Why Cleaning Your Brushes is a Waste of Time - Oil Painting Advice
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- Опубліковано 14 лип 2024
- In this video I explain why oil painting artist should never waste time cleaning brushes.
For online classes with Mark Carder visit www.carderartacademy.com/
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I have been using your brush dip for years and love it! I recommend it on my channel all the time. The best!
Love to see you here coach ❤️
Nice to see you here paint coach! Lol you’re my UA-cam coach and it’s exciting to see you here!
I originally saw the dip on your channel reference. Works & smells great.
Because you recommended it, it’s what I do now, too. What a game changer. Thanks Paint Coach.
Hey paint coach. You da man!
I’ve never tried this method, but am intrigued. I wipe my brushes with paper towel and clean in solvent. If I’ve missed a brush that then has gotten hard or ruined bc it dried with oil paint or whatever, I just dip it in a cup of a Murphy s Oil soap without any water for a day or two, then rinse and they’re as good as new. I’ve saved many of my brushes this way over the years.
I saw over 300 painting videos. I learned the most from you! Thank you my teacher!
Thank you Mark for all the important information I always take your advice to heart. Love your oil paints!
Good to see you again. I recently bought your paints and love them!
I just dip them in linseed oil, dry them with paper towel and leave them for the next day. It has been working for me, better than cleaning with turpentine. turp made me lose many brushes. Might try this brush dip recipe.
Great advice especially for those of us with allergies . . . I don´t like using solvents either. Oil is such a w o n d e r f u l invention of nature. There are also oils which n e v e r dry (like peanut oil) this all should prevent every beloved brush from hardening. . . .
So glad to see you back.
I have the brush dip and love it ! Not only saves time in the studio but I have noticed the life of my brushes last longer .
If I watched this 10 or 20 years ago I would have disagreed with this but the last few years Ive learned so much about desaturating colours that this makes perfect sense. thanks for the tip
I completely agree! Your brush dip changed my painting life! 10 out of 10 highly recommend 👌
Great to see you back. Have your brush dip, it's great.
Good to see you posting again. Hope you are well.
Thanks for this valuable piece of info, its going to save a lot of unwanted stress.
Great advice. Thank you for sharing your experience- I am going to adopt your advice in my arts practice. 🙏
Hi, I am so happy to be receiving your video once again. Thank you andI hope you will kindly continue to do so. It was quite some time since I received the last one and I missed them a lot. This came as a wonderful surprise.
Wish you and your family the best. Tülün Harmankaya
Fantastic advice from you. Thank you very much. I used to clean brushes while doing painting and always whished to be a better way to do that. And your tip is brilliant. It is clicked
Thank you. This is the first vid I have seen in a long time, that obviously - obviously - has pure experience and "practical" theory behind it.
A pleasure to watch - and even more pleasure to practice!
When ships were made of wood, I was thinking of being a sign-writer. I was taught to get Vaseline and work it into the ferrul of a new brush before it's ever been used. Then no paint can get down there. Sign-writing brush hairs are very long and need to flex for long clean lines. Sign-writers don't use dirty brushes. Different art form.
Glad to see your vids back again, hope everything else is good
Even more interesting than the info in the video itself are the comments on this one. This is one of those topics that have less to do with art, personal expression and techniques, but very much with personal habits and traits in general. There are so many ways to clean your brushes (and make no mistake: even what Mark describes here is a way of cleaning them, despite the title to the contrary). Just use what works for you, what fits your way of doing things. If cleaning up after work is part of your routine in general whatever you do, cleaning brushes will not feel like a waste of time. If you feel like it, experiment with other methods. I myself use different methods for different brush types, sizes and shapes and depending on if I expect to use the same brush the next day or probably not.
Nice to see you back Mark
the best teacher ever.... all the best Mark
Brilliant thankyou! 😊 I am very new to painting in oils but these tips are very helpful
Thanks so much ,..will keep my brushes clean this easy way ,love it !!
I have never heard of doing this before. Very interesting indeed. Love this channel so much. Thank you!
Great help for new artist sir mark,THANK YOU! GOD BLESS.ALHAMDULILLA
My counter point would be... good luck on trying to get rid of phtalo blue with a paper towel well enough to not green your yellow. It is jsut faster to "wash it " in some solvent.
