How to clean oil paint brushes is probably one query that arises in every oil painter’s mind. Oil paints offer a kind of richness to a painting that is unmatched to any other medium in my opinion. However, the maintenance of oil paint brushes is the toughest too.
Clean oil paint off brushes prerequisites
Please be sure to take care of following prerequisites if you are serious about your brushes:
- You have to follow the steps as soon as you finish your painting session. If that’s not possible for you, you can stretch it maximum to the same day before sleeping. Never leave your brushes for the next day. If you can’t clean your oil paint brushes the same day, you need to clean using more elaborate methods and products.
- You need to have a rough cloth/tissue paper.
- You need to have clean cotton cloth to end the process.
- You need to have a regular dish wash liquid gel/soap. The ones that cut out grease from your dishes are the best to try here. They contain ingredients like lemon etc.
Steps to clean an oil paint brush
Now that you know the prerequisites to clean paint off brushes, let’s start with the actual steps to clean an oil paint brush:
1. Wipe off all the extra paint off the brushes using a rough cloth(preferably cotton fabric) or tissue papers. You don’t need any other product for this extra visible paint that has not gone so deep inside the brush hairs. Just simple swipe off is enough.
2. Go to a sink/wash basin. Squeeze out your dish wash liquid soap (in small quantity) five times at five different spots inside the sink. Five times is just the right number to clean paint brushes in 90 percent of cases. Very rarely would you require any extra amount of soap.
3. Take one brush at a time. Swipe it onto the liquid soap drop in to and fro motion till you can see paint coming out. Once the colour of the liquid soap on the sink has completely changed, move to the next soap drop and move the brush to remove more paint. Keep repeating till the fifth drop. You might need to clean the brush with a little bit of water when you move to the next soap drop. Make sure you don’t open the water tap at high speed or you will wash off the soap drops. Your brush will be perfectly cleaned by the fifth soap drop in most cases. You can tell so because the soap drop will no longer change color when brush is moved to and fro in it. Rarely, if brush is not cleaned till 5th soap drop, you can repeat steps 2-3.
4. Once the paint is visibly removed from the brush, you can open the water tap at moderate speed. Clean the brush hairs with water for one final time. Squeeze the excess water from brush hairs with your hands (bottom to top) while also shaping the brush hairs as they were originally.
5. Repeat the same steps 2-4 for all the brushes.
6. Take a clean cotton cloth and place the brushes with hairs inside the cloth for them to dry overnight.
7. Wake up to find clean and dried oil paint brushes for a new painting session!
Why this is the ultimate brush cleaning guide for oil painters?
I want you to try this method to know the effectiveness of this method. It truly works. It’s the ultimate method because it’s quick and easy. It’s actually fun once you get the hang of it. It’s inexpensive because you don’t need any fancy product except a simple dish wash liquid soap easily available in any household.
This method has saved me so much time and energy and increased the lifetime of my oil painting brushes. If you are like me who treasure her oil painting brushes like a precious jewellery, you are going to love taking care of them using this method! It’s your turn now. Try this method and let me know how it worked for you!
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