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Traded my last good sable brush for a synthetic set, kind of regretting it
I swapped a nearly new size 6 sable round for someone's full set of synthetic brushes at the Portland meetup last Saturday because my watercolor work kept eating through my good brushes. The synthetic ones hold a sharper edge for my tiny detail paintings, so I thought it was a fair deal. But after three days of using them, the spring just isn't there and the paint pools weirdly on my paper. Has anyone else made this trade and found a way to make synthetics work for watercolor, or should I just hunt down that person again and offer something else?
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masondixon1mo ago
That size 6 sable is a workhorse for watercolor, I definitely wouldn't have let it go for a full set of synthetics. I get the appeal of sharp edges for tiny details, but you're right, the spring is the whole game. Sable snaps back and holds a puddle of paint like a tiny water balloon, synthetics just dump it all at once. My fix is to load the brush way less and use a paper towel to wick off the excess before I touch the paper, that helps with the pooling, but it never feels the same. Honestly, you traded a tool that does everything for a set that only does a few things well. I'd try to track that person down and see if they're open to a swap back, maybe toss in a few tubes of paint to sweeten the deal. Sable is worth the hassle of replacing more often, you can't fake that feel.
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