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johncomicIn my recent cartooning work, I've been using a cheap round watercolour brush to fill in large black areas with ink. Sometimes I've tried inking some of my lines with it as well, but it's not quite as good for that because it's not a great brush.
Today, I dug up some better brushes I bought years ago, when I wanted to learn proper brush inking someday, and decided to test-drive one. I ended up choosing an Isabey No. 1 Kolinsky sable round. Kolinsky sable brushes have been considered top of the line for decades in both comics inking and watercolour painting, and Isabey has a decent reputation, so it seemed a safe choice for today.
However, I couldn't help noticing how ragged the brush looked [you can see it on the left]. I didn't remember it being such a mess when I bought it, that's for sure. One of the most important things a round brush needs, in either inking or painting, is to be able to form and hold a sharp point — this gives you the control and precision you want in a round. I figured I could still use this one for low-precision fills anyway, and I gave it a whirl.
But then I noticed what happened when it got wet [you can see it on the right]. Gorgeous point that it holds together while in use. What a pleasant shock, I gotta tell ya. This brush doesn't look like much at first, but the quality of its performance is all you could want. (Kinda like me!) And yes, after I cleaned it and let it dry, it went all ragged again — that's just its way.
So there's that whole “don't judge a book by its cover” aspect to this, yes indeed.
Today, I dug up some better brushes I bought years ago, when I wanted to learn proper brush inking someday, and decided to test-drive one. I ended up choosing an Isabey No. 1 Kolinsky sable round. Kolinsky sable brushes have been considered top of the line for decades in both comics inking and watercolour painting, and Isabey has a decent reputation, so it seemed a safe choice for today.
However, I couldn't help noticing how ragged the brush looked [you can see it on the left]. I didn't remember it being such a mess when I bought it, that's for sure. One of the most important things a round brush needs, in either inking or painting, is to be able to form and hold a sharp point — this gives you the control and precision you want in a round. I figured I could still use this one for low-precision fills anyway, and I gave it a whirl.
But then I noticed what happened when it got wet [you can see it on the right]. Gorgeous point that it holds together while in use. What a pleasant shock, I gotta tell ya. This brush doesn't look like much at first, but the quality of its performance is all you could want. (Kinda like me!) And yes, after I cleaned it and let it dry, it went all ragged again — that's just its way.
So there's that whole “don't judge a book by its cover” aspect to this, yes indeed.
