A while ago I was watching an Angel Giraldez video, and during one of the detail close-up sections, noticed a very unique shape to the bristles on the brush he was using: the bristles were short, and very wedge shaped.
I think my brush control is pretty good, I’ve had some decent results with the usual Pointed Rounds that we all use, like the Winsor & Newton Series 7 – though I always wanted a brush with shorter bristles for more control. At a painting seminar in 2015, Fernando Ruiz introduced me to the Escoda Optimo line, which had shorter bristles, and a very narrow belly, shaped almost like a Rigger, and this had been my go-to brush ever since… but, they are virtually impossible to get locally, and very few shops globally even carry them… I had to import them from a friend of his in Germany that ran a shop. The first batch I ordered were great and changed my painting, the second batch, however… was not so great. 
Oh well, bad batches happen.
Availability of the Escoda brushes was still an issue, though, so I switched back to the usual Pointed Rounds, but, as I have been focusing on speed and efficiency for the past few years, my heavy-hand became more pronounced: after about 60-90 minutes of painting, the weight of my touch increases substantially, which is only compounded when I am trying to move quickly.
As a result, the tip of the soft Pointed Rounds that I use end up warping, leaving lines that are too thick and marks that are an unintended shape… I knew I had to try the brush with the short bristles that Angel was using, an Artis Opus Series M.
Coincidentally, right around the same time, I found out through the grapevine that Artis Opus brushes are manufactured by Rosemary & Company – the R&Co equivalent to the Series M is the Series 323 Spotter – I had been reading great things about R&Co brushes, and thought ‘Well, if I’m trying out a new brush, why don’t I do a comparison between manufacturers?’
While I was already comparing the Artis Opus and R&Co brushes, I decided it would also be a good idea to try out a Winsor & Newton Series 7 Miniature at the same time… the Gold Standard.
I ordered 2 each of a #1 and #00 from each line – my original plan is that I would use the Artis Opus for one entire project, then switch to the R&Co for the next project, then switch to W&N for the next project, then switch back to the Artis Opus. Each brush could be compared back-to-back with each other brush with that sequence.
I painted the entirety of my extra Hellboy: The Board Game Kickstarter edition with the Artis Opus, then switched to the R&Co for the Thousand Sons models, then switched to the W&N for the batch of D&D models I painted earlier this year.
The Artis Opus and R&Co both performed very well, no real noticeable differences in handling – though, a Spotter is perhaps the wrong type of brush to use for getting *into* tight details.
Switching to the W&N brush was a completely different story: the bristles kept splitting. 😢
Oh well, bad batches happen.
Considering that I’ve had dozens of W&N brushes over the years, and never had any issues before, I’m not going to hold a single bad brush as representative of the entire line, but, I did decide to abort the test: if the other W&N brush I received is also from the same batch, there is a high likelihood that it is also bad… and there was no point wasting the time, especially when I was satisfied with the previous 2 brushes.
Now, onto the comparison!
Bristles
I didnt have any graph paper with squares small enough, so I ended up making a 1mm grid in Illustrator… and printing my own. 🙂
As you can see, they are all very similar in size and shape – and virtually identical in the case of the Artis Opus and Rosemary & Co… for obvious reasons.
Conclusion: both the Artis Opus and R&Co performed well – the short, stiff bristles gave me alot of control and helped me move quickly. I’m going to give W&N the benefit of the doubt and assert that it too would have performed well… had the tip not kept splitting. 🙂
Availability
This is actually directly related to why I went with #1’s instead of the #0’s I usually use: I couldnt find any suppliers with W&N s7 Miniature #0’s in stock!
W&N brushes are very difficult for me to find locally, and even the usual places I order supplies from had very limited stock – it was obvious that these brushes would be the hardest to get, so I should plan my test around the sizes I can find for the W&N, which I ended up ordering from PK Pro.
The Artis Opus brushes had greater availability – my local game store carries them, but didnt have the sizes I needed in stock, so I ended up ordering them directly from Artis Opus.
At the time, Rosemary & Co werent widely available – Fenris Workshop does carry the line, but, dont carry the Series 323, so I ended up ordering directly from Rosemary & Co.
Conclusion: Rosemary and Company have the best availability – while you can order directly from Artis Opus, they dont make their brushes, so do have inventory levels… and nothing beats ordering directly from a manufacturer. W&N has, by far, the worst availability, at least in Canada – it is possible to order directly from them, but, well:
Hurray for Canada… elbows up, amirite?
Value
I originally was going to evaluate them on ‘Cost’, but a cheap cost often equals a cheap quality… not in this case, though. The R&Co perform just as well as the Artis Opus, so, this is instead about value.
W&N: $41 USD (about $60 CAD)
Artis Opus: $33 CAD
Rosemary & Company: $10 CAD
Conclusion: Rosemary & Company, by far – I can get 3 brushes for the cost of a single Artis Opus… or 6 for the cost of a single W&N.
Shipping
Shipping for the W&N brushes was fairly high at about $50 CAD – I had to import them from Germany – but, at least I could actually get them shipped to Canada.
Shipping from Artis Opus was $6 (it’s gone up slightly since I ordered) and shipping from Rosemary & Co was $16 (again, it’s gone up since).
Conclusion: Based on shipping, on it’s own, Artis Opus is more reasonable, BUT factoring in the cost of the brush itself, Rosemary and Co is the better deal – ordering a single brush from Artis Opus is $40 total ($33 + $7 shipping) while it’s only $34 for a single brush from Rosemary & Co ($10 + $24).
If you order more than 1 brush from Rosemary & Co, though, the shipping becomes even better: their shipping is based on weight, so you can order several brushes at the same time, making the shipping per brush quite reasonable… I played around with the quantities and was able to put 50 brushes into a single order without changing the shipping cost.
Packaging
All the brushes were packed well, with no chance for the caps to fall off in transit. Winsor & Newton, however, have the best packaging: every single brush comes in a plastic tube.
Overall Conclusion
Rosemary & Company, easily: as good as the other brushes, at a much greater value – but the big decider for me was availability… I can get the brushes that I need, when I need them.
Rosemary & Company are now my brush of choice. ❤
The Cbaggery 