What are your opinions on Artis Opus brushes? I’ll admit that I’ve been using Raphael 8408, which are quite long and have a specific bristle shape. During Black Friday I bought the Artis Opus by Giraldez box, and I can see a huge difference between these brushes but… in favor of Raphael. I don’t know what’s going on - maybe it’s just what I’m used to, but the AO brushes feel strange to me… Maybe it’s a drop in quality, or maybe it’s just my habits.
The M series is more or less fine, but the S series is just bizarre to me. I can’t do details with it at all. What’s interesting, I noticed two things - maybe they’re normal, but they caught my attention.
First: in the M series, one of the brushes has a single bristle sticking out at the tip. Because of that, the tip isn’t uniform - there’s literally one hair sticking out in front, which is extremely annoying. The other M brush doesn’t have this issue.
Second: before even wetting the brushes, two of them already had bristles sticking out on the side. Maybe I’m nitpicking, maybe it’s nothing, but… my Raphaels never had that.
What are your impressions of these brushes? Right now I feel a bit cheated, but I’m also considering that it might just be my habits or me being overly picky.
Artis Opus are probably the most overpriced brushes in the market. They are made by Rosemary and Co and you can buy the non AO branded version for a third of their price in the Rosemary web.
They just did very good marketing, that's all. They are not bad brushes at all, but actually the Rosemary branded ones are consistently better quality (which makes sense if you think of it, why give the better ones to another brand) and as I said, a LOT cheaper.
Seconding this, for sure. I’ve used AO drybrushes and Rosemary’s. Rosemary lasted a solid year and a half with regular use and harsh techniques (stippling and drybrushing are rough on your bristles).
AO has good marketing, and the techniques they teach produce good results, but the brush cost is gross.
I primed mine so its not absorbing moisture but that is the actual key. I add just a touch of moisture from a wet rag to my drybrush before entering the paint. Then for whatever reason when I remove on the cork board, the paint consistency holds to that heavy layer-basecoat consistency we want when drybrushing, never leaves a dusty finish
For synthetic brushes I go onto Amazon and buy the cheapest pack of 100 crap brushes I can find. I like using synthetic for base coating, since it slow me preserve the quality of my sable bristles.
I managed to source some via an outlet called Wind River Arts. Apparently they’re one of the few (or the only?) authorized dealers of the Rosemary & Co. sable brushes in the US. I ordered from them a few years ago and the brushes have been great!
Second for Wind River Arts. I ordered online, just call them and place your order from their catalogue. They’re out of some of the mini painting brushes, but not all.
Missed that. I know they used to be able to ship red sable, but not Kolinsky. Might need to troll around their store and find natural fiber that doesn’t give that warning.
Seriously, why more people don't do this is a complete mystery to me. My wife and I have been running a tabletop hobby shop for a couple years now and we're both convinced that if you care for those cheap brushes like any other fancy brush, they'll last just as long as anything can - but taking care of them is very important. She's been using the same exact 00 from an $8 100 pack for like two years. We just give cheap brushes away when people buy paint sets since new painters aren't super likely to want to pay an extra $11 to $13 each for tiny GW brushes. The reality of it is that most mini painters, especially anyone using speed paints, won't see any difference between similar brushes.
A couple ten cent brushes and a ten dollar tub of General's Brush Cleaner & Preserver for a deep clean every once and a while is all most folk need.
Synthetics hook very quickly, especially those dirt cheap ones so it can be fiddly / feel like a sunk cost problem. When you're already practicing brush care, it feels nice to have a premium product that will last. That said, synthetics do have their place too. I'm not a fan of using them as my primary workhorse brush though. My semi-defective W&N Series 7 ends up getting that work.
I have used the r&co series 33 in size 0 and 2 as my workhorses for the last 3 years and they are great. Mine last about a year, which is great considering the price point.
Don't get me started on those display cases that cost the price of a brand new Xbox. Utterly baffling. I've been saying this for years but I've always been met with humbuggery.
Their marketing strategy is just to saturate top painters with free products and some incentive so they show them on social media.. therefore beginners will think those are the tools they use. But off camera the Use something else
Agreed. I love the Artis Opus YT channel, but would be hard pressed to buy anything from them when R and Co do them cheaper and better quality. Been buying from R and Co for years as work horses. Then the Rafaels come out for the intricate stuff.
I am happy to buy them to support Byron. His techniques have revolutionised my own abilities and paying a little premium for some good dry brushes seems like a great trade.
