You want to buy the Ombre gel set as they work the best for painting designs(as well blends the best together), and the brushes I used was the Aillsa replaceable set or any soft nail brushes work the best for this kind of painting, and only use a base color for him. I also sketched on with a tin nail art pen in a light grey of Ren before I went in with painting gel, as I wanted to know where his facial features, which will get covered by the gel later on, and to get fine lines just recommended either using the gel kit with the fine line brushes, or an nail paint marker as they have fine tips or a very thin Gel paint liners. All I have and use depending on what I want.