There are significant difference between oil and acrylic paints and they require to you care for your brushes in a slightly different way. As I've stated before paint brushes are among the most expensive tools you will purchase for painting. It is very important that you take care of your brushes to get many years of use out of them. Since Acrylic paints have differnet charateristics than oil you need to care for them a little differently than brushes you use for oil painting.
Do not let a brush set with acrylic paint in it for a long period of time. Acrylics fast drying could ruin the brush before you realized it has happened.
Washing Your Brush
- 1. Wipe off excess paint
- 2. Rinse in cool water. Do not use hot water it may cuase the paint to dry.
- 3. Using a bar/cake of soap run the brush until it is full of laterh.
- 4. Start at the ferrule using, your thumb nail and finer to squeeze the bristles. Do not pinch or pull to firmly as this may cause damage to the brush. Pulling to hard may loosen the bristles from the ferrule.
- 5. Repeat step 4 until the lather is free of any color.
- 6. lather the brush on lat time but do not rinse it out. Use the soap as a sizing to help maintain the shape of the brush. The soap will rinse out easily with water before the next painting session.
NOTE: I use a common type of brush cleaner called "The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver" (comes in a tan plastic container). It works very well and keeps my hands from coming in contact with the paint. If you are using paints that contain cadmium, lead or other harmful materials, this is probably a good product to use.
