Excelente pincel para los cielos y otros grandes espacios. Vivo en Uruguay, A quien debo dirigírme paraba adquirir estos pinceles,???

Hi Clive. Many thanks for your comments and you are very welcome. I hope you get on well with your new brushes and thanks for buying them.

You are welcome. I hope you find the Hake as rewarding as I have. Stephen

Me too

Get ready for mopping up tons of water

You are welcome and thanks for your lovely comments. Steve

de nada mi amigo

Hi Jill, that's great. I'm glad you have been inspired. It takes a little practice so don't expect too much too soon. Good luck. Let me know how you go on. Best wishes, Steve

I will have a go and let you know how I do

Hola Elena, así es como me gusta. Gracias por tu amable comentario

Hello Natalie, Thank you for your comments. There are quite a few public videos on my channel so please do "tune in". I will be posting more videos in the future so I hope you enjoy them. Regards, Steve

I may have made mistakes in my first comment because I am French. But I subscribed to your channel 😊

@@nathalie9040 Hello Nathalie, no your English is just fine. Thank you for subscribing and good luck with your watercolour painting. Steve

Hi Elaine, sorry for late reply. Most large flat animal hair brushes such as goat or squirrel will give you similar characteristics. The fine soft hair allows more water into the brush head and the delivery is much smoother than brushes made with synthetic hair. Best wishes, Steve

Sorry I've only just read your comment. On this demo I used a piece of paper which was 13" x 9"

Hi Michael. Not a dumb question at all. You are quite right. In order to get a thick wash of the purple mix, both the ultramarine and light red should be squeezed from tubes. The light red is strong so you don't need too much of that. I only add a small amount of water to this so that you can stir the colours together to form a sludgy mix, the consistency of olive oil. If you use pans (hard blocks) or try to reactivate dried paint the result is much too weak to use this way. If you don't have tubes, the way to reactivate dried paint is to add a little water to it and leave it to soak in for 10 minutes. Give it as stir and then add a bit more water and leave it to soak again. Eventually it will soften and become sludgy as required. It just requires a little patience. Hope that helps. Cheers, Steve Coates

Stephen Coates thx Steve! Very helpful!

Hi Monika, I'm glad you like the presentation. The hake used in the video is a large one which is just over 2 inches wide. Avaiable from my website www.coatesart.co.uk. but only for UK residents. If you are abroad, please sned an email and I'll let you know how you can get one. mail@coatesart.plus.com Best wishes, Steve

Vielen Dank für Ihre Kommentare. Ich habe deine Nachricht übersetzt! Viel Glück beim Malen. Beste Grüße, Steve

Hello Diane, You are welcome. The paddle is a quick turn of the wrist keeping each stroke moving in the same direction. It helps control and vary the cloud shapes rather than just painting a single broad line. The Mini hake is a really good alternative for smaller areas. It has a broad flat brush head just like the traditional Japanese style brush but is manufactured with a metal ferrule. This will be more robust and will last a lot longer. The brush head is approximately 3/4" (2cm) wide and at time of writing is £9.95 on my website www.coatesart.co.uk.

Thank you

Thanks for your question. The hake can be used on any watercolour paper. Bockingford is not made with cotton but has a fabulous durable surface. Saunders Waterford made by the same company is a cotton paper and is tagged as the professional choice. My preference is Bockingford which I use all the time. Best wishes Steve

@@stephencoates8165 Thanks for getting back to me. This all sounds like very good news to somebody like me who is on a budget! I only recently started watercolours using Acquafine paper and paints (they were the only affordable materials available near me) but am already getting to the stage where I realise I need to upgrade to progress, but the price of cotton paper and "professional" paints is quite scary, especially since I would have to get them online and pay postage, so it's great to know that they are not always necessary.

Hi there. Sorry for the late reply. I've only just noticed your message. The paper is 140lb NOT which means it has a light texture. It is also available as rough and extra rough depending on how grainy you want your finish to be. I have sent a few of these brushes to the States so if you wish to follow that up, please send me an email. Best wishes, Steve

Fyi, you’ll probably see paper sold as 140lb cold press (instead of not) in the United States

Ron Ranson recommends in his books to learn with, once proficient though I don't know why people don't upgrade to the professional stuff.