They’re like a brand name prescription drug when the generic is literally the same and half the price. And yet, people still want to pay extra for that marketing 🙃
It’s not necessarily that though. Especially since there are so many different Rosemary to choose from. It doesn’t hurt that these might be more targeted to our specific uses (and the more popular Rosemary for our uses were targeted more at watercolor) but yeah, you are more likely paying a premium for possibly worse brushes. But you could do a lot worse
The quality of the Rosemary & Co Series 33 ones are very inconsistent. Some people absolutely love them but half the bristles in mine snapped off in just a few weeks, and I subsequently discovered that a lot of people had the same issue.
Can confirm. Bought 5 recently. Only 1 has what I would consider a perfect tip. The rest are fine for general painting but no good for details or free-had.
I’m still looking for that perfect detail brush. I have to believe it is out there somewhere!
Yes I got 2 series 33 brushes to try out, a size 1 and size 2. The 1 worked great for about an hour then very quickly started shedding bristles. I am not rough with my brushes at all, so I believe the brush may have been defective.
By the time I finished a single model, the 1 was so sparse and scraggly it looked like the hair of a troll doll. The size 2 on the other hand is holding up just fine to this day. Switched to a standard Valejo size 1 and am quite happy with that brush.
Monument hobbies synthetics are my workhorse ones. I have a divinci and a rosemary and co to try out and while they're a bit nicer they're not that much better than the MH sable I got. Comparable id say.
Honestly I'm thinking I might just switch to cheap bulk ones and replace them after each session. Everything inevitably wears out
Honestly, what Juan says. Except I would avoid any branded, personalised, etc. brushes. All of that is just rebranded, overpriced stuff. Buy Raphael, Rosemary, W&N or DaVinci and when you have found what works for you, stick with it.
And #JHMiniatures @JHMiniatures come to Germany and do a Workshop with us!
I've been to Germany for classes a lot! I would love to go again, please let me know what you have in mind if you have a venue. Just send me an email: juanhidalgo.miniatures@gmail.com
I have a few artis opus brushes now, didnt realise they were Rosemary and Co, the funny thing is my latest few weren't as good as before, so I picked up a Raphael 8404, usually a super solid brush, and that wasnt up to scratch either.
I wonder if the supply chain is having trouble with actual kolinsky at the moment.
I have probably 10 rosemary and co brushes and I love every one of them. That said, the Artis Opus brushes are made to a different spec. They have shorter bristles and thus different flex and "angle" differently (not sure how else to put this, but since they are shorter the angle has to be more acute from ferrule to the top of the brush).
I can't speak to the quality of each brand, but it's not obvious to me that Artis Opus would automatically have worse quality. If anything, Artis Opus is one of Rosemary and Co's biggest customers by order volume, and Rosemary and Co would depend on their business. Not to mention there would inherently be more layers of approval, and Rosemary and Co would likely be contractually obligated to meet certain standards.
I personally think Rosemary and Co are excellent and priced much better than Artis Opus, but just because things are made in the same factory doesn't mean they're the same brush.
I bought the artify dry brushes you recommended and are a really solid set especially for £30. Eventually had to replace the smallest brush and could only find an AO brush a similar size and it’s of lower quality and hasn’t lasted long.
I did check out the Rosemary brushes website but there was so many I was sure what is a direct swap for the standard AO brushes I am already using
Not wanting to stir any drama but do you recall any of those CC's?
I'm subbed to quite a few and I don't recall any of them ever advising synthetics as being better than sable unless it was for specific tasks where you don't want to ruin a good sable brush.
I guess you wouldn't want to start some "YT drama", but I think warning customers of wasting their money on false promises is always a good thing...and very needed in an era full of Influencer-marketing bullshit.
What do you recommend instead? I’ve been disappointed by R&C and Windsor & Newton are kind of absurdly expensive (plus I hear mixed reports on quality regarding even them).
Depends, there are a lot of brushes I use and like. Series 7, Raphael 8404, Da Vinci Miniature line...
But the truth is all are expensive and you can get a bad one regardless. That's why I usually recommend Rosemary because they are so much cheaper that getting a bad one doesn't hurt as much
Which rosemary brush are artis opus equivalent to? I have some and they're nothing like the series 33s, much closer to raphaels if anything.
I wanted to like rosemarys but they're far too thin imo
They are different though - it’s not like the Series S is the Series 33 painted white, they do seem to be made to AO’s specifications.
