Let’s Talk About Quill Brushes

Hi friends! I was on a mission to find a good synthetic quill brush last year. I found many that worked well, were budget-friendly and most importantly were cruelty-free. Traditional Quill brushes were made of animal fur, usually, squirrel encased in a ferrule made of a bird quill. Now they are made of real fur or synthetic hair and are often in a plastic ferrule bound with wire. These brushes are unique for their great capacity to hold water and paint for watercolor painters. Fur quill brushes can be expensive and I prefer not to use real fur brushes for ethical reasons so I am delighted to find so many synthetic options that are high quality and perform well. We are all different and your needs for a brush may differ from mine so I wanted to create a comparison of the quill brushes I have so you can choose the one that is right for you. You do not need many, a smaller and a larger one will do the trick for most painters so you might as well choose the best one for you the first time. Watch the video to see them in action.

Here is a recap of the brushes from the video and a brief note about each one. The only natural hair quill brush I own is a Winsor Newton Pure Squirrel Quill I will list the brushes most similar to the real squirrel first. *Affiliate links are used in this blog post.

• Princeton Neptune Quill, available in sizes 4, 6, and 8 (note quil sizing is much larger than standard brush sizes) price ranges from about $19 to $30 on Blick but the MSRP list price is double that.

• Artegria Quill 2 piece set from Amazon, inexpensive, longer bristles can make control a bit difficult, size 2 and 6.

• My Overall Pick:Lightwish quill brush set of 4: I love the sizes in this set (#0#2#4#6) and the response and action in the brush is perfect for me. Great price too!

• Grabie set of 9: These are the same as the Lightwish (it seems to me anyway!) But honestly there are just too many similar sizes in this set. I’d recommend this if you want to split the set with friends or have extra brushes for travel, Sizes: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8:

• The Virbanum art paint set comes with a lovely #4 quill brush, it is attractive and performs well. The bristles are on the longer side. The paint is nice in the set too but it has gone up in price.

• Roymac Revolution Taklon Quill brushes: they come in even sizes 0-10 and are the most expensive brush in today’s lineup. They are stiffer and the bristles are dense. They are not what I would look for in a mop brush but if you like a stiffer brush you may enjoy it. This is an Australian brand and will be hard to get elsewhere. I like this line of brushes for watercolor in normal styles like flats and rounds. They are more of a faux kolinsky sable type of brush.

• These 6 Biaelk travel quills are golden taklon snappy brushes that have sizes like other travel brushes, a bit smaller than standard brushes. they are very nice but the only similarity to these and quill brushes is the ferrule.

I hope my excess will inform you so you can buy the right brushes for you the first time. Most of the links in the above post are affiliate links which means if you purchase after clicking I receive a small commission at not additional cost to you. Thank you for your support (but also, don’t feel obligated to buy, I am just disclosing the links.) Happy crafting!