Wednesday, February 19, 2014

1.1 Brush choice: authenticity or convenience

When you choose your writing brush, you can decide how authentic you want to be.  There are three main categories to choose from.  
  • Easiest to use is a brush marker (at left), which offers a somewhat flexible felt tip and its own internal supply of ink.  
  • A fountain brush (middle), like a modern fountain pen, holds a supply of ink inside its handle. *  
*Some are refillable, others are not.  Its brush fibers are synthetic and its body is plastic.  
  • The classic brush (at right) is made of fine animal hair held in a hollow bamboo handle; you dip it in a shallow dish of ink to keep it supplied with ink.  Its size can range from tiny to mop-size, and its price from a few dollars to a few hundred.  
Make a realistic assessment of your skill level, and don't be afraid to start simple and get more refined as you gain mastery.  

3 comments:

  1. OkeyaFebruary 21, 2014 at 8:03 AM

    It would be nice to see the trace differences of these.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Margaret ShepherdFebruary 28, 2014 at 5:30 AM

    The picture COULD be better. Main differences: marker and fountain pens save you the trouble of learning to dip the pen and re-shape the brush tip each time. They are inexpensive enough that you can buy some to experiment with.

    ReplyDelete
  3. OkeyaMarch 6, 2014 at 5:48 AM

    What I meant is that you could write the same words with all three so we can see the difference in the final work.

    ReplyDelete