Many people often ask me if I do indeed paint each and every single bubble in my paintings by hand, and when I answer yes, they would say "you must be very patient!". In all honesty, am not, which is very ironic/contradictory, as I like to create my pieces, no matter if it's the blotted line drawing illustrations or my bubbles painting, using time consuming and tedious techniques.
In the case of painting numerous on bubbles am using softer watercolour brushes on a rougher canvas surface. I used to use natural fiber Japanese brushes, efude, but I went through too many of them in a very short period of time. What's worse, is that they are impossible to replace here in Canada.
Even switching over to synthetic Western watercolour brushes, I still go through them like mad. Here's a look at the three brushes am using at the moment, the left almost at the end of its cycle, the center, half way there, and to the right, a new brush that would eventually end up looking like the one of the left. And by all means, am not using student/craft quality brushes--I can't because I find the bristles either too firm, too brittle, not holding enough pigment......
I take care of my supplies very well, as they are an important part of my work. However, I just put my brushes through way too much to a point that it's heartbreaking and I do feel sorry for them. If you are wondering what brushes I use, it's Winsor & Newton Galeria Round. That said, I still use fude whenever am painting on paper, which is better, but they too will need to replaced much quicker than they were meant to be.