A new development has been the combination of squirrel and taklon for watercolour. Taklon for point and spring, squirrel for colour carrying capacity. This mix gives a superb brush for watercolour in particular at a much lower price than sable. 20% of the brush hair is made from blue squirrel. Squirrel retains lots of water and when combined with taklon it makes a perfectly affordable watercolour brush.

A wash brush, also called an oval or sky brush, has a flat ferrule with filbert-type rounded hair.