How To Properly Care For Your Brushes

For the traditional painter, brushes are one of the most important tools in their art studio. A variety of brushes are often used every single day, so it’s super important that artists learn how to partake in proper brush care. High-quality brushes can be quite an investment, so it’s always in your best interest to try to keep your brushes nice for as long as possible. Even if you don’t have the fanciest, most expensive brushes, you should still take just as much care of them. No matter what, caring for them should be a daily occurrence. Anyone who wants to increase their brushes’ life spans should learn about properly caring for art brushes. If you’re interested in learning how to make your brushes last longer, then check out our tips for caring for your brushes!

Why You Should Keep Your Brushes Clean

It might seem obvious that it’s a good idea to keep your brushes clean, but you’d be surprised by all the benefits that come with a clean brush! In general, there are a few reasons why it’s important that you care for your brushes properly. Cleaning your brushes will extend their lifetime, so you’ll save money by not having to buy new brushes all the time. Having clean brushes will also make it easier for you to create high-quality artwork. A poorly-cared-for brush just won’t produce the same results as a brush that’s been well taken care of. It’s a fact!

Make Your Brushes Happy – Follow Our Brush Care Tips

1. Use the right kind of brush
   
   We’ll start with a pretty simple tip: always use the right kind of brush for the job! It’s super important that you’re using the appropriate brush for whatever medium you’re working with. You’ll want a separate set of brushes for each medium that you use. For example, acrylic, oil, and watercolor paint all require their respective types of brushes. You should never mix mediums with your brushes! We recommend color-coding your brushes to keep them separate, especially if they look similar to one another. Electrical tape is a great tool to use for this!
   
   
2. Have specific brushes for the tougher jobs
   
   If you’re using your expensive, natural hair brushes for things like applying masking fluid, mixing paint, or scrubbing out various areas, then it’s probably taking a toll on them. These techniques tend to be pretty rough on brushes. Don’t waste money by damaging your high-quality brushes; instead, keep a selection of inexpensive brush options that are more durable for these kinds of jobs.
   
   The Cheap Joe’s Uggly Brushes were made for this exact purpose. As the name suggests, they’re definitely ugly, but that’s intentional on our part. We wanted them to be easily distinguishable from the nicer brushes in your collection to avoid any accidental mix-ups. So don’t ruin your fancy brushes – use our Uggly ones instead!
   
   
3. Know your brushes (and their limits)
   There are so many different shapes and sizes of brushes out there, and you probably have a wide variety of them in your collection. When you choose a brush to use on your artwork, you’ll always want to make sure you’re using the right size and shape brush for the area you’re painting. In general, it’s recommended that you use the largest brush possible when painting and that you continue using that brush until you’re no longer able to. You can hold off on using smaller brushes until you’re ready to do some detail work. This will save you time and will ultimately help your brushes last longer.
   
   
4. Clean your brushes often
   
   The best thing you can do to care for your brushes is to clean them frequently. Don’t just wait until you’re done painting to clean your brush! You want to avoid having any paint drying in the bristles. It’s always a good idea to clean or rinse your brushes while you’re using them, and of course, after you’re done.
   
   Different types of brushes require special cleaning processes. For example, acrylic brushes always need to be cleaned with soap and water immediately after use. This is because acrylic paint dries super quickly, and will make your brush head all crusty if it dries before you get the chance to wash it. Watercolor brushes don’t have to be cleaned with soap, but they should be rinsed with water often while you’re working. For oil brushes, a thorough wipe on a paper towel works better than rinsing. However, all brushes should be properly cleaned before you switch to using a new color, and they should be completely washed before being put away for the night.
   
   
5. Don’t let your brushes lose their shape
   When you go to clean your paintbrushes, you might find yourself trying to scrub the bristles kind of hard to get all of the excess paint out. Don’t do that! Rather than intensely scrubbing your brushes, it’s important that you’re extra careful when cleaning them. Being too harsh on the bristles could cause your brush to lose its original shape. You’ve chosen your brushes specifically due to their shapes and sizes, so it’s never good when one gets messed up.
   
