More about the Badger Blender

Care and Maintenance

This follows on from a recent post about the 5th benefit of undercoating, and also from “The Beastly Lion of Wolsey Towers” – episode #1, in which you saw how to undercoat a large piece of glass.

Today, cleaning your badger.

This is important because, dirty, your badger will wreck your matts and shadows.

Clean, it will serve you wonderfully for life.

So if your matts and shadows aren’t working, sure: it might be you’re being heavy-handed. All the same, your badger just might need a simple clean.

The Badger Blender

How can you blend and shade well if you don’t hold this brush correctly?

This is the biggest thing people get wrong when they use a badger blender (the big flat one: not the small round one). They hold it delicately. They hold it as if it were a feather duster.

Your Undercoat: the Fifth Benefit

There are various reasons you must consider if your glass will benefit from an undercoat before you start to trace. 

Do you remember what these reasons are?

We’ll cover them in just a moment.

And – looking ahead – will it surprise you when I tell you how the undercoat also helps your viewers’ eyes?

Therefore, unless you are painting only for yourself – which might sound luxurious to start with, but actually it’s a mixed blessing because a demanding client can improve your work no end – this is something you definitely must know.