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How to clean a paintbrush

Paintbrushes can be expensive for any artist, and if they are not properly cleaned or stored after use, their hairs can become damaged and potentially ruin your next piece of art. Keeping them clean and in perfect shape is imperative to maintaining the quality of your strokes and help save you some money.

This journal highlights how to clean brushes for all types of medium, the tools you will need and common paint brush cleaning mistakes that could end up ruining your brushes!

Cleaning watercolour and gouache brushes

Most watercolour brushes are made from sable, squirrel, or soft synthetic hairs. This means that they are very fragile and prone to damage easily, so be careful not to apply too much force and handle these delicately.

Watercolour and gouache brushes can be cleaned by initially wiping/blotting any excess colour with a paper towel or rag, before rinsing them under a very gentle tap or washing them in a jar of water. Once full of water, you can softly knead the hair with your fingers to draw the paint out of the ferrule and re-rinse. Finally, wipe out any excess water and lay the brush on its side.

Cleaning acrylic brushes

Begin by wiping off any excess paint from the brush with a paper towel or rag before rinsing the brush under a tap. You can also use an acrylic brush cleaner instead of water such as zest it.

You can then rub the brush in some brush soap and knead it into the hairs, particularly working the base of the hairs to pull any paint out of the ferrule. A popular soap used by artists is The Masters brush cleaner and preserver.

Finally, rinse out any remaining soap and paint, wipe the brush dry with a cloth and lay the brush flat to dry.

Cleaning oil brushes

Start by wiping off any paint using a rag or paper tower. You can then rinse the brush to remove any left-over paint. To do this, you’ll need to use:

  • Mineral spirits are the most common and readily available options. They’re odourless making them suitable for small studio usage and can effectively remove oil paint without harming brush hairs.
  • Turpentine is also popular due to its dissolving speed but has a much stronger odour as well as potentially damaging certain hair types, especially natural hairs.
  • Brush cleaners and oil dilutants. These can be slightly more expensive than other methods but often combine solvents with other cleaning agents and conditioners.

Be careful when using solvents and follow the guidance of the packaging. For some solvents you may need to wear protection or use in well-ventilated areas. Make sure to dispose of the solvents and paints properly.

Wipe the brush hair with a rag or paper towel until no more paint is coming off.

Finally, once you have removed as much paint as you can, rinse the brush with brush soap, kneading the fibres with your fingers to draw the paint away from the ferrule. You can be quite rigorous as oil paint is much thicker and oil brush hairs tend to be much firmer, damaging less easily.

Brush cleaning tools

For most washes, an old rag, a sink, and your fingers are enough to clean your brushes, but there are a few tools you can use to make the process easier and more efficient- making your paint brushes last longer!

Silicone brush cleaning eggs are great for rubbing brush hairs under the tap. The smaller circles on the top can be used for foaming and lathering soaps before rubbing the hair over the bigger grooves. These manoeuvre the paint from in between the fibres to help release any stubborn colour.

Be gentle when rubbing your brush along the grooves as to not damage any of the fibres.

Brush soaps help to breakdown paint within the hair, making them easier to wash out. They can be used with both natural and synthetic hairs and even contain special conditioners to help restore the fibres.

Common brush cleaning mistakes

Be careful to avoid some common mistakes when cleaning your brushes as this can lead to permanent damage to your materials!

Not reshaping the brush when it’s wet.

When dry, brushes naturally want to splay open. Once you have rinsed and cleaned off any excess water, pull the brush back to a point by twisting them in your fingers before laying the brush on its side to dry.

Leaving the brush upside down in water.

Leaving your brush upside down can bend and damage the bristles, stopping them from coming to a point. Water can also seep into the ferrule, getting into the wooden handle and expanding it. Once this dries out and shrinks back to normal, the ferrule can become loose and even come off.

Storing the brush upright straight after washing.

Once you have cleaned your brushes, lay them flat so that any water can run off them. Storing your brushes upright allows the water to sink down into the ferrule- here, any dissolved paint can dry and splay the hair, ruining your brush.

Finally, all paints will stain your brush hairs, so just because they don’t resemble the original colour, they will be fine to use- as long as there are no specs of paint that have been left in the brush.

It is also important to know that many artists actually prefer to use damaged brushes, using splayed hair to create textures in their artwork. One of our artists, Jemima Spence, stated “I never, and I mean EVER clean my brushes. This is because they aren’t dirty, they just have the wrong colour in it”.

Johnny Thompson

Johnny Thompson

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