How to Clean Your Paint Brushes

You would think I learned my lesson with my graveyard of sad crunchy little sticks. I know first hand what happens to paint brushes when you don't take care of them because I have accidently left them in water, dry with full of paint, or pushed paint straight into the barrel while cleaning them (whoops!). Curses to my AuDHD. I digress.

Properly cleaning and caring for your brush is super easy way of extending the life span of your brushes and makes painting much more enjoyable! All paintbrushes, whether expensive or affordable ones can last a life time if properly cleaned and stored! Leaving those brushes to suffer after a paint sesh can damage the shape and destroy its flexibility and absorbency-- leaving your art streaky the next time you paint. And nobody wants that.. unless you are making an artistic choice.

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What You Need to Clean your Paint Brushes

For water-based paint brushes

1. Old T-shirt Rags or a box of rags

2. The Master Artist Soap

3. The Master Artist's Brush Cleaner and Preserver

4. Brush Drying Rack

For oil-based paint brushes

1. Old T-shirt Rags or a box of rags

2. Oil Waste Can

3. Turpenoid 

4. The Master Artist Soap

5. The Master Artist's Brush Cleaner and Preserver

6. Brush Drying Rack

7. 2 sealable glass jars (I use cleaned spaghetti jars!)

8. Gloves

9. Fire Safe Cabinet*

10. Proper containers* to dispose of any solvents or flammable liquids

*Read the section about cleaning oil paints for more info before you buy.

General No-nos for Brush Cleaning & Maintenance

The best brush cleaning advice I have is to practice good habits when you are painting. Now, these no-nos, I learned from experience. AuDHD Artist cannon events you know.

• Do not leave brushes sitting in water for hours.

• Do not leave your brushes sitting outside the water for too long.

• Do not press or smash the brush into the bottom of your water cup. You will force paint into the barrel

• Do not use hot water for any part of the process. At max the water should be luke warm.

• Do not store brushes wet in a closed container. Mold ew.

• Do not wrap a brush with plastic to save some time

Cleaning Water-Based Paints out of Brushes

Most water-based paints are fairly easy to clean, and the general brush-cleaning process is usually the same.

1. Start by removing any excess paint with a rag

2. Then, rinse the brush under lukewarm water while gently working the paint out of the bristles and ferrule.

3. Use mild soap as needed.

4. Then rinse and repeat until the water runs clear.

5. Once the brush is clean, gently reshape the bristles with your fingers.

6. Use a small amount of brush soap or brush preserver to help maintain the brush’s shape and condition.

7. Once that is done, use a Brush Drying Rack to hang dry

I made some additional notes about specific paints down below. The process is the same as above but there are nuances in each level!

For Watercolor Paint Brushes

Typically, we are much more conservative in watercolor painting and much more careful so I would say that it's the easiest clean up process out of all the paints. Watercolor by nature is translucent and the brushes we use tend to be soft, delicate, and much more absorbent than brushes used for acrylic or oil paint. So cleaning watercolor brushes should be a much gentler process. You usually do not need to use soap

1. Gently swirl the brush in a water cup. Avoid pressing the bristles harshly against the bottom of the cup.

2. Then, rinse the brush in clean, lukewarm water.

3. If needed, use a small amount of mild soap or brush cleaner to remove any remaining pigment. I find that for watercolor brushes I need minimal amounts of soap

4. Work the soap gently through the bristles with your fingers, then rinse until the water runs clear. The brushes rarely need intensive scrubbing due to the nature of water color.

5. After rinsing, reshape the brush with your fingers, let it dry a little

6. Before it completely dries, use brush soap or brush preserver to shape the brush

7. Once that is done, use a Brush Drying Rack to hang dry

For Tempera Paint Brushes

Similar to watercolor paint, tempera paint is also water-based and is easy to clean when washed out right away. It is by no means a permanent medium so very rarely do you need a ton of soap. This paint usually has an organic binder within the paint and so it tends to act like acrylic paint but it's much more water soluble, even when it dries. You still don't want it to dry on the brush! It's still a pain to get it out and it will misshape your brushes!

1. Squeeze excess paint out of the brush with a rag.

2. Swirl the brush in the water basin or water cup

3. Once more, squeeze excess paint out of the brush with a rag.

4. Rinse the brush under lukewarm water

5. Gently work the paint out of the bristles with your fingers until most of the color is removed.

6. Use mild soap, especially if the paint is thick or has collected near the ferrule.

7. Again, work the paint out of the bristles with your fingers until most of the color is removed.

8. Rinse thoroughly until the water runs clear.

9. After cleaning, reshape the bristles with brush soap or brush preserver

10. Once that is done, use a Brush Drying Rack to hang dry

For Gouache Paint Brushes

Gouache is water-based.. sometimes. It is thicker and more opaque than watercolor, so it takes a little bit more to get the pigment completely out of the brushes.

1. Wipe excess paint out with a rag.

2. Swirl the brush in the water basin or water cup

3. Wipe with a rag again.

4. Then, rinse the brush in clean, lukewarm water

5. Work the paint out with your fingers, being careful not to pull too harshly on the bristles.

6. Use mild soap and massage it gently through the bristles, especially near the ferrule, where thicker paint can collect.

7. Squeeze excess paint out of the brush with a rag.

8. Rinse thoroughly until the water runs clear.

9. After cleaning, reshape the bristles with brush soap or brush preserver

10. Once that is done, use a Brush Drying Rack to hang dry

Rinse until the water runs clear, reshape the brush with your fingers, and lay it flat to dry.

Avoid letting gouache dry in the brush. While gouache can often be reactivated with water on a palette, dried paint inside the bristles can still make the brush stiff or affect its shape over time.

