How to Ruin Paint Brushes
Proper Brush Cleaning and Storage Are Key
Artists’ paint brushes can be quite expensive, and once you invest a small fortune to get all the shapes and sizes you need for your art-making, the last thing you want is to ruin your newly acquired, precious tools.
Listed here are the five main things you should avoid if you want to keep your brushes in good shape.
Don't Do These 5 Things
1. Letting Paint Dry on the Brush
It is always easier to clean paint off the brush when it’s still wet. Once dry, it becomes almost impossible to completely remove paint from the bristles.
To avoid any risks of paint drying on the brush, keep your brush moist during painting sessions, and clean it as soon as you are done.
Paint left on the brush will make hairs stiffer and the bristles will lose their shape.
When using acrylic paint keep the bristles moist with water, but don't leave brushes soaking in water for a long time (see #2). Oil paint is slower to dry, so there is no urgency to keep the brushes moist (with thinner) during the painting session, but you need to clean them properly when you are done.
If oil paint dries on the brush, try soaking the bristles in a good degreaser for a few minutes then rub them on the palm of your hand, adding soap as needed.
Caution: I recommend always using rubber gloves when handling paint. Many pigments are toxic or carcinogenic. I avoid contact with my skin as much as I can.
Anatomy of a Brush
2. Leaving Brushes Soaking for a Long Time
The brush is made of different parts, kept together by glue and/or pressure.
You don’t want to let the paint dry on the brush, therefore it’s useful to keep the brush wet during the painting session, but leaving a brush soaking in water for a long time can damage it, irreversibly. Even worse than water is a brush left soaking in an oil thinner solution.
The damages of soaking:
- Too much moisture and the weight of the whole brush resting on the bristles cause bristles to bend and deform.
- Liquid penetrates under the ferrule, soaks the unvarnished part of the handle, and soften the glue, possibly causing the ferrule to detach from the handle. In the long run, the glue that holds the bristles and the brush together can also dissolve, causing the ferrule to come off, or hair starts shedding while you paint – and it’s so frustrating to remove hairs from the painting.
- Fluid penetrates under the handle varnish, making it flaky. When a brush loses the varnish, the texture of the handle is different, but also pieces of varnish may peel and fall in the paint and get on your painting surface – another frustrating removal.
3. Not Cleaning the Bristles Properly
Whether you use oil paint or a water-based paint, not cleaning the bristles thoroughly can shorten the life of the brush.
First, take the excess paint off with a cloth rag or paper, then clean and wash the hairs until no trace of paint is left.
Make sure you clean at the base of the bristles too, rubbing them between your fingers with soapy water. A buildup of old paint at the base of the brush “shortens” the hairs, making them thicker and less flexible.
4. Storing a Wet Brush Upright
After you wash your brushes carefully and rinse them well, they need to dry. The best position to dry is lying flat, in a dry environment and far from sources of heat.
Most people store their brushes in a jar or holder of some sort, bristles up; that’s great, but only after they are completely dry.
When the brush is still wet, if you keep it standing upright, the water captured in the bristles will run down under the ferrule and create problems, like loosen the grip of the ferrule on the handle, and on the hair of the brush.
5. Storing a Brush Bristle-Down
Once you have your valuable brushes clean and dry, make sure you store them in a way that does not put any pressure on the bristles. Hairs are flexible and a prolonged pressure keeping them bent or spread out will irreparably ruin the shape of your bristles.
So never, ever store your brushes standing on their hairs, always on their handles.
I use a bamboo roll-up case for my oil paint brushes, it fit nicely a lot of brushes, and it's tall enough for the long handled ones, which I use the most.
For my acrylic brushes, I keep the bulk of them in my studio in a tin can, standing bristles-up, as you can see from the image above. When I need them on the go, I take my "travel kit" of brushes, which is a set of brushes that came in a handy black case, but I could have bought the case on the side.
Questions & Answers
How do I remove glue stuck to a paintbrush?
I have heard people saying that glue dissolves with acetone nail polish remover. That's an easy product to get, and it's inexpensive. You may want to give it a try.
Helpful 2How do you use tubes of paint colours?
Paint from any tube you purchase can be used as is, right out of the tube. Just apply to your painting surface with some kind of tool, most people use brushes to paint, but you can use palette knives, fingers, sponges, etc.
You can mix different hues together to obtain the color you need, as long as it's the same kind of paint, i.e., mix oils with oils, acrylic with acrylics, watercolors with watercolors, etc.
Helpful 1
© 2012 Robie Benve
Comments
I recently attended a painting class and the "artist" kept putting my brushes in the cup of water. Isn't that wrong? The brushes provided were awful and I'm thinking this is partially the reason.
thank you it does
thank you but you didn't answer my question with this design is it possible to keep the brushes in water for a long time or is there any additional problem ?
Thanks for the info. I've taken a lot of classes over the years and this is something rarely covered.
I wash my brushes but paint seems to stay up under the brush where it's glued. Please help .
@Ariana Phillips I store my brushes in "Rockwell Brush Easel Storage Cases" as It's easy to travel and protects my largest brushes without messing up the brush hairs. I bought them online from jerrysartarama.com I shop there all the time. Like them better than the retail stores
Some good tips here. My biggest problem has always been the grandkids finding my oil brushes and doing watercolor with them - it's taken a long time to convince them that no, they can't do that!
Brushes are a huge investment for art - these are great tips for taking care of those important tools! Voted up and up!
Nice work on this hub. You know a lot of times you really don't think about stuff like that being an issue until someone points it out, then it makes perfect sense and you can't believe you didn't think of that yourself. I know I need to change some of my bad brush cleaning habits. Thanks for breaking the cycle.
Very clear and concise about brushes.. I think sometimes I get careless with my brushes...I liked the simple steps and ideas. This is definitely a thumbs up.
Useful hub Robie. I always soak my brushes way too long, I'm too lazy to clean them right away. I've ruined a few brushes that way and the good ones aren't cheap! Thanks for the tips.
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