Review: Wild Plein Pocket Watercolour Brush Set of 6

My friend Paul Wang passed me some new watercolour brushes to check out recently. They are from this brand called Wild Plein which I've not heard before.

This is a set of 6 collapsible watercolour brushes that come with a faux leather case. The included brush sizes are 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12.

At the time of this review, it's currently selling around US$80 on Amazon USA.

According to the description, the hair is supposed to be Kolinsky sable. For those who know a thing or two about sable brushes, you should probably know that these brushes are quite expensive. To sell a set of 6 sable brushes at US $80 is incredible. The Da Vinci Maestro size 10 pocket brush that I have is already US $80 on its own. Kolinsky sable brushes from other brush manufacturers are also much more expensive that Wild Plein's. So that's going on?

Before we go further, let's look at the case first.

The faux leather case looks and feels quite cheap. The surface of the faux leather is glossy and the texture is unlike real leather. The case has 6 pockets to hold the brushes. On the side are two buttoned pockets.

The red thread stitching looks fine. I'm not sure how durable this case is going to be though.

I like the pendant that's attached to the end of the tie string. It looks like an European coin. Both sides look the same.

If you want to, you can use this case as a standing case to put your brushes. It's a rather functional case.

The design of the brush body looks a bit similar to Escoda's pocket watercolour brushes. The main difference is the Cheetah spot pattern on the body.

When I first took the brushes out of the case, I felt some wiggling. It felt like something was loose. The end of the grip section and the opening of the body are a bit loose. You can certainly press down the opening to close it so that it will become tighter. As I look closer, it looks like the opening is just slightly larger than the end of the grip section.

With the other brush, the metal end of the grip wasn't able to hold tight onto the wood. Nothing a little super glue can't fix though. But I wished the manufacturer had use the glue in the first place.

The material used for the brush is good, but the build quality is questionable.

There are supposed to be 6 brushes but my friend has given the other 4 to my other friends so I can't check the other brushes.

Alright, back to the brushes. To see why there's such a huge price difference, we need to compare it against the real Kolinsky sable brushes. In the photo above, from top to bottom we have

• Wild Plein size 6
• Wild Plein size 12
• Escoda Reserva size 6
• Escoda Reserva size 10
• Nevskaya Palitra size 6
• Da Vinci Maestro size 10

Let's look at the tips first. From left to right:

• Wild Plein size 6
• Wild Plein size 12
• Escoda Reserva size 6
• Escoda Reserva size 10
• Nevskaya Palitra size 6
• Da Vinci Maestro size 10

I'm not sure if you can see clearly but the real Kolinksy sable brushes have sharper points compared to the two Wild Plein ones. Also note the tapered sharp point, basically how the hairs curve into the point.

Here's a close up on the Wild Plein and Escoda size 6. The difference in sharpness is quite obvious here.

And here's a close up on the Wild Plein, Escoda and Da Vinci.

The real Kolinsky brushes are so sharp that you can use them to draw hairline strokes. It's a bit more challenging get a hairline stroke with Wild Plein.

In terms of water holding capacity, Wild Plein is comparable to the Kolinsky sable brushes. All the brushes in this review can hold a lot of water, and they release water quite well too.

The Wild Plein brushes can also go back to its sharp easily, but the snap is not has firm compared to Kolinsky sable. And the Wild Plein can't go back to its sharp point as easily compared to the Kolinsky sable brushes. That's the main difference here.

So if you're someone who needs to paint details, or small areas, Kolinsky sable is still the better brush to get.

Large brushes are often used to paint larger areas so having a sharp tip may not be as important compared to a smaller brush. But having a sharp tip means that you don't have to switch brushes after you paint a large wash.

I was able to paint the star with sharp corners easily with the Kolinsky brush because of the sharp point. You can also paint sharp corners, small areas with Wild Plein but it's slightly more challenging and you have to be a bit more careful, or slower.

Conclusion

For a set of 6 brushes that's selling around US$80, it's a great deal. It's certainly worth the money even if it's not as sharp as a premium Kolinsky sable brush.

It would be even more awesome if they had included other shapes of brushes instead of just the round ones.

You can find the brushes and check out more reviews at https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Plein-Watercolor-Brushes-Kolinsky/dp/B01K3A…