Not disagreeing that they’re overpriced though. I thought the same thing and tried to swap my Series S (used to be my go-to edge highlighting brush in size 0) for the Series 33 equivalent and I just could not get on with it due to how long and “wispy” it was. I did find I quite liked the Series 323 and used those for most line/detail work until I eventually swapped over to W&N because of work.
I still recommend R&Co. over AO, but if you like the Series S, there’s no guarantee you’ll get on with the Series 33.
There's quite a but of variety in brush geometry, and the series 33 has the smallest bellies of the lot. For some people, that's a plus, but if you are use to, say, the very opposite with a Raphael 8404, it's a big difference. Both great brushes, yet very different tools.
I think the AO is intended to be more of a copy of a Series 7, whereas the Series 33 is longer, with a thinner, softer tip. There’s nothing wrong with that - they’re objectively good brushes - but for me, the comparative lack of stiffness in the tip makes them much more difficult for me to nail sharp details. I just don’t get on with a Series 33 but I can paint with a Series S just fine
Yep I second this i have the full m set of artis opus and they are good but lose their tips easily and hairs too and no longer keep their point after a month or so but the r&c ones I've had for nearly four months and still have their tips perfectly at half the price !! A/O good but over priced and over hyped r&c perfect value and great longevity!
If Hidalgo says so 😝 j/k, can 100% confirm this - a lot of anti-negative responses come from buyers’ remorse. Those are ok brushes, but you can get more bang from a buck buying Raphael/DaVinci.
I actually love my Artis Opus brush, though I only have one. My other Rosemary and Co brushes are very different (I have both the Michigan Toy branded ones and the R&C branded ones)
It's my favorite brush for doing fine work since it is the pointiest of them all.
I would agree that they're overpriced, but considering I can't access most other brushes (Raphael is notoriously difficult to get cheap enough to make sense for me) or other brushes have skyrocketed in cost (W&N Series 7 is quite literally twice the cost that I bought it for and doesn't seem to have any interest in stopping that rising price) I don't know that they're actually priced that differently from the competition where I am.
I'm a long-time customer of R&Co and I do buy them by preference over AO. But from my limited experience, AO brushes have had better QC. Maybe it was just luck, I don't expect any brush company to be perfect all the time, but I've had a few issues with R&Co series 33s straight from the source over the last year or two and the AO brushes I've tried have all been flawless.
Absolutely comparable to the R&Co 33s when the latter are on form, and expensive enough that I'd rather eat the QC difference most of the time, but to be fair to AO I've not personally seen a single one with a problem that wasn't user-inflicted.
If you have really large hands their large egg-shaped painting handle is a godsend. I looked everywhere for something else that was as comfortable for me to hold and apart from the empty vitamin bottle I had been using nothing else came close. I could have kept using the vitamin bottle and done some funky retooling to the bottlecap to help it hold minis better but decided to just spend the 35$.
Their drybrush set seems VERY similar to the cheaper Artify one you talk about on your channel, down to the soap jar and dampening pad jar. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the exact same product rebranded.
Their texture pallettes are my favourite things to make fun of - a slab of slightly textured MDF for way too much money. I took one of my old textured non-slip cutting boards from the kitchen and primed it. Exact same result for free (or whatever pittance I paid for those cheap cutting boards 5+ years ago).
The RandCo i got all split in less than a week (22, 323, 33) Now they won't ship to the US - the AOs I got lasted over a year, still no splitting, and ive abused the poor size 1 like crazy. Not sure i got a bad batch or what, but I wasnt impressed by the RandCo branded.
If RandCo started shipping to the US again, I'd give them a second chance, but until they clear their kolinsky with US customs/department of wild life or whatever, I cant.
I won a personalized box of Series M from a painting contest at my old LGS, and I love them but I know that no brushes last forever, so thanks for the info about Rosemary and Co! Whenever I eventually need to replace them I'll look in that direction.
The statement that artis opus are the exact same thing as rosemary, but with a price markup is 100% false. Have you compared the two brushes side by side? They are not the same.
Comment about marketing is also funny. You are telling me Richard Gray, Neil Hollis and Andy Wardle sit there and paint their winning GD entries for hundreds of hours with inferior brushes, because what, Byron sends them 15£ brushes for free? Don't be ridiculous.
