Try to reuse them if you can. Those .NET classes are wrappers around the
corresponding GDI objects, so they use GDI resources as well.

Lloyd,
Do the pens & brushes tend to be the same color?

Creating 300 red brushes seems wasteful.

Generally what I do is define a "Palette" object that contains the distinct
Pens & Brushes that my drawing code needs, I create & dispose this "Palette"
object in the OnPaint event. The "Palette" object is responsible for
disposing of the contained.

Something like:

   Public Class Palette
       Implements IDisposable

       Private ReadOnly m_background As Brush
       Private ReadOnly m_border As Pen

       Public Sub New()
           m_background = New SolidBrush(Color.Red)
           m_border = New Pen(Color.Blue)
       End Sub

       Public ReadOnly Property Background() As Brush
           Get
               Return m_background
           End Get
       End Property

       Public ReadOnly Property Border() As Pen
           Get
               Return m_border
           End Get
       End Property

       Public Sub Dispose() Implements IDisposable.Dispose
           m_background.Dispose()
           m_border.Dispose()
       End Sub

   End Class

   Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As PaintEventArgs)
       MyBase.OnPaint(e)
       Using palette As New Palette
           e.Graphics.FillRectangle(palette.Background, ClientRectangle)
           e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(palette.Border, ClientRectangle)
       End Using
   End Sub

Note, sometimes I refactor my code so the Palette object does the drawing,
in which case I rename the Palette to Renderer.

   Public Class Renderer
       Inherits Palette

       Public Sub DrawBorder(ByVal gr As Graphics, ByVal rect As Rectangle)
           gr.DrawRectangle(Border, rect)
       End Sub

   End Class

   Protected Overrides Sub OnPaint(ByVal e As PaintEventArgs)
       MyBase.OnPaint(e)
       Using renderer As New Renderer
           e.Graphics.FillRectangle(palette.Background, ClientRectangle)
           palette.DrawBorder(e.Graphics, ClientRectangle)
       End Using
   End Sub

NOTE: I don't do the above for performance as simple organization & to
reduce "code smells". Although I have never timed it I would expect some
performance improvements as its reducing the number of objects created,
which should reduce the amount of GC pressure.

We tend to use a singleton and cache pens and brushes that are
frequently used there. Havent seen any problems.
There should also be some predefined system pens and brushes you can use.

James

http://www.crainiate.net