Brusho is something that was definitely more challenging than I thought it would be! I remember mum getting really excited about using this years ago and wanted to try it. Then last year a friend gifted some to me for Christmas – it was meant to be.
Initial Problems
Then I got started. My big mistake was going in for a picture straight away. That did not end well! For starters brusho is messy, far more than I had expected. I tried it for the first time away from home and somehow there are blue smears from it on my bathroom floor. It comes as a powder that you sprinkle onto your paper, which combined with water causes the pigment to explode randomly. As someone who likes things neat I initially found this very frustrating. The slightest speck of brusho in the wrong place would spread the paint into a different section muddying the pigment that was there before. It’s also transparent so there’s no chance of painting over it with another layer. In addition, unlike watercolour which will allow you to layer, adding another layer to brusho will reactivate the pigment underneath wildly. I was disappointed that the pigments weren’t dappled like they appeared on the box. It wasn’t a good session and to be honest I was thinking of giving it away or relegating it to the depths of my art cupboard.
However once I got home, I realised that I’d been going in blind. Quickly I searched for tutorials of brusho on YouTube and discovered that you can get something more figurative than abstract but it takes certain methods. One of the first mistakes I’d made was in actually opening the pots. It looks to be the norm that most people poke a hole in the top with a drawing pin and use it like a salt pot. Masking fluid could be used to give some definition. I could only use it shaken on the page to get the different tones and if I used a brush, the pigment would all blend together. My search for funky coloured textured paints continues. I used a very cool speckle paint at a ceramic studio but I’ve not seen a non ceramic paint alternative – if you know one please let me know! Anyway With newfound vigour I set off to The Range and gathered the needed supplies.
Techniques
There were two techniques in particular I saw displayed that I decided I’d like to try.
On one video a lady sprayed in the background first and then added the colours to the picture as in using paint. This is what I tried with the howling dog on the left.
In another video the lady used water as a mask with some butterflies to contain sprinkling the brusho and allowing it not to spread too far. Then she left it to dry ( a previous mistake of mine ) so she could brush off the specks of the last colours to avoid activating them when she put water on for the next colour. This is what I started doing with the sausage dog and the greyhound.
These both worked well and was a much more enjoyable experience than the first time. I would like to pick up a pipette as this would allow me to more accurately drop water into areas I wanted to diffuse more rather than risk moving the pigment by using a brush. So far I prefer the mask technique – for the spray technique the brush obliterated the sketch underneath so I had to make up the howling dog again! I’ve seen that this can be combated using permanent markers or paint pens if you don’t mind a bolder outline. Maybe I will try that next.
Finishing Off
I used more water to diffuse the paint more on the top left dog with a paintbrush (I was unable to find a pipette this time). The bottom left painting and the top right dogs are done using the water mask technique. For the sausage dog I went along under its belly with a gold Posca pen. The bottom right was an improvement on the background spray technique I used did for the howling dog. This time I did a thick bold pencil drawing under the paint splatters and used lighter paints on top. Once it had dried I went over with a permanent black marker and coloured in the collar using coloured pencils. I think this would be difficult using darker paints on top – unless you were fancying free styling it!
Overall through time, research and experiments I did enjoy using the brush and think I will use it again in future. My favourite was probably the water mask technique – I like how it created the strong marbling effect. Have you tried brusho and if so what did you think?
Do you like dogs? Check out my French bulldog post here or subscribe to my mailing list to get all new posts. Let me know if you’d like to see these as designs on the shop.