Why are your brush pens fraying?

Why are your brush pens fraying?

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One day you take out your brush pens ready to do some awesome lettering. When you start you notice that you have streaks. It’s Fraying. You think, why are my brush pens fraying? (Don’t worry, I’ve been their too).

There could be many reasons why your brush pens are fraying. So here are the two main factors.

One, you are not using smooth paper (sometimes not even printer paper is smooth enough for your brush pens). Two, you can be really heavy-handed, or you are holding the brush pen incorrectly.

Now I am going to talk about: 

  • How long does a brush pen last?
  • How do you know if your brush pens are fraying?
  • How do I keep my brush pens from fraying?
  • How to use a frayed brush pen?
  • What brush pens don’t fray

How long does a brush pen last?

You might now be wondering. Then how long does a brush pen last?

It depends. If you are using it very often (pounding and practicing on it) it could sometimes only last six months. But if you are not using it as often it could last you about a year and a half. 

My brush pens have now lasted me for more than a year now.

How do you know if your brush pens are fraying?

One thing you would want to notice is that it is only affecting your upstrokes, not your downstrokes. With a frayed tip, only upstrokes are being affected. 

If both upstrokes and down strokes ar being affected there is something else going on. It could possibly be that your marker is drying out.

If you want to learn how to revive your markers check out my article all about it here.

Now with a frayed tip, you will notice that your upstrokes are not even. They can also be wobbly and streaky. Here is an example down below.

Above is just a quick zoom in to show you how frayed this brush pen is.

Now let’s look at the actual felt tip.

Sometimes when your brush pen is frayed you could see little pieces of felt sticking out. This could just look like fuzz or pieces of string on your brush pen. Basically you are seeing the tip tearing apart.

Example: 

If you would like zoom in

How do I keep my Brush Pens from Fraying?

Two main things from keeping your brush pens from fraying. One, buy nice smooth paper. Two hold your brush pen correctly while lettering. You now may be wondering. How am I going to do this? 

I will now be talking about the two following topics:

  • What paper should I use with my brush pens?
  • How do you hold a brush pen?

What paper should I use with my Brush Pens?

When considering what paper you should use there are always two factors. The paper has to be smooth (like I said before). 

There is another factor that not a lot of people think about. The paper has to be bleed proof because remember a lot of Brush Pens are water-based so they will bleed – unless you are going for that effect for some reason.

I have noticed that a lot of people just use regular printer paper. This isn’t always the best option for your brush pens.

Here are some options :

Rhodia Paper

Canson Marker A4 Pad

HP Printer Paper, Premium 32

Here is an article that I wrote about that talks more about paper.

How do you hold a Brush Pen?

Holding a brush pen is way different than a pencil or normal pen. The brush pen should always be at a 45-degree angle and never upright like you would normally hold a pencil. 

When writing you should never be that heavy-handed, especially for whatever reason you are not holding the brush pen correctly because that would lead for the tip of the marker to fray very badly.

How to use a frayed brush pen?

There are many ways to use a frayed brush and making it appear that is not frayed at all. Here are some ways I will be talking about. 

  • Do Thicker upstrokes 
  • Use the ink from the pen 
  • Only use the brush pen for practice

Thicker upstrokes

When you are using a frayed brush pen you might just want to teach yourself how to do thicker upstrokes. The point of doing thicker upstrokes is you won’t be able to tell that you used a frayed brush pen. 

If you use instead use thin upstrokes as you would od normally you will see that the lines aren’t even and they will be wobbly.

Still, the number one rule in all hand-lettering is upstrokes are always thinner than your downstrokes.

Use the ink

If you decided that you don’t want to use your brush pen at all and it still has ink in it here is something that you can do.

Materials:

  • Regular nice brush or brush pen blender.
  • Watercolor blending card or Plastic bag
  • A small cup of water

The first thing you are going to want to do is to get your brush pen and just write on your plastic bag. Once doing that get your cup of water and dip your new brush. Then use the ink as watercolor to do some water brush lettering. The same process can be used with your brush pen blender.

If you need help with this process here is a picture:

Only use the brush pens for practice

You could always just use your frayed brush pens for practice. Then with big commissions or projects, you should not be using feathered brush pens unless you did one of these processes above.

What type of brush pens don’t fray? 

After seeing this whole process you might be wondering how can I prevent all of this. So what type of brush pens don’t fray?

Well already we have tones of choices to choose from but here is the number one factor if you want brush pens that don’t fray that easily.

Harder tip brush pens can be harder to fray because they are not as flexible. Here are some examples 

Regular Crayola Markers

Pental Art sign pen

Conclusion

You have just learned all about the possibilities of why your brush pens are fraying. You have also learned how to prevent all of these things from happening to your brush pens so that you can be able to use your brush pens for the longest period of time.

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