Paintbrush care. Paintbrushes in the studio are a necessary evil. I find that I am constantly replacing them.
I sometimes forget to clean them after a long night in the studio and they lie there drying all night on the bench top, the next morning they are encrusted in paint because I forgot to clean them the night before. I simply could have placed them in a cup of water, but then the bristles would have become slightly curved because of the pressure exerted against the bottom of the cup.
I do a couple of things now:
I try and go over to the sink and clean brushes every hour or so, then I place them upside down in a wire mesh cup on my bench.
There is always a bowl of water on the bench top. I use this to keep brushes in I don’t care about. At the end of the night I grab whatever is on the bench brush wise and toss them in there. The next evening before I start working I clean them.
I keep a bottle of paintbrush cleaner on hand (I secretly believe its fabric softener). It will loosen up dried acrylic paint and also help re-shape brushes.
Once a month I clean all of my brushes with brush cleaner. I set aside the ones I cannot get clean, or have really badly shaped brushes and break off the handles and throw the brushes away saving the handles (these can be used as handles for home-made sculpting tools).
I don’t buy expensive brushes anymore, nothing more than 3 dollars. I hate ruining them. I use a lot of chip/gesso brushes, and small liner brushes and round brushes. The only expensive brushes I have that I take care of are 3 deer-foot stippler brushes that I use for certain effects.
This is a fairly interesting looking paintbrush cleaning jar: especially if you are using oils, it allows the oils to settle to the bottom of the jar and keeps the brush elevated. And you can make it yourself.
http://emptyeasel.com/2008/02/13/how-to-make-a-paintbrush-cleaner-jar/
Brush Types and their uses
I was having this conversation just yesterday with an employee at Pearls that Coke (the beverage) works well to clean both synthetic and natural bristles. I have never tried it but its worth a try.
Good advice on the brushes! I use paintbrushes almost daily too, and I definitely don’t give them the care they deserve. Although, I’ve found that dish soap does wonders with washing out acrylics. I stopped investing in fancy brushes also, I’m so abusive to them that it’s not worth it. I’ll start saving the handles now, though!