Cleaning Acrylic Paint Brushes
This episode includes:Cleaning dried hard brushes of acrylic paint and medium.Using 'Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver'.A bit more color applied during a p. Acrylic paints offer an extensive variety of hues in an easy-to-use form. Diluted with water instead of solvent and quick-drying, acrylics are useful for most painting projects. Unfortunately, the same quick-drying aspect can be detrimental to your brushes. If allowed to dry on paintbrush bristles, acrylic paint is.
cleaning and storage
Clean your paintbrush thoroughly after each use
When it comes to painting with acrylics, you don't want to slack with cleaning your paintbrushes, otherwise you may wind up with a frayed and/or crusty brush that is no longer usable for traditional art-making purposes (as you will know after reading all about proper paintbrush care!). Therefore, once you are done painting, it is in your best interest to pamper your brush with a full beauty spa treatment to get it clean, refreshed, and ready for the next painting session!
How to clean paintbrushes
When you are done painting with a particular brush, you must clean it right away to avoid acrylic paint drying on the bristles. Follow this simple procedure for how to clean paintbrushes and you'll have sparkling fresh paintbrushes for the next time you want to paint!
- At your work place, before you go to the sink, place the bristles in between a paper towel or rag and squeeze out the excess paint. Note that rags are a more eco-friendly solution than paper towels because they can be reused many more times than a paper towel.
- Swish the brush around in your cup of water to release any leftover paint.
- Gently shake off the excess water and pat against towel.
- Repeat Steps 1-3 as many times as necessary to remove the bulk of the acrylic paint. This is important for Step 6.
- Go to the sink and place a small bucket, pail or bowl under the faucet. This is an eco-friendly step to prevent the acrylic paint from running down the drain and getting into the water supply.
- Rinse your brush under a small stream of running lukewarm water. Using your fingers, gently and quickly squeeze the bristles to further dislodge any leftover paint. By working quickly and using a slow trickle of water you can avoid overfilling the bucket or bowl that you've placed in the sink.
- Using special artist soap or regular hand-washing soap, put some soap on your brush and gently wash the bristles with your fingers by working the soap through the bristles.
- Rinse off the soap.
- Check to see if there is any paint left, and if there is, repeat Steps 5 and 6. Use another bucket or bowl if your first one got too full.
- Once you are certain all the paint has been removed, shake the brush to remove the excess water.
- Place the bristles in between a paper towel or rag, and squeeze out the excess water.
- Let your paintbrush dry in a safe place, preferably lying horizontally.
If you’re wondering what to do with the buckets/bowls of dirty acrylic paint water, check out this helpful article on the Golden website that outlines a DIY solution to remove the acrylic paint solids from your rinse water. They also offer another article on waste disposal that’s worth a read.
When I was a youngster our teachers instructed us to wash our paintbrushes in the sink, which kind of reveals my age, because nowadays there is a strong awareness about the dangers of plastics (such as acrylics) in our water supply and how even the tiniest plastic particles end up in the ocean, threatening marine life and the environment. With that in mind I try to recommend eco-friendly art practices whenever I can.
Take note that at some point or other, the hairs of your paintbrush will become tinted with some of the colors that you've been using. This is normal, and does not effect the performance of the brush. As long as the water runs clear as you're rinsing your brush, it should be clean, even if the bristles are tinted with color.
Do I need special soap to clean the paint brush?
There are special soaps that are meant for cleaning artist paint brushes. These soaps are gentle and milder on the hairs of the brush than regular hand soap, because they are specially formulated to clean and condition brushes. Usually one dish or bar of paintbrush soap will last you a very long time.
If you don't have any paintbrush soap, it's okay to use regular handsoap. Just don't use dishwashing liquid, which normally has chemicals that are too strong for the delicate hairs of an artist paint brush.
