Gave up on edge painting until a stranger in Austin showed me the foam brush thing

I spent months fighting with those cheap paint pens and my edges always looked streaky, so I actually quit doing edge painting entirely back in March. Then this lady at a book swap in Austin saw me complaining about it and handed me a damn foam brush and a $4 bottle of acrylic paint. She said 'dampen the foam, wipe it across the edge in one pass, don't go back over it' and I thought she was nuts. Tried it on a beat-up paperback that night, and it came out smoother than anything I'd ever done with a pen, no joke. Now I edge paint like three books a week just because it's so satisfying, but I still can't get the corners crisp. Anyone else have a random stranger tip that totally flipped a technique for them?

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cora56220d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, the foam brush thing hit me right in the gut. I spent like two years doing my edges with those paint pens and my hands would cramp up and it always looked like a toddler got loose with a marker. The one-pass rule sounds crazy but I tried it last week on an old mass market and I was honestly mad at myself for not knowing sooner. Corners are still my nemesis too, I just kinda dab at them and hope for the best. But random stranger tips are the best, like the guy at my library who told me to use a hair dryer on stubborn spines, changed my whole setup.