Не то чтобы мне хотелось покупать всё новое, но без хорошей кисточки рисовать труднее.

Не то чтобы is a very common Russian phrase used to soften or qualify what comes next. It often means something like:

• It’s not that...
• Not exactly that...
• It’s not really that...

So the speaker is not making a strong direct claim like I don’t want to buy new things. Instead, they are saying something more nuanced: it’s not exactly that I want to keep buying everything new, but...

This structure is useful when you want to reject a simple explanation and replace it with a more precise one.

Russian often uses хотелось with the experiencer in the dative case:

• мне хотелось = I felt like / I wanted
• literally, something like to me it was wanted

This sounds softer, less direct, and often more natural in reflective speech than я хотел.

Compare:

• Я хотел купить... = I wanted to buy...
  More direct and straightforward.
• Мне хотелось купить... = I felt like buying... / I had the desire to buy...
  More emotional, softer, sometimes more tentative.

So мне хотелось fits well with the overall hedging tone created by Не то чтобы.

This happens because хотеться is an impersonal verb.

In impersonal constructions, Russian often uses:

• no grammatical subject
• a neuter singular past form

So:

• мне хотелось = literally something like it was desired to me
• ему не спалось = he couldn’t sleep / sleep wouldn’t come to him
• нам не работалось = we didn’t feel like working

The neuter singular form хотелось does not agree with мне. The word мне is in the dative and indicates who experiences the feeling.

Покупать is imperfective, and that makes sense here because the sentence is talking about a general tendency or repeated behavior, not one single completed purchase.

Compare:

• купить = to buy, to make a purchase once, as a completed action
• покупать = to buy in general, to keep buying, to buy habitually

In this sentence, the idea is not I wanted to buy one new thing, but more like I felt like buying new things / replacing things with new ones. The imperfective fits that broader, ongoing idea.

Всё новое literally looks like everything new.

Here:

• всё = everything / all
• новое = new in neuter singular

Why neuter singular? Because всё is itself a neuter singular pronoun, and новое agrees with it.

This phrase is a common way in Russian to mean:

• everything new
• all the new stuff
• new things in general

An implied noun such as всё новое [что есть] or всё новое [имущество / вещи] is not stated explicitly.

So this is not about one specific neuter noun. It is a general expression meaning all things that are new.

Because без always takes the genitive case.

So:

• кисточка → кисточки
• хорошая → хорошей

That gives:

• без хорошей кисточки = without a good brush

This is normal case agreement:

• the preposition без requires genitive
• the adjective хорошей matches the noun кисточки in case, number, and gender

You will see this with many prepositions in Russian:

• без сахара = without sugar
• без новой книги = without a new book
• без хорошей кисточки = without a good brush

Кисточка usually means a small brush or paintbrush.

Russian has:

• кисть = brush; also hand in some contexts, depending on meaning
• кисточка = little brush / brush, often a more everyday word for a paintbrush or similar tool

The suffix -очк- often gives a diminutive form. But diminutives in Russian do not always mean actual small size. They can also sound:

• more natural in everyday speech
• more concrete
• less formal

So кисточка here is very natural for paintbrush. It does not necessarily mean a tiny or cute brush; it may simply be the normal word the speaker chose.

Russian often uses the infinitive to talk about an action in a general way, especially in statements like:

• читать интересно = reading is interesting / it is interesting to read
• писать трудно = writing is hard / it is hard to write
• рисовать труднее = drawing/painting is harder / it is harder to draw/paint

There does not need to be an explicit subject like это or мне. The sentence is presenting the action itself as the topic.

So рисовать труднее means something like:

• it is harder to paint
• painting is harder

The person affected is understood from context.

Труднее is the comparative form of трудно:

• трудно = hard / difficult
• труднее = harder / more difficult

The sentence says that drawing or painting is harder without a good brush. There is an implied comparison:

• harder than with a good brush
• harder than it would otherwise be

Russian often leaves that comparison unstated when it is obvious from context.

You could compare:

• Без кисточки рисовать трудно. = Without a brush, it is difficult to paint.
• Без хорошей кисточки рисовать труднее. = Without a good brush, it is harder to paint.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Рисовать is a broad verb covering:

• to draw
• to paint
• to make pictures

Because the sentence mentions кисточка (a brush), many learners will naturally understand it as paint or paint pictures, but Russian still uses рисовать broadly even when brushes are involved.

If the speaker wanted to be more specifically about painting with paints, they might also use verbs like писать in an art context, but рисовать is perfectly normal here.

Russian word order is flexible, and here the order sounds natural because it presents the sentence in a smooth, conversational way.

• Не то чтобы sets up the qualification first.
• мне хотелось then gives the personal feeling.
• покупать всё новое completes the idea.

The second half:

• но без хорошей кисточки рисовать труднее

puts the circumstance first:

• без хорошей кисточки = without a good brush

and then the general statement:

• рисовать труднее = it is harder to paint

This order helps the contrast flow naturally:

• It’s not that I wanted to keep buying new things, but without a good brush, painting is harder.

So the word order is not arbitrary; it supports the speaker’s tone and emphasis.

Yes. The sentence sounds like someone justifying a purchase in a mild, reasonable way.

The tone is:

• not greedy
• not materialistic
• slightly defensive
• practical

The speaker is basically saying:

• I’m not the kind of person who just wants everything new
• but in this case, having a good brush really does matter

That nuance comes from several features working together:

• Не то чтобы softens and qualifies
• мне хотелось sounds less blunt than я хотел
• но introduces a practical counterpoint
• труднее emphasizes real difficulty rather than preference

So this is a very natural Russian way to express a modest, reasonable justification.