For Acrylic Paint

This is where we kinda start beating up brushes for real-- the cleaning process is a little but more aggressive because not only does acrylic paint dry quickly, it also gets really in the barrel and ferrule. So there should be a lot of care throughout the painting process like not letting your brushes sit in water for too long, not overloading your brushes with paint (guilty), or leaving them out in plein air. Once acrylic paint dries in the bristles, that brush is done for or you're in for a restoration process that will only get the brush back to functional and not its former glory, if at all possible.

1. Wipe excess paint out with a rag.

2. Swirl the brush in the water basin or water cup

3. Repeat until you get the majority of the paint out

4. Then rinse your brush under lukewarm water.

5. Work the paint out with your fingers.

6. Use mild soap and massage the soap into the bristles, especially near the ferrule and barrel

7. Rinse and repeat. You might need to work in soap a bit more than you are used to. You want to make sure the water runs clear because any amount of pigment left in the brush will ruin it.

8. After cleaning, reshape the bristles with brush soap or brush preserver

9. Once that is done, use a Brush Drying Rack to hang dry-- in most cases I find that laying them flat to dry reshapes the brush little by little.

For Oil Paint Brushes

Something to remember with oil paint is that you are going to need way more materials to fully clean the brushes, store leftover materials and of course to make sure you safely dispose of all hazardous material. Additionally you may need to use gloves while you clean your brushes because of the nature of some oil paints-- for example, cadmium paints can be absorbed through the skin and over time can cause health issues in the long run. So it is important to take all safety precautions seriously!

1. First, put on your gloves.

2. Pull out two rags (rag 1 and 2)

3. Wipe off as much excess paint as possible with a rag 1.

   1. This will get dirty pretty fast so feek free to dispose of this rag in a fire-safe trashcan

4. Use a smidge of your oil. I usually have my oil in a jar for re-use. While oil itself won't get rid of all paint, it will thin the paint out a bit.

5. "Paint" On rag 2. What you're looking for is to see very little pigment come off the brush! You can Repeat step 4 and 5 as needed.

6. Dispose of the rags in a fire-safe trashcan

7. Then I use a bit of turpenoid to start breaking down the oils.

   1. I use this as an alternative to Turpentine because of its smelliness

   2. P.S. I place turpenoid in a glass jar so I can re-use it as I'm cleaning all my brushes. Then I can store it to reuse later on.

8. Wipe the excess onto rag 2. And dispose of rag in a fire-safe trashcan

   
   

   After the paint is minimal on the brush, this is where we start the washing process

   
   

9. Using the artist soap, begin working the soap through the brush.

   1. For this to work you have to use more elbow grease to get every particle out cuz the oil and paint gets everywhere!

10. Then you are going to rinse the brush thoroughly

11. Then repeat step 9 and 10 until the water runs cleanly

12. Reshape the bristles and use the Brush conditioner

13. Once that is done, use a Brush Drying Rack to hang dry

*Please note: For me to comfortably paint with oils in my own space, I would need to have the proper safety storage in place. Hence why I don't recommend oil painting for most people. What I am referring to is are: flammable safety cabinet for storing materials, a fire-safe/oily waste trash can for used rags and paper towels, and proper containers to dispose of any solvents or flammable liquids. Oil painting involves more flammable materials than acrylic painting, so storage and disposal is essential. I will eventually write a guide on oil painting!

Oil paint also requires a different cleaning process because it does not rinse out with water alone, and the paint itself is much thicker. This is the process I was taught in art school, and these are the materials I was taught to use. I am not a chemist, so I have not experimented much outside of that process for safety reasons.

Deep Cleaning Brushes and Reviving Brushes

Sometimes, we overlook a spot or didn't thoroughly clean the brushes and there may be a tiny bit of dried paint on them. It's not the end of the world and sometimes just giving them another good clean will fix the problem. If this is the case, most of the time, the friction when cleaning your brush will help get rid of those paint bits. However if the problem is deeper than that-- meaning that the brush is stiff with paint, misshapen or or dried on to your palette-- you might still be able to revive it. Maybe not to its former glory but definitely a useable brush!

I have tried many methods and I can say some work better than others. This is how I've revived my brushes. It's kind or an aggressive method but I was not about to give up on my expensive brushes even if now they have a texture to them.

For water-based paints, you are going to need:

• Paint brush holder

• Your hair conditioner

• Possibly some solvent

1. See if you can crack the paint to have some of the bristles seperate

2. If not, Soak the brush tip for a few hours. check on it periodically

3. Once its exterior has softened, see if you can gently seperate the bristles

4. While you are doing this, see if you can scrape of some of the dried paint

5. You are going to soak this again and repeat the top process.

6. If you have gotten as much out as possible, you can use a little bit of solvent to get the remaining bits out. Follow the directions when using the solvent.

7. After that, usually the bristles are crazy dry so I soak them in a bit of conditioner

8. Rinse it again and let it semi-dry

9. and the brush preserver.

   
   

I will write a much more extensive blog on this later on because this is a quick run down for water-based paints dried onto brushes. It is a significant effort to revive brushes and in some cases, its not worth the time because they will almost never go back to their original condition. Which is okay; a damaged brush can still be useful for rough textures, dry brushing, background work, or experimental techniques. You just have to weigh the options on whether that works for you or not.

Sometimes, you just gotta let it go

That revival process is oh so very aggressive that its not worth the time 80% of the time. Cut your losses. But that is why you need to clean your brushes at the end of every single painting session despite it not being the most exciting part of making art. It is just so very important! Taking the time to rinse, soap, reshape, and dry your brushes properly can help them last longer and save you money in the long run! Your future self will appreciate not finding your favorite detail brush hardened beyond repair.