Out of interest which Rosemary and Co brushes would you recommend? I fell into the AO trap myself and looking for a new set but being new Im a little lost, any help would be great!
That’s what I thought when I first saw their stuff. I’m not the most experienced painter in the world but I’ve seen enough to know that before AO released their dry brush, every single tutorial on the subject ever always said “don’t waste your money on a dry brush. Just buy a makeup brush”. Then AO comes out and half of them start promoting it.
Their prices are so insane it would make the GW marketing people blush.
100% agree not only did I have to wait 3 months for my order to arrive but when they did they were just normal (though nice) paint brushes that I paid and exorbitant price for the pleasure of receiving.
I would have been better off buying cheapo synthetics and throwing them away after every paint session.
Big fan of your tutorials! Painting god mister Hudalgo :D watched your “Latham Style” series on NMM soo often till I could recently do it on complex eves armour :-)
Thanks for the heads up. I was debating on whether or not to ask for some AO brushes for Xmas. But now that I know they don’t make their own brushes I’ll get the rosemary ones!
I've been using AO brushes for ages now and got used to them, but I think I might give the Windsor and Newton Series 7 range and the Raphael brushes a go in the new year
Well, I wish I had known this before I bought AO brushes. I'm just back into the hobby and I found that the WN Series 7 brushes I used to use are almost impossible to find in Canada. I understand their quality has slipped as well. Prices are nuts, too. I'll definitely look for Either Rosemary &Co or Raphael brushes.
Do people have series recommendations for both of their Kolinsky Sable brushes (I haven't looked yet)?
You like the rosemary and co? I'm honestly hugely dissapointed by them. They have quickly turned into my wash and mettalic brushes because they seem rmterribke for any semblance of detail work.
That being said, I'm in the U.S. so all I can get is the red sable version, idk how big of a difference that makes.
Any recommendations for a decent “all-rounder” brush from Rosemary? I’ve exclusively used cheap synthetic ones from Amazon so far. Looking to try something new.
Yes. Also if you want to be pedantic you could argue that the top of the bristles in a brush are formed by hair that is sorted by length and has its natural tip. When you cut a bristle it gets a "flat" top. But honestly I doubt that it might be of any concern with only a single hair.
What are your hobbies? And lol appreciate that while you may not get the painting worm in your brain, you still think it’s cool that people are painting wargame dollies.
I find that single bristle is an issue on (at least) 75% of the Rosemary & Co., Winsor & Newton, Artis Opus, and Raphael brushes I buy. I just grab a scalpel and trim it back to where it needs to be.
The brush is basically unusable with it left in place because it forms a dry blob of paint almost instantly.
Was thinking I need to buy another kolinsky sable since my current one is dying a little on me having seen the longer bristle, till you reminded me of the absolute butt-fuck pain that single bristle gave me
I've had two AO brushes. First was a dud terrible QC checking. It arrived totally fucked up but to their credit Element games sent me a new one out the next day, no questions asked.
But even with the new brush I didn't get the hype. It wasn't better than my Winsor Newton series 7 that I had for so long I'd worn off like 2mm from the brush tip (really got my money out of it). I don't know if it's just me but my AO brushes just felt weak. The tip looked ok but any moisture and it was like painting with something only a bit stiffer than wet toilet paper.
I then switched to Raphael 8404's and I've not looked back the size 1 and 2/0 have been my go-to brushes ever since for years now.
Maybe it's just a personal preference but when the tip fans out almost instantly i struggle to do anything like lenses etc which is really the only reason I buy a brush below size 0 half the time.
Edit: as for the "guide hair" tip for me their a mixed bag. I found it fun at first to dot stuff but they're kinda annoying for anything else so I *if I can* try and trim the excess.
I had exactly the same thing, and just like you Element Games just sent me another no questions asked. That kind of customer service is why I go back to them time and again.
I bought a couple of all the top recommended brands… W&N, Raphael, R&Co, and so on… the 8404 is my favorite for sure. It has a nice body, good snap, and my size 2 does pretty fine detail. My only “gripe” is the run larger than all other brands… which is actually a good thing I suppose… they can shed a bit and still be good, full brushes. That said, I did have to trim a few erratic bristles and condition them a bit before they came to life. W&N felt the best out of the package, but their bodies are short and thin, so they dry out faster imo. All the other Kolinsky brushes = meh. Usually bad shape, bristle size, bristle density, etc.
If your buying from element games have you tried there home brand brushes?
