I love watercolour brushes and so I was very excited to try out Da Vinci’s new synthetic, vegan watercolour brushes. Many brush manufacturers have invested resources into creating a synthetic brush range and there are now a growing number on the market. The development of synthetic brush ranges has been driven by a number of factors including the price of sable and other animal hair, sustainability and lifestyle choices. Let’s check out how Da Vinci’s Colineo range performs.

The best Kolinsky sable brushes are made from the Siberian weasel. It’s red sable hair has unique characteristics due to the cold environment it lives in. Kolinsky sable brushes are soft, flexible and ‘springy’ which means that you can get a good range of marks. Due to the structure of the hair they also retain water well in the belly of the brush. The water is then slowly and evenly released onto the paper.

Da Vinci claim that Colineo is a carefully balanced mixture of different lengths of straight and wavy synthetic fibres with extra fine tips and tapered points, high elasticity and colour absorption.

A classy looking brush

These brushes certainly look the part although they may induce serious bouts of brush envy in your art class! They have a lovely smooth, grey, plywood handle in a hexagonal shape so that it doesn’t roll off your desk as easily. The brush head is held in place with a double crimped silver ferrule. The brush itself looks just like it’s sable counterpart.

Test 1 – Water capacity

There is a common misconception that synthetic brushes do not hold the same amount of water as traditional sable brushes. So I decided to put this to the test.

I loaded a good quality sable brush with water and pink pigment and drew lines across the paper until the brush ran dry. I then took the Colineo round synthetic brush primed with water and red pigment and repeated the same process. The results above speak for themselves, it is clear that the Colineo synthetic brush holds as much as if not more than the sable brush I tested.

Test 2 – Mark making range

It’s important that a brush can create a range of different marks dependent on how the brush is held and the pressure applied. First I tried out the Round no. 8 brush.

I was able to produce a variety of lines from thin through to fatter dense lines plus dry brush lines. I loved the organic lines I achieved by holding the brush right at the end too. The point remained sharp and did not split. There was a good amount of spring to the brush head to enable me to produce more energetic marks too.

Next I tried out the Flat no. 12. Again, I was impressed by the variety of lines I could achieve using both the full flat of the brush and also on it’s side. The brush head did not split, even when using it on it’s side, so I was rewarded with sharp lines. Gripping the brush and holding it more parallel to the paper allowed me to create textural marks too.

My conclusion

Both brushes felt good to hold in different grips and in different places along the brush. The weight felt right wherever I held the brush. Both brushes performed well and the quality is excellent, as you would expect from Da Vinci. The price point is attractive too particularly for painters wanting to top up their collection of larger sized brushes without breaking the bank.

If you’re a vegan artist, or want to cut down on the amount of animal-derived art materials you use then this range is a great option.

Overall I am impressed! Da Vinci’s claims live up to their promise and I think a few of these brushes will be finding their way into my collection – you can never have enough brushes!