The Care & Feeding of Brushes

First off, Ink is terrible on brushes. You've got the meanest, blackest ink you could find (in my case Higgins), then boiled it or set it out to evaporate to become even more black. You can ink so thick it stands up on the page if you're not careful. It's beautiful ebony black even after it's been hit by an eraser.

And it'll eat your brush for lunch.

The bane of all brush users is splitting hairs. I've heard it recommended that the second your brush hairs start splitting, you should drop it in the trash and go buy a new one. If your brush is a Winsor Newton series seven or the like, that means you're looking at $45 of new brush. But you can prolong the life of your brushes, even after they start splitting.

First you need a GOOD brush cleaning soap. I use THE MASTERS BRUSH CLEANER AND PRESERVER (Original B and J). It comes in short little canisters with twist off lids and you swirl your brush against the soap. It sucks out ink like you wouldn't believe.

Then you need to use it. Often. The thing that most often causes hair splitting is ink drying up deep inside the brush. When this happens, with some patience and diligent cleaning, you can get the clog out, but you can avoid it if you rinse and wash your brush regularly.

You should also separate your work into stuff for good brushes, and stuff for cheap brushes. Filling in black areas is for cheap brushes. Any time you come close to making a scrubbing motion is work for cheap brushes. Save your good brush for when it counts, on your linework.