Princeton Artist Brush, Neptune Series 4750, Synthetic Squirrel Watercolor Paint Brush, Round, Size 8

I looked at the Neptune quill mops before looking at this brush, as I wanted a synthetic brush that could hold a lot of water and pigment, allowing for loose, expressive strokes and wet-in-wet techniques in my watercolor illustration work. The diameter of this brush head is 8.7mm and tip length is 33mm. This makes it roughly comparable in size to a size 2 quill mop brush, which is not available in this brush line (Neptune quill brushes are only available in sizes 4-8). I felt that the size 4 quill would be just a bit too large for me, since most of my work is done in small to medium sizes. This brush seemed to be the size that I needed, so I bought it, and I’m really impressed with it. The belly holds a lot of water and pigment, releasing it fairly evenly onto my paper. I can do big, loose, expressive strokes with it very easily. It is now one of my go-to brushes when I want to put a lot of pigment down on the paper or want to drag pigment with a wet brush to watch it flow from one area to another. It isn’t a quill and isn’t as versatile (which I’ll explain momentarily), but for what it does, it’s excellent.I do will point out that this brush is not really comparable to a quill mop in one major aspect, i.e, the shape of the brush head. Quill brushes have a rounder belly and more narrowly tapered tip, while this brush has a fairly balanced diameter from ferrule to tip. So, while both a quill and this large round can hold a lot of paint and disburse it smoothly, they don’t share the same versatility. With a good quality quill mop, you can get broad strokes and fine lines with the same brush. You get get a lot of stroke variety with this brush, but you will not achieve as fine of lines with it as a good quality, comparably sized quill. End of story. So, it really comes down to your needs. If you need a brush with a full belly and really fine point to do a lot of work with a single brush, you’re better off going with a quill brush. But, if you want large, expressive strokes and to wet sizable areas with a single dip of the brush, this one will do quite nicely. And, it’s pretty affordable, too!Side note: I ended up getting this brush for larger, wet areas and the Da Vinci Casaneo size 0 quill mop on Amazon (which I also love) for the versatility in strokes from a single brush. They complement each other quite nicely and give me a lot of options when I’m working more loosely, filling in large areas or working wet-in-wet.I have added a couple of my recent illustrations, where I used this brush in part of my painting process, to show its versatility. In the perfume bottle illustration, I used this brush to paint the perfume inside of the bottle using a wet-in-wet technique, dispersing near the top, then feathering it downward with the brush. In the smoothie bowl illustration, I used this brush to create the large, wet swirls around the outside edges of the bowl, using a wet-on-dry painting technique with a very wet brush. Both of these illustrations were done on a 9×12” block of Stonehenge Aqua cold-press watercolor paper (also available on Amazon). I like the performance that it delivers and would definitely buy it again.