johncomic

Okay, so I finally took another crack at trying to learn to ink with a brush. In old-school circles, brush inking is the mark of a Pro, and it gives you lines of a deliciousness you can't quite get any other way. Been looking at the work of brush masters lately and it finally inspired me to stretch out and see if I can finally pick up this skill. So:

about twenty years ago when I first got the brushing bee in my bonnet, I picked up a variety of brushes to try out "someday"... tried several times and always got quickly discouraged... anyhoo, yesterday I specifically made a point of comparing the different makes and models to see how they perform. Lemme tell you a bit about comics brushes for those of you who aren't familiar with these arcana:

The standard type of brush used for inking comics is the watercolor round... and the size known as No. 2 is most commonly considered the ideal balance of letting you make very thin and pretty thick lines. My reading has told me [and my experience here bears this out] that the features which determine the quality of a brush for inking are:

1) point - the bristles must come to a clear sharp point. Ideally you should be able to make a line of literal hair-width, and only a good point will let you do this. The point also prevents the line width from spontaneously changing because the bristles have shifted position while they move
2) spring - a springy bristle is sensitive to slight variations in hand pressure which allow you to make subtle variations in the width of your line... and they spring back into position when you ease up the pressure to go back to the thinnest line. Common wisdom is that natural hair has better spring than synthetics, sable hair is better than other animals, and the Kolinsky sable is better than any other kind. I have also learned that the Kolinsky sable has been declared quasi-endangered or somesuch, so that trafficking in its hair has become tightly controlled by international law. Kolinsky sable brushes have always been expensive -- now they are even more so and also harder to find.
3) capacity and flow - a brush that doesn't hold a good bit of ink will dry out quickly and need to be refilled often, interrupting your line. Also, if the ink doesn't let go of the bristles readily and flow onto the page, then if you move your hand faster than the ink can flow, your line will dry out partway through even though the brush is still wet. But if your hand moves too slow then it's hard to control the steadiness and smoothness of your line. So you want a brush that will hold ink but also let it go when you try to pull it out onto the page. Once again, Kolinsky sable is considered superior in both respects.

So these were the qualities I was looking for when I test-drove these brushes. All brushes were No. 2s except where noted, and I am showing them to you in order of increasing satisfaction. Also, these samples are scaled to the same size as my Space Kid! pages are displayed online, so you can see how the lines would look "in print". Here goes!

1 Artisanat

Artisanat - I had two of these, a sable [so they claimed] on the left and a nylon [white synthetic bristles] on the right. Both terrible -- they refused to form a point, and capacity and flow were bad. Almost impossible to control. Pass. (Even though I can see that, in printed reduction, many of the flaws are minimized -- doesn't matter, they are too frustrating to work with!)

2 CCh3

Crafter's Choice - this one was actually a No. 3 = larger point, and white nylon. Not much better than the Artisanat: bad point, bad capacity and flow. Pass.

3 WNCirrus

Winsor & Newton Cirrus - okay, this was an odd one. Winsor & Newton has had a reputation for decades as The Top of The Line when it comes to comic brushes, and this brush claimed to be a Kolinsky sable. (However, I know that Cirrus is one of W&N's cheaper lines.) So reputable name and best bristles, and it was quite a disappointment. Point was no better than those other ones above -- looking at it closely I can see how poorly the hairs have been trimmed, no wonder they won't co-operate to form a point. This made me aware of how much effect craftsmanship has on making the materials perform at their best. Spring and capacity and flow were a bit better, though, so that's a start.

4 Premier705

Premier 705 - this was a white nylon and surprisingly good for all that. I would only fault it for its spring, which didn't co-operate as well as I'd like -- it's like you push down and get nothing and suddenly it gives way and splays out, hard to get the control you need to maintain a "just a little thicker" line.

5 Pentel

Pentel Color Brush - this is more like a marker that has a brush head instead of a felt tip. It's a very popular choice these days, and I can see why. You never need to dip it cuz the "tank of ink" is built into the handle, capacity is infinite. Point, spring and flow are all excellent, too! And you don't have to wash the bristles out between uses, it just caps shut airtight.
However, the slight downsides for me personally are these: 1) you have to use Pentel's ink, which I find a bit thin. It reproduces fine so that doesn't really matter, I guess, but I like having the blackest ink I can get, and 2) the point on this appears much larger than a No. 2 and I believe that this product only comes in the one size, which I found harder to control at very thin widths. So I still wanna try for the traditional brush, even though it's less convenient.

6 Isa62282

Isabey 6228 - this is a Kolinsky sable that had a great reputation twenty years ago, although I hear many pros nowadays saying that their quality has declined in recent years (along with other top of the line Kolinskys like Winsor & Newton and Raphael). Anyway, I quite liked this one -- excellent in most respects, I just found its flow a bit slow, forcing me to move slower than I wanted and consequently making my lines shakier. This was a No. 2 -- I happened to have a No. 1 of these on hand as well, so I tried it out, too:

7 Isa62281

The flow on this one was a bit better, but still cramped my style just a little. I could manage with an Isabey if I had to, for sure!

8 WNSeries7

Winsor & Newton Series 7 -- now we're talkin'. Mecca, the Holy Grail. If you read any book on cartooning published from like the 1930s to the 1980s, they will tell you that all the pros use a W&N Series 7, accept no substitutes! Pay the extra for it! yadda yadda... well, I gotta tell ya, I can see why. This fella here was the top performer in every aspect, and noticeably so. It is the clear winner, and as I continue to work and hone my skills, I will be working with this one.
Even though, as I said earlier, the quality of the Series 7 has reportedly dropped in the last couple decades and the pros no longer swear by it, they do also say that once in a while you can still run across a good one [depending on which craftsman made it, I suppose?]. Anyway, either I got mine back when they were still generally good, or I lucked on one of the rare standouts, I dunno, but this one seems fine to me.

That being said, I recently ran across a rave for the Escoda 1212, which sounds like it is built to the same standards that the Series 7 used to be... so you're telling me that this one is even better than my Series 7?! Okay, this I gotta see.... so I ordered one. Once it arrives, I will take it for a spin and update you on my thoughts!

And I will end this on an up note: I feel like going back. A few hours with the brush used to discourage me, but this time I came away feeling like I was making progress, like for the first time feeling like I could actually learn to do this. I am gonna keep trying. Go me.