I agree. I'm sure the no wash method works for some but my brushes are 20 years old and still work great with the solvent wash method.
@@paintingsbypenelope Yeah, it depends on the case. How small or big our brushes are, the strength of each pigment, the mediums ( If they're fast drying like liquin ).
In general, there is not a single perfect recipe for everything.
It's easy: just use another brush for yellow and lighter colors, then you don't need to wash the blue out that extremely well
Thanks to you, Mark, I'll now have more time for painting.
Please make a demonstration video. It's been so long since you uploaded one. It's a delight watching you paint. 🙏
I still have my signwriting quills for 35 years...Use them for oil gold sizing too...Always cleaned in white spirit , spun by hand and then petroleum jelly (Vaseline) to keep the shape......Worked for 35 years...Signwriting quills are pretty expensive and there are ways to make them last a life time...
Good to see ya mark!
Nice to see you again!!
That brush dip smells sooooooo good from the clove oil! I love using it between painting sessions.
isn't it not good for you?
@@T2a585 I don't think the smell of the oils is harmful. It's certain pigments and thinners that are toxic. I wouldn't recommend huffing anything though. haha
I’ve finally gotten the studio built- now I’m searching for the video (I think I remember you having on lighting) - I’ve got to have installed electric and lighting, then walls.
Building is 10 x 20 and 8ft ceiling.
Be careful what lights you buy. The CRI of LEDs is abysmal. If you can afford a fluorescent setup, that's the way to go. Otherwise you won't get any of your warm colors right (some led are 95 cri but even that is not as good as fluorescent)
i never knew this. great to see a new video
Great insights, much appreciated!
Thank you for your advice, I will try to learn about that 😊
Love your videos - thank you for this one, it was especially helpful
You’re a legend Mark. Thanks for all the great lessons.
Wow! So interesting and TY for sharing this knowledge.
A lot of advice on the internet, and in books, directly conflicts. Virgil Elliott and George O'Hanlon tell us to avoid clove oil, and have, at the least, doubts about safflower oil - yet you're recommending dipping brushes into a mix of the two.... I tend to agree with them rather than with you, and also with Rella Ingram: if you're not painting all the time - I still think you need to clean your brushes, because if you don't they'll harden and turn into a useless tool; whereas if you soak them in the mix you suggest, even drying them out by pulling through a paper towel afterwards, you're introducing mediums to the paint which will at the least cause it to take an age to dry. Now - you're a paint-maker and an artist with long experience, so I have to grant you know what you're talking about - but while I'm not a paint-maker, I've been an artist for some 50 years, and I would not use these methods. So we're going to disagree, which is fine - but I should be interested in your observations.
🤮
I think you can clean them in OMS right before you start painting
Safflower oil is ok. Most manufacturers are using it regularly for some colours, along with linseed. I'm not sure about clove oil, though..
I agree that from time to time cleaning with soap and water is necessary, but not everyday, especially if we're painting on a frequent basis.
Personally, I'm using different methods, depending on the brushes and the mediums ( how big, synthetic or natural, mediums like liquin etc .)
Common linseed oil is ok for cleaning ,along with paper towels. At the end of a session some further cleaning with a bit of solvent , then a tiny amount of oil and that's it!
Every 4 or 5 days I'm cleaning with soap and water, though. I don't want my brushes to get sticky..
To keep my paintbrushes supple for a long time, I use plastic bags or aluminum foil. I also use a cotton swab to blend the color without getting in with the brush.
Hi Mark, i know you since years and even once won the monthly painting you choose one of my paintings to be the best this month and since i know you and i bought the dvd years ago, its the only way i want to paint and its the only paintings i want to see, like rembrant or singer seargent, and your students paint awesome paintings and i even bought just simple saffloweroil from the supermarket and keep my brushes wet, and for sure you tell the people always the best and effective way to do something in oilpainting, and when i see this video i even dream of a room, my paintings on the wall and brushes everywhere and the desks, my kitchen nearly looks like this and i love it, and i want to say that brushes are really cheap in some stores and buying brushes is a lot of fun too and im pretty sure, if you are an artist you cannot have enuf brushes, so i write this kinda bring people to smile maybe when they see how much i love painting since i met you and maybe even give a shit if my brush dries, coz even me who has really no money, i spent the little money i have for new brushes XD gl to all and youre channel and youre family and all people who manage to run away from any war others start
You and Stefan Baumann are my favorite Chanels on UA-cam!