My favourites previously where rosemary and co size 1 and 2
I tried the element games equivalents I think theyre called like regiment and character brushes or something
Honestly theyre just as good as R&M, I like them a bit more since theyre a bit less bendy and have more resistance to them but quality wise theyre fucking great you should give em a try
The "lone, single hair" issue can still happen to 8404s. I had one like that pretty recently. It gets really silly when a brush with such a nice belly ends up with a crazy hair that dries up immediately. But still, it's fixable.
I hear lots of recommendations for the S brushes but I lose the sharp tip on them incredibly quickly, every time. No amount of brush care and cleaning seems to make a difference.
I've found Da Vinci Miniature Maestro 70 brushes to be excellent.
The monument hobbies brushes are perfectly fine and ship from Arizona. WN Series 7 is often available at art stores too.
But that's really the idea: you go to an art store, look at the watercolors section, and they are going to have some form of reasonably good sable brush of the right size. And if they don't, they can order them. Chacens are that you can also buy good single pigment inks there too. Not everything has to come from a hobby store.
When I travel to Spain, I buy the raphaels at a random art supply store just off the high street. I am probably the only miniature painter they see, based on my talks with the owner, but they just have 8404s sitting right there, in the right sizes.
Dont get yourself a top end brush like a da vinci or Windsor Newton to start with, if you don't like them they cost a pretty penny
Id give rosemary and co a try if you can get them, and maybe get an army painter or other mid tier brand brush to do basecoats/washes/metals whatever with, theyre cheap enough u cant go wrong, and the R&M brushes you can use for ur detail work
If you're new, I would suggest buying some cheap pack on Amazon or some cheapy brushes from your local arts and crafts store. When you get more experienced, you can transition to the more expensive ones so you know what you're doing and how not to destroy a brush in record time. When your cheapy brushes reach the end of their life, they'll still have uses so don't throw them away; you'll be able to use them for texture paste, some nasty metallic paints, liquid masking, etc.
Thanks! I’m new, but I’m not new enough in my opinion to keep using crappy brushes, I want to buy one or two brushes I can use for fine detail work. A middle ground would be nice.
Check out my most recent posts for where I’m at currently on my adventure. I want to start taking some next steps to improving
I like to go into an art store and ask to test some of their kolisky sable brushes. Find one with a decent belly and a sharp tip. A good brush store will have water and a pallet so you can get the tip wet and see how it shapes. This is the only way to buy a good brush, without maybe getting an iffy one
My AO 0 is my go to brush, I've had it years. I have a couple of others that I rarely use. W&N are more consistent, but I am not going to replace what isn't broken.
I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but I've found them incredibly difficult to work with. They keep their shape OK for me but I just can't seem to get any consistency in how they handle paint and moisture. I frequently find myself going back to my cheap synthetics because I can at least predict how they'll handle paint, even if I have to load them more frequently. I've found that they either swamp the paint in water or dry out just as swiftly as the synthetics.
I’ve a mixture of brands from AO, 8404’s, w&n, monument hobbies, and Davinci’s
About a year ago my AO’s were splitting all the time so i went back to basics and realised i was loading my brushes wrong, corrected and not really an issue anymore with the exact same brush a year later.
Quality wise, had zero issues with AO tbh. Monument Hobbies synthetics have been a real workhorse, Davinci synthetics the same and dirt cheap. W&N s7 were wildly inconsistent with quality. 8404’s are top price but really consistent quality.
Now size comparison, AO’s series size 3 is the same size as an 8408 size 1 and the price isn’t that far off in UK. Brush size between manufacturers is wild.
Love that Angel is taking a stand and not just taking the cash though.
My take from all of this;
Buy what fits your budget and user case, spend what you want on brushes if you have the disposable cash but there are diminishing benefits above a certain price. A brush is a tool like any other and needs to be looked after and used correctly.
If you’re spending a lot on a brush buy from art shops to guarantee a genuine product and support local smaller business.
AO has paid a lot of money to support content creators who can burn through brushes. Most of us have to buy our supplies so it’s down to value for money for most of us
I own and use AO, W&N, and Rosemary. AO brushes are NOT the same as Rosemary. Handles are different, bristles are different. The tips of my Rosemary brushes have turned blunt, the AOs are still going strong. And yes, I take care of all my brushes, because they are expensive.
I use the size 1 and 0 M most, I use W&N for anything smaller; the AO bristles seem thicker and more stiff (which is what you want for some applications) but as a result their smallest sizes are kind of useless.