Here are some brush soaps specifically made for artist paint brushes:
I've provided links below to the relevant products so that you can easily find them on Blick Art Materials, my favorite online art supplier. I'm a member of Blick's affiliate program, which means if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links, I'll receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Your purchase helps support this site, keeps it free of ads and allows me to continue making more free content for everyone to enjoy. Click here for more info.
How should I store and/or transport my paint brushes?
If you have a permanent workspace, you can simply leave your cleaned brushes lying horizontally on your tabletop or shelf until its next use. The important thing is that you don't want the bristles to get bent or damaged in any way.
I keep a lot of my brushes in a Loew Cornell Multi Bin Holder with 50 holes for holding paintbrushes, pens, pencils, etc. I have a lot of paintbrushes (72 at last count) so sometimes I double up and put 2 or 3 of the smaller ones together in one slot. The system mainly works for me as storage and organization. Because I keep so many brushes crammed into this holder, it takes a few extra seconds to look through and find the ones I need. Therefore, before I start painting I'll select the brushes I think I'll be using for that painting session and set them aside.
Paintbrush storage and transport ideas
If you have limited space and need to tuck your paintbrushes away somewhere, you can put them inside a long rectangular box, such as a shoebox or a plastic food storage container. There are also quite a few storage solutions available from the art supply stores, such as these:
Cleaning Acrylic Paint Off Brushes
If you make a purchase via the links below I receive a small commission, which helps support this site.
This Holbein Adjustable Brush Holder is the most compact of the storage ideas, making it a good option for transport. It consists of a translucent plastic tube that can hold brushes up to 13' (22cm) long. While it is handy and compact, it doesn't have a way to prevent the brushes from banging up against the end of the tube. Therefore if you use one of these, but sure not to carry it upside-down!
An alternative to the plastic tube brush holder is this neat Bamboo Brush Roll-up that can safely store and protect up to 12 paintbrushes. You can put both wet or dry paintbrushes in this bamboo cloth holder, because it is quite airy and dries easily. To transport, simply roll it up and tie it shut.
If you need to store or transport more than a dozen paint brushes, the ArtBin Essentials Brush Box is a good choice because it keeps the paintbrushes in place so that they won't bump against the end of the box and get damaged. It can hold 20 brushes, fastened in place with foam inserts. This box features vented sides, to allow the brushes to dry.
Art is Fun Paintbrush Guide
Page 1........ describes the different types of brushes for acrylics and what each paintbrush can do.
Page 2........ answers all the questions that a beginning artist will have about paintbrushes.
Page 3........ explains how to safely care for your paintbrushes and keep them happy.
Page 4........ demonstrates the best way to clean, store and transport your paintbrushes.
Click here to return to the main Acrylic Table of Contents page, where you will find tons of links to all the useful acrylic painting info on this site!
There's a lot of information out there on the Internet highway, some good, some bad, some so-so. But I don't recall ever seeing The True Story of How to Clean Your Acrylic Paint Brushes. I thought I'd relay it here and put to rest some of the rumors around this ancient myth.
First my pet peeve is the rumor that you should clean your paintbrushes in the palm of your hand. What? NEVER CLEAN YOUR BRUSHES IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND! Why? Because you are embedding pigment into your skin. Duh. I see this over and over again. Please don't do this. I believe there was an entire tribe of Ancient Artists who lost the ability to sing falsetto because they intentionally cleaned their paintbrushes in the palm of their hands. But this could be another false rumor.
It is a well known fact that cleaning your paintbrushes under running water will send the Muse screaming from your studio for at least two weeks. She's really fussy about this one. So beware! NEVER CLEAN YOUR BRUSHES UNDER RUNNING WATER! Why again? Because you are sending paint solids down the drain. Bad for the fishies, bad for your plumbing.
So, how should you clean your brushes? Read on my darlings. This is ancient knowledge, handed down over the generations. Guard it carefully!
First of all, regard your paintbrushes as the friends and helpers that they are. They are kind and willing to work for you, don't abuse them! Don't beat them up! What did they ever do to you except help you make fabulous art? Love them and they will serve you well. Until you leave the studio and then they use up all of your cell data and order pizza. But I digress....
