cleaning your brushes

[MsMollie]

How do you guys clean your brushes? just wondering...not sure which iis the best way or which cleaner is good....

[jubob]

There is a very good youtube video it is for makeup brushes but it is the same with any artist brushes I will see if I can find it. I use pure vegetable soap, cost peanuts in most supermarkets.

[jubob]

Nope I cant find it. I will try and describe what I do.
1/Run the tap with warm water ( some use hot but I was always told by my art teacher at school that you should never clean artist brushes in hot water as it can damage the bristles ).
2/Hold your brush briefly under the running water bristles down so the water can't go up the ferrule( the metal part that holds the bristles to the handle).
3/Stroke the brush on your bar of soap or in a small amount of liquid soap in your palm until you think most of paint is diluted.
4/Put under the running water again until all the soap is removed you may need to squish it slightly to make sure all the soap is removed ( sometimes I repeat step 3 & 4 if I think there is more paint in it ).
5/Wipe and dry carefully with a clean towel and reshape the bristles and lay flat on a cloth or towel until completely dry.

[Sherry]

I run under warm running water.  Then I squeeze baby wash or baby shampoo on them and rub back and forth on my hands.  Rinse, repeat and then I rinse a bit.  Then I turn the water on high and hot and get my sink spray nozzle and start rinsing the dickens out of them until the water runs clear.  Then I lay them flat to dry overnight, being sure they're separated and not touching.

[MsMollie]

guess i'm doing it right...seems like we all do it about the same...mine sure can hold alot of paint!

[LillyW]

I use 1/2 no-tears baby shampoo, 1/ 2 white vinegar and a few drops of Silly Farms Brush Bath.

I set all of my brushes, smoothies and sponges of the same color (I use a different brush for each color), into a big coffee cup with that mixture, and let it sit for about 1 minute.

Then I rinse them off, one by one, and lay them into a meatloaf pan, filled just with vinegar.  When all of the tools of that color are done, I lay them onto a dry paper towel to dry.  I do not wash out the vinegar.  This gets the vinegar up into ferrel, and leaves it in to really kills viruses and germs.

Then, I start on the next color.   

- Lilly Walters, 909-398-1228
Henna Tattoo Artist, Face and Pregnant Belly Painter http://www.funfacepainting.com
 
Books and Face Painting Classes http://www.funfacepainting.com/book.html

[MsMollie]

so how many brushes would you say you go through during an event? i sometimes use quite a few. I also have some problems with them drying out during the event..we can use them all at once ya know...i sometimes lay them in line under a wet towel...sometimes in a holder and if it looks like they are drying out, i spray them with a little water...what do you guys do?

[reginanewsum]

what do you mean you have trouble with them drying out?  Do you mean they get hard?

[MsMollie]

No, I would never allow them to get dried out and hard....

i mean when you are at an event and painting, the ones that have paint on them that you want to use again during the event, maybe on the next face that requires that particular color or do you cover them with something, or spray them with water or rinse everytime and start over with paint??

Eventually, the ones that aren't being used will try and dry out unless you either rinse the paint out or cover with a wet towel. I just spray some mist of water on the tips. I don't have time to rinse the paint out everytme i change colors. It seems like when i do rinse the paint out and try to use it for some other color, i never get all the paint out and there for i wind up with mixed paint....

i stopped tryig to rinse out everytime and keeping a brush for each color i use..however, you do wind up with alot of wet paint on the brushes that you are trying to keep from drying out......

You might have two or three different brush sizes or shapes for the same color....at least i do.

make sense

[Sherry]

I don't even try to keep them from drying out.  I keep them upright in clear rocks.  One container for my black and white dedicated brushes, one for my colors and one for my clean, dry brushes.  I usually dedicate my favorite brushes for black and white to start out, but grab as I go for the colored container.  It starts out empty, but as I pull a clean brush and use it for a specific color, it becomes the brush dedicated to that color.

I keep a spray bottle to spritz my cakes and a popsicle holder with 4 spots to fill with water.  If a brush gets too dry and hard, I'll rinse it in one of the water spots on my popsicle holder.  If a black or white gets too gunky or hard, I'll rinse in the spot in the popsicle holder dedicated to the black or white.

To be honest, when I rinse a hard, dry brush, I slam it to the bottom of the container of water to loosen it up.     Otherwise, it takes to much time waiting for it soften up, when I have a customer there and I'm ready to paint. 

[reginanewsum]

Ok I understand now!  I use a set of brushes for black, a set for white, a set for pinks and purples, and a set for greens and blues. I set the brushes upside down in a pop cycle maker container also. I also have a real paint pot cleaner, it has ridges on the bottom, if I needed to clean a brush really good I run it across the ridges, but even if the brushes dry out just summerge the brissles in water to use the paint on them, that is the whole purpose of having a set  of brushes for black and white.  You loose 40% of your paint in the water, so this method of painting will save on your materials. So lets say your brush with black paint on it has gotten pretty stiff with dried paint, just stick it down into the black paint water and swipe it back and forth on the bottom a few times, this will soften it up for you to use it again, you don't have to clean all the paint out of the brissles at that point. Once you get home than do a really great cleaning

[twink-elle]

Hi All,
I waste a lot more paint since the h1n1 scare and after doing a bunch more research when I got my liability insurance, I used to use sponges of each colour and then wash them out with soap at the end if the day. Now I use a separate sponge for each face and don't double dip using a different edge if I need more of the same colour or a new colour. I also clean my brushes between each dip with water and either an alcolhol or vinegar dip before another clean water dip and use the same brushes over and over again, with that and adding the hand sanitizing between kids it has added a few seconds per face but I do it while we chat and get the design picked. I still average 18-20 full faces/hour at big events even with all that added in.
Danica

[MsMollie]

well that makes sense....i was wondering how hard the paint would be to get off it it dried out...i freak when i think the paint is drying on those brushes...sooo, i tried to keep them damp under a wet towel...eventually they all wind up touching the other so they get messed up....i  have dedicated brushes for white and black as well....but always worried how to keep them damp...i guess it's ok if they dry out a little and yes, i have that popsicle holder too...works great....thanks guys