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If you use a dirty brush to mix your oil paint colours and tones, when you dip your brush into the different pigments and mix them together on a separate area of your palette, the dirty paint will come down out of the ferrule and spoil your colours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The best way to mix colours and keep them clean and fresh is to use a palette knife to mix up your paints, and then apply the paint with a brush. Even if you do this, if you apply the paint with a dirty brush you will still get plenty of muddy paint and thinners leaching out of the bristles and ferrule if your brushes aren’t clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To combat this problem, a lot of artists will use a clean (different) brush for each colour that they are using, which obviously requires using a lot of brushes. Some artists instead use DARK brushes and a LIGHT brushes, keeping the lighter tones and the darker tones separated between different brushes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I personally own at least 2 million brushes, I’m exaggerating of course, it’s more like 1 million, but I only really use 2 or 3 brushes for any particular painting, and I can do that because I clean my brushes well as I paint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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So what’s the best way to clean your brushes?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n- A jam jar full of turps is okay, but every time you swish your brush about you’ll stir up all the muddy mess at the bottom.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Two jam jars is better, one for the initial clean and a second one to clean off the stirred-up mess from the first wash, but a few brush washes later the second jar will be as bad as the first.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Soap and hot water. This is great for getting a really good clean post-painting, but impractical when you’re sitting at your easel and in mid painting flow.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- A purpose built suspended sieve brush washer – yes, read on:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"artists](\"https:\/\/www.chrischalkart.com\/painting_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/brush-cleaner-1.jpg\")
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With a stainless steel artist’s brush washer like the one above, a metal sieve sits inside the main tub, about half-way down, this allows the paint to settle-out of the thinners after you’ve washed your brushes and remain undisturbed in the bottom of the tub. So when you next agitate your brush on the bottom of the sieve to wash it, it doesn’t stir up any paint residue, because the residue is below the sieve level (mage courtesy SAA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"different](\"https:\/\/www.chrischalkart.com\/painting_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/03302-group3ww-l.jpg\")
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There are various size brush washers available, like these from Holbein and available at Dick Blick art supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"new](\"https:\/\/www.chrischalkart.com\/painting_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/brush-cleaner-4.jpg\")
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This Daler Rowney version is very similar to my own brush washer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"art](\"https:\/\/www.chrischalkart.com\/painting_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/art-supplies-brush-cleaner.jpg\")
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When you’ve used your brush washer a lot it looks more like mine. About once a week I do give it a proper clean, as the ‘gunk’ at the bottom builds up, but depending on how much painting you do it’s not necessary very often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n With a stainless steel artist’s brush washer like the one above, a metal sieve sits inside the main tub, about half-way down, this allows the paint to settle-out of the thinners after you’ve washed your brushes and remain undisturbed in the bottom of the tub. So when you next agitate your brush on the bottom of the sieve to wash it, it doesn’t stir up any paint residue, because the residue is below the sieve level (mage courtesy SAA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are various size brush washers available, like these from Holbein and available at Dick Blick art supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This Daler Rowney version is very similar to my own brush washer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you’ve used your brush washer a lot it looks more like mine. About once a week I do give it a proper clean, as the ‘gunk’ at the bottom builds up, but depending on how much painting you do it’s not necessary very often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n