Fascinating and a very green tip.
Thanks again,love your paint!
Excellent information!!
Why is no one talking about how his window looks like it's painted!? What kind of glass is that??
TY Mark. Great advice. “Brush dip”, excellent.
As always the very best of advice and lots of inspiration 🎶🌷🎵🙏
Excellent suggestion & practice.
Wow! Tnx for this Golden tip master👍🙏😊🎨
Amazing tips!!
That's interesting. One thing I do when changing colours and want some purity is pull the brush through a paper towel and then dip it into a little bit of the new colour, work it in a bit and then pull it through the towel again.
Which is pretty much what he said in the video…
Thank you for the helpful advice. I haven't made the step into oil painting yet, I'm still using acrylics. Good to know for the future.
I no longer clean my brush ever since I saw one of your videos similar to this. Clearly my brushes last longer with no cleaning method. I can only think of the benefits and no disadvantages. One dip into safflower oil and it lasts for about a month in my case.
And more time for painting.
@@NickNicometi Yes, most importantly!
what safflower oil do you use. will refined food grade safflower oil work?
That’s interesting. I use poppy oil and it lasts a while but I’m not sure it lasts a month
Last longer? I have no idea how people wear away brushes. I paint with the same brushes I bought 30 years ago (and I wash them every single time).
Welcome back!:)
Thanks, I needed that!
so - not to clean the brushes until they look new, after each use?
I honestly did it until now and IT DID get the fun out of using oils for me, I enjoy it, but the upkeep was very annoying. I used to paint daily.
with this knowledge, I will change things with my workflow for sure.
thank you for sharing and wish you (all) a great week :)
Just clean your brushes with a good soap like Aleppo soap. It's easy cheap and fast.
I just stand my brushes in water, make sure the oil paint is well worked into the brush stock first. Just wipe them off in a rag when you want them. They will stay soft for many months even longer. Oil paint needs air to dry, no air underwater.
Sounds good, but I hope you’re not standing them on the hairs but rather are suspending them in water? As a side note, when I was into printmaking I learned to preserve the (oil) printing ink in cans by filling the can with water. Just tip it out when ready to use.
if you put your expensive natural brushes in water,those bristles will never get back into shape...i"m not talking about pig bristles.
@@ruudratajczak2240 so many people comment with good intentions, and then I see a comment like yours refuting it. It is kind of tiring to not know what's best.
Thank you so much!
Very helpful!
As always you’re the best! I just had to purchase new brushes because I couldn’t spend all that time cleaning them w mineral spirits. Excited to try this!
I generally agree with you on most things, but if you're a person who can't paint regularly or switch mediums often, you need to clean your brushes. If you're using a longer drying paint and painting daily, then I might agree. However, that doesn't fit all situations. But as usual, I still enjoy your videos!
I've been using this process for about 3 years. I've gone almost a year without painting and I just needed to re-dip from time to time. Not only is it a massive time saving, but it also encourages me to be less lazy about using the right brush for the job. I'm more prone to use any brush I want since I don't need to bother cleaning it. (I'm busy, so every little brush is a few minutes I'd rather not spend cleaning.) I keep about 25 brushes oiled and ready to go. Sometimes I paint daily, sometimes not for several months. Just dip from time to time and that's it. I use Mark Carder's slow-dry medium recipes and various other mediums, no problems with any of them.
Alternative: I have a cup of walnut oil I keep all my brushes in. I haven’t painted in weeks, and just picked up a brush still “wet” and ready to go with the paint it had on it. A couple passes in a paper towel and it’s good as new
Have ruined brushes when not cleaned. This can be dangerous advice. They can solidify and become a nightmare.
@@ImNotThatInt3resting Yep Charles. Peanut oil could also make this job . . .
Thank you, Mark.