   To avoid any issues, just make sure you’re carefully cleaning the paint out of your brushes, and then drying them back to their original shapes. Soft clothes are great drying tools because you can use them to re-form the brushes. You should also store your brushes upright so you don’t disturb their drying process or compromise their shapes.
   
   
6. Avoid soaking brushes for extended periods
   Unfortunately, when it comes to cleaning brushes, it can be kind of difficult to find the perfect middle ground. You want to make sure you clean your brushes thoroughly, but it’s also not great for them to be left soaking for too long. So what should you do?
   
   Well, in general, you shouldn’t leave your brushes standing tip-down in water or a solvent for long periods of time. This is because your natural hair brushes will end up drying out from the water, and the bristles will either start breaking off or become frayed. Even if your brush heads don’t end up damaged, this can still cause other issues, such as the warping of wooden handles or the brush’s finish becoming damaged. You want your brushes to last as long as they possibly can, so it’s best to just soak the brushes as needed, and avoid leaving them in the water/cleaning solution for too long.
   
   
7. Use a brush soap or conditioner
   
   There are a lot of products out there that are specifically made for cleaning and conditioning brushes. If you want to give your brushes a good clean, we recommend trying out the Masters Artist Survival Kit. This is a compact, convenient product made for you to take it along wherever you go. It comes with the Masters Hand Soap for removing paint, grease, and grime, and also the Original Kiss-Off Stain Remover for use on clothing and carpet stains. We love these products because they’re affordable and made from natural ingredients, so they’re safe to use on the skin!
   
   
8. Store brushes correctly
   
   When you’re done cleaning your brushes, make sure to store them properly. Always remove any excess water and stand the brushes upright on their handles to dry. Once they’re dry, you’ll want to store them in a safe place, where they won’t become damaged. Many artists know the pain of seeing their favorite (and expensive!) brushes get ruined, whether from being eaten by bugs or smashed from being left out unprotected.
   
   There are tons of options for proper brush storage that will ensure your brushes will last a lifetime. For daily brush storage, it’s best to allow them to stand upright in a jar or brush caddy. For long-term storage, plastic containers with tight covers tend to work the best.
   
   
9. Don’t get paint on the ferrule
   If you find yourself wondering what a ferrule is, don’t worry. We don’t expect you to know everything when it comes to the structure of a paintbrush! If you don’t know (or in case you needed a refresher), the ferrule is that part of the paintbrush that connects the hairs of the brush to the handle. It’s a good idea to avoid getting paint on this piece. If the paint does happen to get on the ferrule, it can spread down to the hairs of the brush and cause them to become frayed. Just do your best to avoid getting paint on this part of the brush!
   
   
10. Label any new brushes
    Another tip that we have for caring for art brushes is to label your brushes depending on how long you’ve had them. You can use the same colored electrical tape to label your new brushes, frayed brushes, and even blunt-tipped brushes with different colors. This allows you to track the life stages of your brushes since high-quality ones tend to last a really long time. It can also help you avoid using one of your brand-new brushes for something like creating texture, mixing washes, or applying masking fluid.
    
    
11. Be cautious when transferring your brushes
    
    If you’re ever going to be transporting your brushes anywhere, you should always keep them in some kind of protective device. Brush holders with zippers are great for transferring brushes, as long as you make sure your brushes don’t get smashed inside. Another option is to use a roll-up brush holder. These are ideal because they suspend the brush heads between the layers so they don’t touch.

If you’re in the middle of a work session, you might occasionally decide you want to move from inside the studio to do some Plein painting. To transport your brushes mid-use, you can use products designed for shielding them from the elements. Our Guerrilla Painter Brush Tubz are perfect for this! They keep your brushes wet until you’re ready to clean them. You can use them to store dry brushes, too.

Take Care Of Your Brushes, And They’ll Serve You Well

As you can see, there are plenty of steps you can take to make sure you get the most out of your art brushes. A high-quality brush collection is already a big financial investment, so you should always take the extra time to care for them properly. That way, you won’t have to spend even more money replacing damaged or ruined brushes. As long as you follow these brush care tips, you can extend the lifetime of your brushes by quite a bit!