Alvaro Castagnet Neef Mop Brush #10

After 30 years with kolinsky watercolour brushes and semisynthetic brushes I got interested in Alvaro Castagnet's watercolour painting technique. It is simple and full of freedom. Mostly he uses natural squirrel brushes designed by himself from the classical Japanese mop brushes. Castagnet increased the length of the handle a little to improve the balance of the brush. He also added a little longer hair giving the brush a finer point. The soft squirrel brushes gives you less control but more freedom in your painting. The brush takes a lot of water and colour pigments. If you start with squirrel brushes you have to learn some new techniques how to handle them for example if you compare with the kolinsky brushes.I have Alvaro Castagnet's Natural Hair Brushes # 4, 6 and 10 and the very nice brush for thinner lines: The Needle Point Brush #8. At Alvaro Castagnet's DVD films or at Youtube you can study his amazing painting techniques with the Squirrel brushes.

A lovely mop to work with. It holds lots of paint for washes but it does shed lots of hairs, which I had not expected given the high price tag.

Specially recomended fot big surfaces.You can paint restless You do not need to dig the brush into the water every time.This is the best one for me.

Love this paintbrush...definitely use this one alot!

Best brush I have bought for water colour work. Helps to create sweeping washes and include detail for visual focus.