Why quill brush for watercolor?
As you transition from a watercolor hobbyist who paints small sketches to a learning artist who paints composed scenes in larger formats, investing in a good quill brush is essential for your successful learning and transformation.
Designed for watercolor painting, quill brush can help you apply large washes evenly, reaching small shapes, all the while without having to reloading the brush many times. To understand this in a visual way, watch my YouTube tutorial below on essential supplies for absolute watercolor beginners:
Quill brushes are traditionally made with animal hair, hence the name "quill". But these days, technology advancement has closed the gap between real animal hair and artificial hair, making high quality quills more accessible for learning artists.
However, choosing the right quill brush can still be an overwhelming task. And that's what this guide is for, helping you make an informed – but speedy – decision, so that you can move on and have fun with your painting, instead of feeling stuck.
Disclaimer: Brushes endorsed in this guide have all been tested and used by me to create actual artworks, not just one-time test as many product review videos are based on. While the options listed by no means cover the vast variety of brands and brushes out there, these are all viable options in my opinion. There is, however, some nuances in working with each of the brand which can impact how you work with the brush. This guide is very much about teasing apart these subtle differences so that you can make your choice based on your own learning objectives, painting preferences, as well as in a manner that mitigates your personal weaknesses.
My recommended quill brushes for learning artists
Da Vinci Petit Gris Pur Blue Squirrel Brush - Quill, Short Handle, Size 6
This is my go-to quill brush and it meets all the key criteria for versatile applications. It is however, the most pricey of all the options I listed out. I will be using this brush as our benchmark to explain these key criteria’s, and then compare the rest of the brushes to it.
Price: High (~$106 MSRP for size 6)
However, size 5 are significantly cheaper than size 6 and will be easier to use for beginners. Size 6 is slightly too big for 1/4 sheet and smaller paper sizes.
Tip fineness: High.
This brush has very fine tip and can achieve small details easily, with control.
Water holding capacity: High.
The belly of the brush can hold large amount of water, making it possible to tackle a large wash without having to reload in the middle of it.
Ease of switching between dry and wet texture: Easy
This is a key attribute to quill brushes I feel that is not being highlighted enough. This refers to the ability for a brush to reliably soak water and reliably shed water without the residue water interfering the next application thus giving us a "surprise". Being easy to shed or gain water also means the brush will allow you to switch between dry frazzled textures and smooth, wet textures easily. And this brush checks the mark for all of these.
Ease of thoroughly cleaning brush: Hard
Any brush with high water holding capacity will require some extra effort to rinse completely. This to me is not a defect of the brush itself, rather, considerations when you work with such a brush. You may need to upgrade your water jug to a bigger one to facilitate thorough rinse. Or you may want to develop a habit of squeezing the paint out of the brush onto the palette, before rinsing it which wastes a lot of paint. This is something I do before need to rinse and switch colors completely. *
Link to purchase (sponsored by Blick): https://tinyurl.com/3p2spy9s
* Note: In practice, I rarely need to thoroughly rinse quill brush when I paint, because having colors blending on paper to a certain degree is desirable, even though for learning artists, this may be too difficult to control. But once you have developed your muscle memory of paint consistency, then rinsing isn't always necessary.
Princeton Aqua Elite Series 4850 Synthetic Brush - Quill, Size 6, Short Handle
The main consideration for this brush is that its tip is not as fine compared to the Da Vinci one. Its hair has a more gradual/elongated transition between the thickest to the thinnest part, which contributes to the ease of use for beginners – because a subtle pressure change is not gonna make the stroke suddenly get much thicker or much thinner.
Water holding capacity: Medium (Less than DaVinci)
It's very easy to saturate this brush with the colors and apply with smooth results, albeit it tend to take more reloading than the Da Vinci one. But once fully loaded, it will still last a long while.
Ease of switching between dry and wet texture: Harder than Da Vinci
While it's easy to saturate this brush, it is a bit harder to get rid of its paint with a simple dab on the towel, which means the dry brush texture sometimes will not come through predictably. One way to mitigate this is to test any dry brush strokes on a spare sheet of paper before applying it to the painting.
Ease of thoroughly cleaning brush: Easy
Link to purchase (Sponsored by Blick): https://tinyurl.com/yz4x4994
Escoda Último Synthetic Squirrel Brush - Mop, Size 16
This is also a great quill brush, at a slightly more accessible price compared to Da Vinci or the real animal hair Ultimo line from Escoda. It has all matching qualities except for the fine tip.
Price: Medium (~$44 for Size 18)
However, size 14 will be a better choice for beginners. Size 16 is slightly too big for 1/4 sheet or smaller paper.
Tip fineness: Medium (Not as fine as DaVinci).
The main consideration for this brush is that its tip is not as fine compared to the Da Vinci one. Especially when it's not fully loaded with paint, its hair are more likely to flair out. This means it’s capable of more randomized dry brush textures more beautifully than the Da Vinci brush! But some learning artists may be thrown off by this – especially they aren’t used to a looser style of painting and prefer everything to be precise.
Water holding capacity: Slightly lower than Da Vinci
Ease of switching between dry and wet texture: Easy (same as DaVinci).
As mentioned, this brush excels at creating random dry textures. It sheds its paint and loads new paint readily. For large brushes, that is a merit!
Ease of thoroughly cleaning brush: Easier than DaVinci
The ferrule is not see-through so it's hard to tell how much longer the hair extends beyond the collar, but I suspect it is possibly shorter than its animal hair equivalence, leading to a slightly lower water holding capacity.
Link to purchase (sponsored by Blick): https://tinyurl.com/4xr2p5xh
MEEDEN Professional Watercolor Brushes
A much more affordable alternative, with similar qualities as the Da Vinci except for the water holding capacity. It is also a bit inconvenient that the brushes aren't sold individually. You have to get a pack of 4 or a pack of 9.
Price: Low ($35 for 4 different sizes)
In my opinion, the most versatile size is No 9
Tip fineness: High (same as Da Vinci).
I'm surprised by how fine the tip is for the Meeden brushes.
Water holding capacity: Medium (lower than Da Vinci)
While this brush has very fine tip, its water holding capacity isn't as desirable. One way to mitigate this, is mixing more, pressing down the belly on the palette as you mix, to make sure it's fully saturated. However, this workaround doesn't mitigate the fact you need to reload the brush more often than other brushes mentioned above.
Ease of switching between dry and wet texture: Hard (harder than Da Vinci)
Similar to the Escoda brush mentioned above, it tends to stay on the dry side, therefore easy to reach a level of dryness ideal for dry brush marks. It's capable of creating beautiful textures because of this attribute.
Ease of thoroughly cleaning brush: Easy.
I notice the ferrule of this brush is a bit lower than other quills I used – which may explain the difficulty of loading it. I don't feel I can fully press it – belly and all – onto the palette as I mix. The hair that extends beyond the ferrule does look long, telling me it should still be able to hold a lot of water. But it's taking a bit longer for it fully saturate.
Link to purchase (sponsored by Meeden): https://go.meedenart.com/4alwhw4
In conclusion
Hopefully this guide provides some actionable information on investing in a good quill brush. If you are looking for my TL;DR on this, I'd say:
If you are an absolute beginner, get the Princeton Aqua Elite Quill Brush, it's most conducive to learning the medium and to control the brush.
If you are looking for something long lasting and won't get phased out quickly as your skill grows, get the Da Vinci Petit Gris Pur.
