Review on ZenART Watercolor Paint Brushes - Smart 6 pc Black Tulip Synthetic Squirrel Hair Short-Handle Watercolor Brush Set for Consistent Flow - Ideal for Gouache, Watercolors, Fluid Acrylics, Inks - Vegan-Friendly by Justin Stinson

Really excellent brush quality, exceptional price and remarkable company despite a serious problem with my order. let me explain. I'm new to watercolor painting (because I only discovered this material about 8 weeks ago) but I learned quickly * the quality of your work is directly proportional to the quality of your tools * If you paint with cheap chalk paints your art will look chalky and cheap. If your paper isn't high quality, your art won't be high quality either. And no matter how skilled your hands are, you MUST have a decent brush to make the right marks. I bought decent quality pigments and suitable cotton paper but struggled to find decent AND affordable watercolor brushes. When I found ZenArt's Tulip brush set, I was genuinely concerned that they were too good to be true. But. They were the best I could find in our price range so my husband gave them to me as an anniversary gift. I was so excited when they arrived. Severely dizzy. However, my hopes were immediately dashed. * 5 out of 6 of these brushes had very loose tips. I could screw it all the way in and even bend it almost 5° into the tip! I was devastated. I contacted the company immediately. Within 24 hours Ryan from ZA replied personally. He explained that this rarely happens and that ZenArt takes the quality of its products and customer satisfaction very seriously. They will send me a new set as soon as possible. In the meantime I could do whatever I wanted with the defective originals. Well, of course I decided to try them while I waited. I just had to watch out for wobbly pencils and hold the brush more like a pencil. I drew the unfinished sea/canoe drawing (above) from the original rickety set. So far so good, but I'll get to that below. Today is the first day that I have a new set and the semi-finished drawing of the dog in my album was made entirely with the new Tulip set. I let the sections air dry and am so amazed at how well these brushes work that I just had to check them out. Now that you know about the loose tip issue, here are my other observations. 1. Brushes keep their shape perfectly. Seriously, they connect instantly. One of the wobbly spheres fell from its drying spot onto the top overnight (panic, I know!). Dry bent. The next morning I wet it again and it stayed bent (oops!). So I soaked the bristles in the gum arabic solution and gently twisted them in place, let them dry and voila! Since new.2. Tips are perfect subtleties. Cartridges, rigging and cat tongue have surprisingly thin tips. Can easily create thick smooth marks with little pressure or thin lines with little finesse. After over a month of almost daily use (and even occasional abuse), the glasses are still perfect.3. Not a single bristle fell out. And then with ferrule output.4. They hold a lot of water and release it smoothly. I don't have any fancier brushes to compare, but I was blown away by how much pigment these brushes can hold before you have to recharge them. However, they also dry very well, even on some of the wet days we've had this summer. The flat brushes also return instantly with very little splitting. If you want to paint the perfect pattern, these are your brushes. The edges of the flats also make fine lines just the way you want them.6. Finally, the loose tips even fit when in use, so the brushes can be held more freely and hardly wobble. I'm not sure they'll fit once the humidity goes away this winter but for now they're exemplary despite that shortcoming. I'm glad I decided to wait to review these brushes because it took me a while to realize that they absolutely deserve 5 stars. Despite the flaws, this set of watercolor brushes is great for a beginner watercolor painter. Brushes are forgiving of small mistakes and leave beautiful marks on paper when you need them. I look forward to expanding my ZenArt offerings because this company is doing it right. Mistakes happen to everyone, but not everyone deals with them as conscientiously as ZA. And these brushes are amazing. Thanks Zen Art!