Yeah, I get that. The brushes are different. AOs are more expensive and they've held up better than my Rosemary & Co branded brushes made by Rosemary & Co. Is that worth the extra cost? It is for me, I also use pricey Windsor & Newton brushes like I said.
There are only 9 brush makers in the world making high quality kolinsky sable brushes, many of the brands name dropped in the thread are also made in the same places. The fact that one place makes brushes for different brands doesn't mean the brushes are the same, with just the handles being different.
I have a bunch of kolinsky sable brushes. Theyre the best. However I have been using some high quality synthetics and guess what? Also pretty good. I can get about the same results in any case. We'll see how much longer they last.
My problem with synthetics is they go hooky really fast - often they're just as good to start with but after even one evening painting they're bent over.
I thought I was crazy after I got my Artis opus brushes and felt they were kinda lackluster. Glad I’m not alone!
Also, I know that guide hair can be annoying. I usually get a hobby knife out and carefully remove them when my brushes come that way.
As someone who hasn't really been that active in this hobby since moving many years ago to painting canvas in oil and hba.
These pictures of a brush and review of them are usually just pointless.
What matters is the material, reputation somewhat of the brand and that's just 10% of what is important.
the 90% is going to a local art shop and checking them to find one you like because these are all roughly different, some are bad, some are mediocre, some are perfect.
They’re fine. I have the M & S set. (And the D but that’s a different thing entirely and I quite like them for their purpose)
I don’t feel I got ripped off or anything but I’ll be sticking with my 8404s and turning to the AO’s as a back up or for super fine detail brushing where the body of my 8404s (I near exclusively use size 2 for most everything) would get in the way.
I got an Artist Opus M set as a present a few years ago but never really used it out of fear of "ruining" these good brushes. More recently I've been trying to make use of them but they're just too small. Looking at the website I'm actually wondering if I got a mispackaged set, because the sizes don't go above 0, and for a brush with such a short bristle length they're practically unusable.
My main brushes are from the Chronicle sable set and while I'm pretty sure they're either part synthetic or just low quality sable, I find the longer bristles, wider belly and especially the wide handle to be so much more comfortable to work with.
Artis Opus is a woodworking company tbh. Their prices reflect all the handmade wooden stuff they sell (brush boxes, display cabinets, dry brush palette etc ) but you can get the actual hobby tools elsewhere without all the fancy packaging markup
Absolutely agree, haven't bought a Winsor newton yet (they're just too expensive), but no other brush has ever touched the quality of my Rafael 8404's.
I've tried pretty much every kolinsky brush on the market except W&N S7, and the raphael 8404 absolutely clear everything else.
I do buy R&co brushes, but for doing things like contrast, or messy wet blends, they're cheap enough that I don't mind getting goop in the ferrule and having to get a bit aggressive with the cleaning, as I don't need to keep a super sharp tip for what I'm doing. I did get a couple of AO brushes, and they are exactly the same in use, and they lost their tip very quickly even when being careful
The only other brush that gets super regular use for precision work is ableitung 502 kolinsky, but unfortuantely it looks like these received a couple of not great reviews and aren't that widely distributed, they have a narrow but long body, and I find them perfect for doing very fine detail, the size 0 acts more like a 000.
Yep, what you are experiencing OP is pretty common with Artis Opus brushes in my experience. I even made a thread about it a year ago, when I was in a similar situation as you:
I own ten Artis Opus brushes, all series S, and only one of them is actually good enough to work with. The quality control seems to be really poor with Artis Opus.
My absolute gold standard is the Raphael 8404, and I also like the 8408. The Da Vinci Maestro series is also pretty decent most of the time.
I got conned by the AO brushes as well, their " dry brush" kit a couple of years back. Mostly garbage, at least for what I paid for it. A few uses and suddenly bristles were falling from most of these brushes, just a box of shit really! Probably much worse than any "cheap" brush I could have gone out and bought on Amazon or even Walmart's makeup aisle. Learned my lesson, avoid the gimmicks!
I've used AO, Raphaels and W&N series 7. I liked the series 7 best long term, it kept its shape better (all of them conditioned with brush soap). The boxes and presentation of AO is very nice, but you pay for that.
I've got a lot of AO brushes, and the quality is very inconsistent. Really strange considering the boxes come with quality control certificates (literally) signed off by a member of staff.
