On the edge of completing my 5 Empire Swordmen, when I noticed that my painting brush bristles starts to feel cranky and the tip is not pointed anymore. Checked my supply of brushes, oh no, I am left with only 1 new brush left, need to stock up. I usually use Daler Rowney Brushes or Ashley Japan brushes.
Usually I stock up at least 3 to 5 brushes. When the main painting brush starts to loose its sharp point, usually I will switch that brush to pick up paint from the paint pot, and to perform dry brushing. As my painting shop work station is always work in progress, usually after a paint session, I will just rinse the brush in my washing pot and leave it on the paper towel to dry. If its a new brush, I would put a little more effort and rinse and clean them under the running tap.
I know to better take care of the brushes, after every session, beside just rinsing, it should be wash thoroughly to prolong the life span of the brush. This is why I never really invested in those more expensive bristle brushes or such.
I guess this boils down to the question of quality versus quantity. The price to pay for a quality brush would equal to about 3 to 4 lower range brush. If you compare the price of a Winsor & Newton brush to a Daler Rowney brush, you can see the difference. So its more of a choice of whether to invest in an expensive brush, or a low range one where its easily replaced when wore out. In performance, I know with a quality brush, of course one would definitely paint better and feel the difference in the paint handling on the bristles.
Each time, when I am at my local art supply shop, with a decision decided to buy a better quality brush to try, the price always puts me off, and I end up with a few of the Daler Rowney range brushes.
Well, if you are devoted and can always make it a must to clean your brush after each painting session, then I would recommend that you invest in a good quality brush like Winsor & Newton Series 77 brushes. If you are like me, don’t want to spend so much effort taking care and cleaning brushes, then the economical range of brushes like Daler Rowney would just be good enough to do the job.
Game Workshop did have a new ranges of brushes released a while back which I have yet to try. Just drop by my local hobby store just now, and they were out of stock, next time I guess when the store restock, I will try them out. Cheers!
FOR MY BRUSHES…PAINT!… haha
