you enjoy this video.
As I said, these are very nice brushes, I really like them.
The only thing I noticed is that Escoda Versatil
is a bit harder than real Kolinsky hair brush
but it's still pretty good for me.
I want to be able to switch to completely synthetic brushes
so this is definitely very encouraging to know
that the synthetic brushes perform very well.
Next week, we are going to take a look at
how to create different brushstroke for your painting.
It's going to be a good one so make sure you subscribe
and hit the bell icon so you won't miss on my next video.
Also, let me know what's your favorite
synthetic brush down below.
If you haven't, be sure to visit my website
at cafewatercolor.com,
sign up to get my fast track watercolor PDF guide.
I am Eric from Cafe Watercolor, see you next time.