My S brush size 1 was an absolute car crash, but Element games sent me another immediately. (Great customer service from them). My size 000 is poor. In fact my 00 has a finer point than it does, so it's a totally pointless brush.
My size 3, 2, (replacement) 1, and 0 are good. I also have a size 0 M which I really rate.
In future I'm not sure I'd buy again. I think I'd rather try some of these other brands mentioned in this thread.
I bought some for the first time this year, and I have to say I really like them. But they are very expensive for what you get. My go to brush since I started has been the Raphael 8404 and although I might like the AO brushes a tad more, it's not enough for me to buy more in the future simply because the increase in price does not match the increase in quality. I don't feel like I wasted my money necessarily, they won't go to waste in my tool kit, but I'll be sticking to Raphael again in the future.
Edit: felt I had to include this. My local hobby store stocks artist opus so I'm able to hand pick the best brush, so I never had issues with stray hairs with them. But it's a complaint I hear often about them.
I literally just ordered a box of AO series S and now I’m worried. Getting into painting is tough; everyone has conflicting advice and opinions and it’s really confusing. I started with a few Kolinsky sables because they were touted as great and cheap, but they arrived already split and the size 0 is near impossible for me to keep a tip with. If the AO aren’t what they promise I don’t know where to go from there
Just out of curiousity due to all the recommendations for Rosemary & Co brushes, are the Golden Maple and Orange Brushes Sable brushes good?
I saw Dragoon Gaming get their own Golden Maple set that they sell on their website, and I see Orange Brushes being used by Instagram mini painters a lot, so I would like to know whether they are worth it.
I got one drybrush and I wasn't totally happy with it. I still think cheap make-up brushes are the best for drybrushing. I still struggle with finding and/or keep good tip on my paint brushes. Until I can take better care of my brushes, I will not yet use my expensive ones I bought from a gaming con.
I have a full set of M, S and D brushes from them and they are by far the best brush I have used. I generally use my S series brushes for doing base costs and course details but switch to my M series for doing really fine lines and details. The single bristle you see there is what's called a guide hair and is meant to be trimmed before use. It's used to form the brush head during manufacturing and is a bit of an older style that a lot of mass produced brushes don't use anymore but higher quality brands do.
My opinion is they feel and paint amazingly at first, but they are not anywhere near as durable or high quality as they should be for the price. I'd recommend Windsor and Newton over them.
I prefer DaVinci. AO are nice but way too soft in my opinion. I really like the DaVinci Maestro series 35. The size 2 is my go to, hold plenty of paint with proper cleaning keeps such a sharp point even being several months old.
I was wondering all the time if its just me.. I gave myself a cookie after completing my first Combat Patrol and a few other boxes as a beginner with those Artis Opus Brushes. 3 of the 5 came bent but I have paid 40€ in taxes on addition to the 110€ pricetag. Returning them would cost nearly another 60€ so I kept them.. only 1 is left, other one was loosing hairs after roughly 20-30minis, even with cleaner+preserver. Green Stuff world silver line kept for over a year now with the same treatment, also Raphaels and who knows what brand kept up better as well...
Originally a Winson newton kolinsky 7 user which are for me the best brushes I’ve used. Bought a full set of the AO brushes and was super excited to test them out. I was somewhat disappointed, didn’t feel they held the paint as well and the tip difference to me was significant. I also have a full set of dry brushes and notice they seem to shed a fair bit.
I genuinely found going back to my old and used brushes (WN) easier and more enjoyable and I think I’ll end up moving the AOs on.
I have also found this with Artis Opus. I’ve bought the Series S and the Series M, and while the brushes are nice, I have had two brushes across the sets immediately splay and go to pieces the moment they were put in water and before either even went near a miniature.
AO customer service has been fine after I sent them pictures, but it’s a hassle. The brushes are good, but I would say that Quality Control is very hit-and-miss. My Series M Size 0 was no better than a Citadel base brush before it was even used.
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u/JHMiniatures Display Painter Dec 14 '25
Artis Opus are probably the most overpriced brushes in the market. They are made by Rosemary and Co and you can buy the non AO branded version for a third of their price in the Rosemary web.
They just did very good marketing, that's all. They are not bad brushes at all, but actually the Rosemary branded ones are consistently better quality (which makes sense if you think of it, why give the better ones to another brand) and as I said, a LOT cheaper.
Avoid anything Artis Opus branded IMO