A review (of sorts) of the Games & Gears D6 Generation brush set

I am calling this a review of sorts because I am in no way qualified to judge higher end paintbrushes but I do want to talk about why I bought them and how I feel about them now that they have arrived.

For the past month or so I have been painting quite a bit after a long dry spell over the summer and I was considering getting one or two good brushes. I had my eye on the Winsor Newton System 7 brushes because I had heard good things about them and they carry them at the local art supply store so I could see them in person before buying them.

Shortly after I had begun considering this purchase, I head on the D6G podcast that were promoting a set of brushes from Games & Gears. At 45 pounds for 5 brushes they were a little bit less than the cost per brush for the Winsor Newton ones but I was really only considering getting 2 of those (one around size 2 and one around 0 or 00). I did a bit more research and was leaning towards the Games and Gears brushes and then figured that if it was a limited run of 250 it wasn't really worth the effort of the hosts of the D6G to completely sell out for such a small gain so they probably could be trusted on this one!

I finally decided to go for it and just when I was about place the order, I got a call from my Mum saying she was going to send me some money for Christmas and coincidentally it was almost exactly the amount that the set with the D6G Brushes and the DLB technicals was going for. So in a moment of madness I bought that.

About a week and half ago the brushes arrived. They looked really good and the feel and weight of them was good and they went together well when you took them apart for storage.

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started to use them (to be honest, I was dreading that there would be a huge moment of buyers remorse) but they are very good. I don't know that I could say that they make my painting that much better (though I think they do a little bit) but they do make the experience of painting much better, the brushes keep their point much better and for longer than the brushes I was using before and they hold the paint better. When I paint with very watery paint it "stays" in the brush better. I can paint for longer without getting annoyed and frustrated.

The 0 00 and 000 are much more useful than I would  have imagined. Although they come to a very fine point there is still enough "bristle mass" to hold a decent amount of paint so you don't feel that you are painting with a toothpick. If these brushes last for a good long time (and I have no reason to think that they won't) I will be very happy with this purchase.

I haven't done anything with the Technical set of brushes yet, I will likely give the drybrush brushes a go soon and will try the "katana" on some free hand shield work (not really much hope of success there since my drawing is awful with a pencil and I don't think there is any reason to think I will do any better even with the best of brushes).

So the final word is that I have come to realize that having better brushes will make my painting more fun (and perhaps a little better) and that these are definitely better brushes. I can't say that they are better (or worse) than other higher end brushes but I can say I am quite happy with them and would recommend them to anyone looking to move up in the brush world.