Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolour Brush

If your brush has misshapen, you can do so by soaking in boiling water and allowing brush to reshape. Please keep in mind that if your brush is resting on its bristles, this will affect its shape so take care when soaking. Should you wish to retain the point of your brush, you can do so by dipping in gum Arabic and reshaping. Make sure you leave your brush to dry fully before using after applying gum Arabic, as the medium could potentially change the effect of the paint you are using.

Using natural hair for the bristles of a brush as oppose to using synthetic materials is a more traditional practice. Natural hair brushes tend to carry and hold more colour than a synthetic brush. Sable hair brushes taper naturally, so when added to a brush creates a fine point. This is a quality that can advantage the application of watercolour paint and is not as easily obtained by synthetic brushes.

This all depends on the kind of paint used. Synthetic bristles are quite robust and can be used with lots of different cleaning materials such as turpentine or solvent based paint brush cleaners. However, avoid using acetone based cleaners on synthetic brushes as this may affect the brushes longevity.