Natural Hair Artists Watercolor Paintbrushes

Why are there so many different kinds of natural hair watercolor paint brushes? The reason is simple. Each kind of natural hair has it’s own specialty we can say, or something that it is good at. Some natural hair is more durable, some springy, absorbent, soft, or just inexpensive. All of those different characteristics can be valuable to different artists when they are painting. So, here is a little information about the most common kinds of hair used when making watercolor paintbrushes.

Kolinsky Sable: This is the top of the line, premier natural hair for watercolor artists. They love it because it is soft, points well and carries tons of color. (This is helpful for artists so they don’t have to continually go back to the palette to recharge their paintbrush.) When you paint with Kolinsky sable watercolor brushes you can just paint, and paint, and paint. Kolinsky is actually the tail hair from male sables from the Siberian region of the former Soviet Union. Male animals generally have thicker hair than females and sables raised in this cold environment have even thicker and stronger hair.

Red Sable, Black Sable (a.k.a. Fitch): Red or Black sable is a natural hair that is also derived from sables, but not necessarily the hardiest ones. Red and Black sable brushes have many of the same characteristics as Kolinsky, but not as pronounced a performance.

Squirrel: Many times you need to visualize what each hair will look like to understand how it will perform. A squirrel hair watercolor brush is very absorbent, probably the most absorbent that you will find. It is also very soft-bordering on floppy. Bit, if you have a soft, very organic painting style and love creating large washes of color in your art, then a squirrel hair watercolor paint brush may be for you.

We hope that this answers most of your questions regarding watercolor brushes that are made from natural hair. Remember knowing more about your art materials can help make you a better artist and a better shopper. Now, don’t just sit here reading about it… go make some ART!