I've never seen a Ruling (Masking) Pen like the SAA pen or Terry Harrison's in the U.S., but they look promising. Are they difficult to keep clean? Does anyone know of a version available west of the Atlantic?

Hi Charlotte, I tried out the SAA masking ruling pen for the first time this evening and found it excellent! It's been a bit of a pain constantly ruining brushes with masking fluid so I thought I would give on of these a go and glad I did!
It's been suggested rubbing your masking brush over a bar of soap to help prevent the brush getting clogged up and this does work to a certain degree.
The ruling pen can be very handy for those fine details. I am a fine artist so this works very well for those fine lines especially whiskers or tail feathers on birds.

Hope this helps,

Paul

I take it that you are masking out to keep white as the colour? Have you tried watered down bleach on colour to remove the pigment back to white paper? I've only used masking fluid once, and NEVER AGAIN! horrible stuff, but bleach does work, but you cannot paint back over where it has been

Each to his own of course, and masking fluid can be a pain to get rid of if it gets on clothes or other fabric, but in conjunction with a ruling pen it is a very useful, and quick, method of keeping the white paper. Ruling pens can give lovely fine lines with practice, and they can be cleaned very easily by just rubbing the fluid off the nib with fingers or tissue, even after it dries.

Don't leave it on your painting too long it is difficult to remove after more than a few days.

Gordon Brady