Okay, but really....
Number one: Don't let acrylic paint dry on your brush. If you do, kiss the brush goodbye and make a sculpture with it. And feel really, really guilty about killing a paintbrush. They scream you know.
Next, put aside the time to clean your brushes when you paint. Don't just stand them in the water and haul ass out of the door to meet someone at Starbuck's. When you come back your paintbrushes will be a limp, soggy shadow of their former selves and perhaps will be going bald (losing bristles). The bristles of the brush will wick up the water into the ferrule (that metal thingie that holds the bristles in place) and loosen the glue that is also holding the bristles. Then the paintbrush will lose its hair. Really embarrassing for a paintbrush. Don't put them through this. Their paintbrush friends will point and laugh.
Proper cleaning of your paintbrush:
1. Wipe off all of the paint solids possible from the brush. Use old telephone books (do they still make those?) paper towels, old rags, whatever. Don't be lazy, really get all of the paint off of the brush. No, that's not enough, do it again.
2. Next, rinse the brush in a BUCKET of water. We will refer to this as Bucket #2. You may want to write this down. You have to keep track of your buckets, you know. You will have two to three buckets of water so get prepared.
3. Now get a bar of artist's soap like The Masters Hand Soap-4.5 Ounces and rub the brush across that a couple of times. The brush really loves this! If you listen closely you can hear the brush giggle when you do this.
4. Now swish the brush in Bucket #2 again a few times. LOL, swish.
5. Back across the soap. Swish again. Brushes love to swish. They're natural born swishers. It comes from being bunched up in that old peanut butter jar on the studio table. Once they get outta there they swish like crazy!
6. Finally, rinse the brush in Bucket #1 clean, clear water.
7. The brush should be fairly clean now. You can examine it with your fingers, but be polite!
Acrylic Paint Brushes And Their Uses
8. Now gently lay your brush down on a clean paper towel or bath towel. Perhaps one with the brush's name embroidered on it. Never leave your damp brushes standing upright to dry. It really wrecks their hair! And again, they could lose bristles from the water going down into the ferrule and loosening the glue. It's a lotta work being a paintbrush!
9. Put aside Bucket #2. It may be slightly soapy. That's okay. Use it the next time you clean your brushes. Once it gets all gunky with paint, pour it off into Bucket #3 that will be reserved for 'dirty water'. Let this water evaporate. Yes it will take days to evaporate, maybe weeks. But you don't have to stand there and watch it! Go paint something! When the water is all gone, wipe up the sludge that is left behind and put it in the trash.
10. No paint down the sink and no fishies turning Quinacridone Magenta!
12. Keep a bucket of clean water for step #6 above. This is Bucket #1.
13. Once Bucket #1 gets too dirty, pour it into Bucket #2. Don't pour it into Bucket #3, the dreaded 'dirty water' bucket. Don't wash your brushes in Bucket #3! It's for pouroff only! Stories abound among the older brushes about young brushes that mistakenly fell into Bucket #3, never to be seen again. Then came time to clean out the sludge. And there, laying in the bottom of Bucket #3, the young, foolish, brush - bristles all gunky, paint chipped off the handle, name no longer readable. Oh the horror!
So Bucket #1 becomes Bucket #2 and Bucket #2 goes into Bucket #3. Follow? No? Well find an old paintbrush that knows the ropes and have it show you the way.
That's the story the way I heard it. But granted, it was an Ancient Paintbrush that related this tale to me. She had a bit of Matte Medium stuck to her so her memory could have been cloudy. That paintbrush has passed on into the other world, where paintbrushes are always young and clean.
Sometimes, when I'm leaving the studio, after I turn out the lights, I stop at the door and listen. I can hear the brushes singing their Ancient song, summoning the Muse to my studio for the next day.
They can only sing when they're clean you know.