The Water Sketch Brush is filled with tap water and can be refilled by you whenever necessary. The Colour Sketch Brush is not refillable but has a replaceable cartridge that is filled with a dye based watercolour.

Click here for a list of retailers

How long is a piece of string? That’s how difficult we found this question to answer, so to help we held some trials.

The artists in our trials used the pens between 2-4 hrs per day for approximately 6-9 months before the cartridges ran out. Of course this is using them moderately; that is not flooding the pens with every use and working between A5 and A4 dimensions.

Of course the pens won’t last as long if you work on A1 and larger areas or like to flood the pens onto the page and splash it round. One thing we can say is they do last longer than most tube or pan paints as there is minimal wastage and they don’t dry out.

This is a common mistake we get all the time. Although the Colour Sketch Brushes may look like a pen, they are in fact a brush attached to a constant flow of watercolour. The Colour Sketch Brushes have three different parts that all work together.

At the top you have a White Sable synthetic brush that is exactly the same as a traditional artists brush. The individual synthetic fibre hairs give the same quality of stroke that we all expect from a good traditional sable brush, completely unlike a felt tip.

The second part is the Brush Assembly, this is the reservoir that holds and regulates the flow of paint from the Cartridge to the Brush Tip, and is another key to why the brushes are so different from felt tips. Because of this regulated flow the brushes are constantly wet so they don’t dry out.

Finally there is the cartridge, where the watercolour is stored. The cartridge has been designed for maximum volume and it is this part that makes the brushes look like a pen. However don’t be fooled. A felt tip pen, no matter how similar it looks, will not give you the same professional watercolour results as the Art-Kure Brush pens. The colour is not pure water soluble ink, there is no valve assembly system, felt tips will dry out and the cartridges hold less colour.

The Colour Sketch Brushes have replaceable cartridges. The replaceable cartridges can be purchased by mail order from mid 2004 from Art-Kure. Simply phone 01626 859 100. Click here (Link contact page)

No the pens will not dry out. This has been tried and tested by one of our artists. The pens have been put through tests such as; leaving them outdoors with their lids off for a couple of days, then using them to see whether they work, and they did. Because there is a constant flow of colour from the cartridge, as soon as the brush is moved around on the paper the pens will work almost straight away again, so leaving the lids off on the pens will make no difference to how they work. You can also dip the brush tips in warm water to regain immediate flow.

The Colour Sketch Brush cartridges contain water soluble, dye based ink. This is quite a new form of watercolour that has been tested and made to match the quality of other professional watercolour products i.e. Pan or tubes.

Currently under going testing.

Yes, the pens are fully water soluble. They work in the same way normal watercolours would. You can use the pens in many ways. To create fully saturated, bright colours you can put them directly onto your page. You can also create light washes of colour by using the mini pallet or tipping technique, mainly with the Water Sketch Brush. All of these techniques are explained fully on the website. Click here (Link to techniques)

Yes, the results from using this product are comparative to any other watercolour paint. The major bonus of using the Art-Kure system is that there is minimal wastage and there will be no muddy palettes or paints. As the pens are self cleaning cross colour contamination is not an issue.

Although we have promoted this product as a sketching tool, as it is so convenient, there is no reason why you could not use it for a final piece of artwork. For example, Tim Harvey has no qualms about using this system for his finished pieces.

Yes, you can use traditional techniques with this system. For example, wet into wet, dry brush technique, graduated and flat washes can all be easily achieved with the Art-Kure system. However, to understand the varied range of techniques that can be used click here (Link to techniques).

For the best results use any good quality watercolour paper. However you can use the Brush pens on ordinary cartridge paper, but be aware the results won’t be as effective. Click here (Link to accessories page)

The principal of mixing the colours are the same, however, the technique is slightly different. When mixing the Art-Kure Watercolours you can use a piece of scrap paper instead of mixing in a pan. Also with the Art-Kure range you can use other ways of mixing, not just the mini palette technique. Click here for more techniques (link).

The wet into wet technique works extremely well with these pens, we have recommended that this technique is used when using the Skies Sketch Pack, this technique also works well if you are creating reflections with the use of the Chisel Tip Water Sketch Brush. Click here (Link to techniques)

As we have already stated you can easily mix colours with a limited palette, however if you don’t want to spend the time or effort mixing, then you can expand your palette to the full range. The range of Art-Kure colours directly correlate with a traditional watercolour palette. For example the Light Brown (61) is similar match to your Yellow Ochre, the Brown (60) is similar to Burnt Sienna, and the Mid Brown (65) is similar to Burnt Umber. Click here (Link to colour chart or colour page)

You can use the Brushes with other mediums, such as other watercolours and watercolour pencils. We do not advise you use the Brushes with Oils, Acrylics, or Pastels as they may mess up your brushes in the long run, unless you use the brushes before using pastels and that will work fine.

No, the Colour Sketch Brushes do not come with different sized tips at the moment; we are looking into selling the tips individually for the near future.

We have tried this technique, and it does work. However we do not recommend this as the Water Sketch and Colour Sketch Brushes have different reservoirs, so if you do use the Water Sketch Brush tip on the Colour Sketch Brush there is a chance the pen may leak or flood if squeezed too hard. But by all means experiment as much as you wish.

The international post will be sent via Air Mail and will cost the customer approximately £10.00 (depending on weight) for shipping and handling. When the customer orders, it will be processed the same day, however it will be sent in the following days post and hopefully be with the customer within a few days of the despatch date.