An Introduction to my Brushes

I have a LOT of paintbrushes.  One hundred and five to be exact.  At least that's the number of brushes I counted that are out and visible at the moment.  I'm sure there are a few more rolling around in my desk drawer.  I wanna say there's a couple in my nightstand and I can for sure picture at least one that's riding around in the console of my car.  I don't use all these brushes but somehow they've accumulated over the years.

A recent painting of an edited down selection of my watercolor brushes-

"Desk Art" 7x5 watercolor on paper by Holly B. Johnson ©2012.

  A lot of said 105 paintbrushes are cheapos I never use.  Others are for acrylic painting or oil painting, neither of which I do very often anymore.  Subtracting all those out brings me down to twenty-seven. 

Twenty-seven watercolor brushes that stand a chance on an every day basis of actually being used.  They're an assorted bunch.  Big ones for laying down washes and knocking out large areas of color.  Teeny tiny ones for putting in the smallest details.  Round brushes, flat brushes, and a fan brush that I really don't know how to use very well. 

Then there's these- the starting line up.  My 6 favorites.

The very first one on the left is my MVP.

I use these 6 brushes the vast majority of the time.  Not on purpose, but I just find myself reaching for them over and over again.  Most of them are even "naked" with their colorful painted shell having chipped off a long time ago.  Now that the bare wood is exposed I regret the fact that I left them hanging out in a cup full of water for entirely way too long.  On more than one occasion.  Dang.  It.