The Bottom Line
If you're a fan of an Etch A Sketch and had ever wished you could get something similar that worked with a brush, to product brushmarks rather than lines, then you should take a look at a Buddha Board. It's nothing religious, despite the name. Rather it's like an endless sheet of paper onto which you can paint with water to produce black brushmarks. When the water evaporates, the marks disappear and you can start all over again.
Pros
- Enables you to practice brushmarks without worrying about wasting paint or paper.
- Board made of wood with "special paper" (I took a knife to black coating, underneath is wood fiber).
Cons
- At around US$30 for the largest Buddha Board it seems expensive for what it is.
- Water reservoir, brush cover & packaging plastic; somewhat contradicts enviro aspect of saving paper
- Hairs in the brush kept falling out.
- Very hard to get tonal variations.
- Be careful not to scratch the board with anything sharp, including your fingernails.
Description
- Available in three versions: original (with a stand), laptop (folds open like a laptop computer), and mini.
- Manufacturer's website www.buddhaboard.com
- All versions come with a brush. Just supply your own water and you'll be 'painting' away.
- Protect the coating by never saturating the board for long periods and using clean water.
Guide Review - Buddha Board
A Buddha Board is a black board*with a white coating that, when you apply water to it, allows the black to show through. As the water evaporates and the board dries, it changes back to white. So, in effect, you've an endless piece of paper on which to paint, albeit with one color only.
How fast it dries obviously depends on how much water you apply and how warm it is. It was a rainy Scottish summer's day when I tried it, and it easily took five minutes to clear for very wet brushmarks. Which meant there was time to consider what I was doing, not a rush to get it painted before it dried. Lighter brushmarks with a drier brush vanished much sooner.
I used it to try out some of the things from Chinese Landscapes Made Easy by Rebecca Yue. The brush supplied with the Buddha Board had soft, floppy hairs which is quite different to painting with brush hairs that have a bounce to them, as watercolor brushes do. I found myself annoyed by the quantity of water it held which lead to me creating some puddles on the board, the inability to easily get a fine point, and so swapped to one of my 'usual' brushes. You can use any brush with the Buddha board (as long as there's nothing in it that's hard enough to scratch) and it's a way to practice brushstrokes without worrying about wasting paint.
I can also see it being very useful if you paint as part of a meditation routine, as something to keep kids occupied (particularly the small version), and in art classes where paint spillages and clean-up were problematic.
• What the Painting Star Ratings in Reviews Mean
*Update: I thought the board was plastic from its feel, but when the manufacturer told me "It's actually made of wood and special paper (and it's 100% recyclable)" I took a knife to the black coating on it. Sure enough, underneath it's wood fiber.