Sometimes I think I cleaned my brush enough and go for a hard stroke only to get a few streaks of nasty color that were deep in my brush. I feel like the paper towel trick is for a light hand. I may be a novice but this doesn’t always work for me because I press hard when I go for a block in or whatever I’m doing really
I was thinking "but what about the artists that really scrub the paint into the canvas?" during the entire video. That's how I do my first layer and it really brings out all the paint that's hiding between the bristles. The tiniest bit of residual paint can ruin your color and value...
@@RamoArt Yeah I like to tone my canvas too and I usually want the colour to be pure. any residue of old paint would taint it. Also depends how you paint. I find the less you mix in medium, the easier it is to avoid colours getting dirt. I'm thinking if you usually tone the canvas with same colours you could again keep a large brush just for that. Or always wash that one, keep others dirty.
Good to see you
Well. I might say that be Very careful for paint drying in the brushes. Keep em dirty wet all you want but if they dry. You will never get it back. Even if you clean it. It will open its hairs due to paint shoved under the metal so i would advice two things!! Never use the whole brush hairs leave a space at the start of the hairs where is pressed by the metal case. You dont want paint there. It will dry and force hairs to open. Thinner wont get in there enough. I got old flax seed drys fast and cant leave paint for more than 2 days. My set up its not good but its what i have now.
SO YOU DIDNT WATCH THE WHOLE VIDEO DID YOU???!!!! HE EXPLAINS THE IMIPORTANCE OF USING BRUSH DIP WEEKLY TO KEEP YOUR BRUSHES FROM DRYING OUT. *EYE ROLL*
HE EVEN EXPLAINS THAT IF YOURE USING A FAST DRYING MEDIUM OR PAINT THAT USING BRUSH DID AFTER WILL ALLOW YOU TO KEEP THE BRUSH WET.
@@picklesdill9138 What else do you dip in his brush dip. Take it easy with the capslock buddy.
I bought your video many years ago after seeing your portrait of George Bush. It was spot-on and very informative. It is still the best tutorial I have come across.
One of my first jobs between high school and college was at a sign painting company. We used to lay our brushes in a tray of brake fluid to keep them wet over night. lol. Before use we would wash brake fluid out with turps or paint thinner before resuming painting. 1970's.
Thank you for all your comments, you are my favorite contemporary artist. But I have a question for you...When you are mixing the paint it gets all the way to the ferrule part of the brush sometimes, how do you clean that part without using turpenoid?
you sure can. clean up good and then deep in the oil when not using
If you’re using synthetic brushes with oil and you don’t want to use harsh chemicals due to the smell, mix some vegetable oil and dawn dish liquid in a cup and leave them to set for a few hours. After they’ve set use pure dawn and wash in warm water until the vegetable oil is gone. The paint should come off easily. The reason you don’t want any vegetable oil left afterwards is because if it gets mixed in your paint you’ll be waiting a lot longer for your pieces to dry. I’m sure this would work with natural brushes as well but I’m not sure using dawn on those is a good idea
if you leave vegetable oil to mix with your paints it will ruin the painting because vegetable does not dry it rots.
4 cooking!!!!?
Yeah, I discovered this method when I first tried to oil paint and realized I didn't have any solvent , essentially dilute the paint with another oil that's easier to clean, then use a strong surfactant to wash away the mixed oil
@@zaidshah4535 that's what the dishwashing detergent step is for (or liquid brush soap)
Amazing videos on oil painting.
This is interesting, I am trying to find techniques that may be applicable to miniature painting using oils. I am going to give this a shot. Rather than using the odorless mineral spirts or brush restorer to clean use safflower and clove oil instead.
Whaaaaa? I always spend ages cleaning them haha
Very informative video on a technique I've never heard of before. Thank you.
An artist once recommended cleaning brushes in 'Baby Oil' ( which is a petroleum derivative). I found that it cleans brushes really well but I've always wondered if traces of the Baby Oil might interact badly with the oil paints. The brush dip sounds like a good alternative when I know that I won't be able to paint for a week or two.
(NB: Baby Oil, in Australia, is a very light oil that can be used on the body... makeup removal, 'moisturising', massaging etc. I don't know if it has the same name in other countries; it may sound a little weird without context.)
his brush dip is safflower oil and 2% clove oil by volume, just make your own.
@@omnesilere Thanks. I'm going to try it out.
