Beyond the Basic Round: Specialty Artist Brushes to Discover at Opus

There’s a moment in almost every artist’s journey where brushes stop feeling like simple tools and start feeling more like collaborators.

A different shape suddenly changes the way you paint. A softer bristle releases colour in an unexpected way. A long edge creates a line you didn’t know you could make. Sometimes the smallest shift in your materials can completely open up the marks, textures, and gestures available to you.

Specialty artists brushes aren’t just different shapes, they’re different possibilities. From quills that carry sweeping washes to daggers that dance across the page in long, elegant lines, these unique brushes can help artists discover marks they may never make with a standard round or flat.

At Opus, we carry everything from dependable everyday workhorses to beautifully designed specialty brushes made for travel, expressive mark-making, large-scale painting, and fluid washes. Whether you’re painting in acrylic, watercolour, oil, gouache, or mixed media, here are a few brushes worth discovering.

When you’re starting out, it can be tempting to buy the cheapest brushes available online. But a quality artist’s brush can genuinely change the experience of painting.

Cheap brushes often shed hairs into your work, lose their shape quickly, hold very little paint or water, or create scratchy, uneven marks. That can make painting feel frustrating, not because you lack skill, but because the tool itself is working against you.

A well-made artist’s brush is designed to feel responsive in your hand. It holds more paint or water, keeps its shape longer, springs back after each stroke, and creates smoother, more consistent marks.

You also don’t need the most expensive brush in the shop to make meaningful work. Often, one or two reliable brushes suited to your medium will improve your painting experience far more than a large set of low-quality alternatives.

For watercolour artists who love fluid washes and expressive movement, the Escoda Último Evolution brushes have developed something of a cult following.

Built with incredibly soft synthetic squirrel hair and a unique perforated ferrule design, these brushes can hold significantly more water than a traditional mop brush. That means longer, uninterrupted strokes, smoother washes, and fewer trips back to your palette. Unlike many softer mop brushes, the Escoda Último Evolution also holds up beautifully over time for a synthetic brush, maintaining its shape and responsiveness even with regular use.

They’re especially beautiful for loose landscapes, atmospheric backgrounds, skies, large wet-on-wet passages, and flowing botanical work, but they also come to surprisingly fine points for detail.

The result is a brush that feels simultaneously expansive and controlled.

For artists exploring expressive watercolour painting, they can completely change the rhythm of how paint moves across the page.

Some brushes stand out not just because of how they paint, but because of how thoughtfully they’re designed.

Tintoretto Magneto brushes feature small magnets built into the end of the handle, allowing artists to hang brushes upside down after cleaning. It’s a simple idea, but an incredibly useful one.

Drying brushes upside down helps prevent water or solvent from settling into the ferrule, where moisture can eventually loosen glue, swell wooden handles, or damage the brush over time.

For artists who work regularly in acrylics or oils, especially those investing in higher-quality brushes, small maintenance details like this can dramatically extend the life of your tools.

One of the strengths of the Opus brush ranges is that they’re designed to meet artists where they are.

Whether you’re experimenting with acrylics for the first time, building a plein air kit, or working on larger professional pieces in oils, there’s a brush family designed for the way you paint.

For watercolour artists, Opus Galiano and Allegro brushes offer dependable performance across washes, layering, and detail work.

These are the kinds of brushes many artists end up reaching for constantly: capable of broad coverage one moment and controlled detail the next.

For beginners especially, having a reliable round brush that keeps its point well can make learning watercolour feel far less intimidating.

The Opus Denman Short Handle brushes are especially useful for artists working with heavy-body acrylics or water-soluble oils.

Their stiff synthetic bristles are excellent for building texture, pushing paint around the surface, and creating peaks, ridges, and expressive marks.

Because the handles are shorter, they’re also ideal for plein air painting, urban sketching setups, travel kits, or smaller compositions where portability matters.

The neutral grey bristles are another thoughtful detail, they help artists see mixed colours more accurately while painting.

There’s something deeply freeing about painting outside.

Whether you’re sketching in a café, painting landscapes while travelling, or simply working in the park during summer, travel brushes make it much easier to bring your practice into the world.

Many travel brush designs feature handles that unscrew and transform into protective cases, shielding delicate brush tips during transport.

Brushes like the Princeton Aqua Elite Travel Set and Da Vinci Casaneo travel brushes are particularly popular with watercolour artists because they combine portability with professional-level brush performance.

The Richeson Plein Air Travel Brush Sets are another excellent option for artists building compact painting kits for outdoor work.

For urban sketchers, travellers, commuters, and anyone painting on the go, waterbrushes can feel almost magical.

Instead of dipping your brush into a separate water container, the handle itself holds water. By gently squeezing the barrel, clean water flows through the bristles.

This makes it possible to sketch and paint almost anywhere; on trains, in cafés, at the beach, or while travelling light.

They pair beautifully with compact watercolour palettes and small sketchbooks, especially for spontaneous creative moments.

Not every brush is designed for detail.

Paddle brushes are built for scale, movement, and coverage.

Both the Liquitex Freestyle Paddle Brushes and Da Vinci Paddle Brushes are fantastic tools for artists working on larger canvases, murals, abstract painting, varnishing, gesso application, or fluid acrylic techniques.

Their wide, flat surfaces help create smooth, even applications while also allowing for bold gestural marks and expressive texture.

Artists often use paddle brushes when they want:

• Broad, even coverage

• Smooth varnish or glaze application

• Large-scale expressive marks

• Softer blended transitions

• Faster movement across the surface

They’re especially satisfying for artists exploring looser, more physical forms of painting.

For many watercolour artists, Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes remain legendary.

Originally developed for Queen Victoria in the 19th century, these brushes are known for their remarkable point, responsiveness, and ability to hold water.

And yes, they’re finally back in stock at Opus.

For artists who have been waiting to try one, or longtime fans looking to replace an old favourite, this return is worth celebrating.

Sometimes a brush is just a brush.

And sometimes, it becomes the tool that changes how you paint.

A travel brush encourages you to start sketching outdoors. A mop brush unlocks looser watercolour washes. A paddle brush makes you work bigger and bolder. A stiffer acrylic brush introduces texture you’d never explored before.

Part of the joy of visiting an art store is discovering tools you didn’t even know existed and imagining what they might allow you to make.

If you’re curious about expanding your toolkit, visit your local Opus store or explore our brush collections online. You might just find the brush that completely changes the way you work.