Hi Peter. Sorry for the delay in replying to your question about users of Hakes and Cotman paint. As far as I am concerned there is no link whatsoever and any you may have noticed is entirely accidental. I don't really want to get into the argument about Cotman versus Pro especially as I represent Winsor & Newton from time to time at various shows. It is a matter of personal choice. The Pro paints are undoubtedly stronger, more vibrant and there is a much larger range of colours to choose from than the Cotman range. However, the Cotman range is on average less than half the price per ml than the Pro range, in some cases a third of the price. Cotman performs extremely well and is in my view the best of the so called "student" brands on the market. I still use Cotman for all my paintings. Maybe that's because I come from Yorkshire! Enough said? All the best, Steve Coates

Steve Sidare actually more like “HA - KEH” . Westerners pronounce “sake” incorrectly.

@@eyegengrau4432 Apologies in advance if I am wrong, but it seems to me that the British refuse to pronounce foreign words as foreigners do....nor make any effort to learn the local pronunciation. Personally, I would be embarrassed to mispronounce a foreign word, especially on a video. I agree with you. After hearing the word spoken by a Japanese man, it sounded to me like HAW- keh. But Ha-keh is good, too, and definitely better than hake that sounds like make or cake.

Now there's a challenge. I'll have a word with my brush man!

@@stephencoates8165 What did he say?

@@barbaramilbradt2188 Hi Barbara, so sorry I haven't had chance to chat to him yet. It's still on my to do list!! Best wishes, Steve

Hello, Hake brushes can be bought from my website so long as you are in the UK. www.coatesart.co.uk. If you are outside the UK you can send me an email and I'll be able to work out a cost and use a Paypal account. It is quite straight forward. At the time of writing, the large Hake featured is £6.95. Regards, Stephen Coates

Hi Sheila, thanks for your question. I spend most of my time teaching, demonstrating, attending shows and writing articles for Leisure Painter magazine. As you may know, I am also an author of two books with another on the way. Creating You tube videos is time consuming and there are simply not enough hours in a day! I would love to do more and intend to do so in the future. I will do my best to get some more online in the new year but I can't promise!Best wishes, Steve

Hello Lydia, thank you for buying a book. I have sent a reply to your email address. Stephen

There is no definition of "Hake" in any of the English dictionaries in respect of a paint brush. The only references are that of the fish. Everyone seems to use the "fishy" pronunciation so I'm happy to go along with that even though you are probably quite correct.

@@stephencoates8165 He is. Hake (pronounced Hayke like you do is a northern fish). The japanese hake brush is pronounced hakeh like you pronounce sake (I suppose you don't pronounce sayke). It's the basic traditional large brush in Japan. But your brush is a western iteration, so of course you're free to call it a fish or a banana :D

@@stephencoates8165 Wouldn't you be bothered if someone continuously pronounced your name incorrectly? It's the same with pronouncing a foreign word wrong even after being educated on the correct pronunciation. :(

Hi There, traditional hakes do not last forever. The clamped and stiched brush head will deteriorate and shed hairs. Occasionally you get a "rouge" brush and it's just a case of replacing it. They do differ of course from one brand to another so obviously I am going to recommend the Proarte range. Either the Ron Ranson or my own signanure version which is exactly the same. One more thing, It is always worth pulling any stray hairs out of the brush head before using it. Hope that helps! Steve

Hi there, sorry for the delayed response. As you can see from the demo you do have to use lots of water to get the right effect. It may be that you are just using too much. Also, some Hakes on the market such as the "Osprey" have a much bigger volume of hair in the brush head so check the brand. My own signature brush is imported by Proarte and is exactly the same as the "Ron Ranson" version so obviously I would recommend either of those. Hope that helps! Best wishes, Steve

Hi Ernestina, many thanks for your comments. I have no experience of Grumbacher paper. I'm not sure it is available in the UK. I did a little research and it seems it is a good quality paper. However, without trying it I can't gauge its absorbency. If paper is really absorbent, the water disappears very quickly but this is usually a problem with budget papers. There are two possible problems here, the first of which would be to suggest switching papers and see if it makes a difference. What is more liley though is that you are not using enough water on the initial covering. This is very common. Even though you think you have put enough on, it is still in all probability not enough. It is quite scary how much you need so give it another go with more water than you are comfortable with. Use a large soft brush, thick paint mixes and get it on quickly before the water evaporates. Also make sure your painting is tilted at a shallow angle. If it is too steep, the water will run off very quickly. I hope that helps and good luck. Best wishes, Steve

Thank you for your comments but I believe this has already been addressed. Please scroll through earlier comments and conversations.

YES!!!! "hah -kea" it's "hah-kea"

Why do most people spell Japanese wrong? 😂