Baby oil is mineral oil.
Little did they know, outside of Australia they use actual babies 🤷♂️
I worked with an old-time sign painter and he would use Motor Oil at then end of the day. I adapted this to baby oil, but any non-drying oil should work fine. I do tend to clean with solvent first, and use the baby oil to prevent any oil paint from ever drying in the brush.
I simply made my own pallet box, a wooden box with a cover, that I can place a cottonball with a couple drops of clove oil on, put my brushes on the inside with the paint, and everything stays moist. For several days until I use it again, then put a few more drops on the cottonball.
It’s just that you have to have a turpentine to break up heavy chunks of monthly non-use. Sometimes brushes get that chunk that a paper towel just can’t break up. Hidden within the forest is the stone.
i love my old messy dirty brushes! love ur brush tips! lol
. . . the wonderful traces of the happy painter years
Yeah, your system works for you .
I don’t like having to consider what colour is on my brush before I mix a colour.
I do never use to clean my brush
“Just manipulate the colour”,
I leave my brushes in oil and wipe the brush on a rag in one direction,
I always painted with the results being of the mother of pearl look
This has a muddy looking out come,
But then with the use of clean brush and colours as over paint
I achieve my oil paintings for I like painting from my imagination.
Mark Sargent excellent painter!
ive been. using baby oil and baby wipes and it works wonders
hope it helps
Dawn dish washing liquid until the water is clear and squeeze it flat . For small brushes, use Ivory or Kirks bar soap.
I've been doing exactly that for over 30 years and my brushes are still in a very good condition. l
Great title. I'm always looking for reasons not to do something.
🙌 👏 🙏 🤝 👍 This is "american" pragmatism . . . AND chinese WU WEI: Doing by NON-doing !!
This is sxactly why I am PAINTING: To a v o i d any labor/work, or - as my beloved art-comrade Francis Bacon once said:
"Work is just something for folks who CAN´T PAINT!" 😁
Great use of hand gestures here
Love it, thank you. I’m a bit of a novice; what are your thoughts on wrapping the brush head loosely in cling film to prevent drying? This may be artistic blasphemy, but decorators use this method to prevent brushes drying out.
I was thinking that just laying them out and putting plastic wrap over top would be enough. Or a piece of wax paper on the bottom and a piece on the top.
Put them in freezer
BRAVO!!!
Thank you soo much!!!!
awesome advice
Well this is inspiring advice.
Thank you!!!
Where ya been? Thank for the tip!
I love this. That is all.
I clean my brushes with a nice oily soap - hog hair at least weekly, sable after every session. Some are now thirty years old - bristles a little shorter than they used to be, perhaps, but all still holding their shape and in excellent condition. Pretty sure that wouldn't be the case if the ferrels were all clogged with ancient oil paint.
He uses brush dip when storing them which keeps the paint in the brushes wet. As long as it doesn't dry it won't clog the brushes ☺️
@@sandiegriffiths1469 Hi. The problem is that it will dry. If given enough time, oil paint (and medium, incl safflower oil) doesn't require air in order to stiffen and eventually dry, so unless regular removed the stuff up by/in the ferrule will sooner or later start to misbehave, steadily wrecking the shape, springiness, capacity, etc, of the brush. Carefully washing them isn't the most exciting job in the world, but I'm not going to try fixing something that ain't bust at the risk of ruining my lovely (and expensive) brushes. Mine last until they're worn too short to use - which takes years and years.
I've been painting 15 years. Finally a product that makes sense. I've been doing this exact thing with other oils all this time with some success. Just ordered the brush dip and can't wait to give it a try. Thank You.
I pour a slug of walnut oil into a small glass, and will regularly rinse residual paint off into it throughout my painting. I don't get too fussy about what colour is (was) in the brush, as I tend to remove pretty much all of the pigment through rinsing and wiping anyway.
I use Old Holland straight out of the tube, and will really lay it down heavy, so the brush dip might actually be of benefit to me - especially with those transparent oxides I use, which will dry almost as fast as acrylic.
Can you do a session on painting indoors without ventilation? I'm sure you have some good ideas here.
Eh….open a window and use odourless mineral spirits what else do you expect him to say?
@Sergej Grigorjev I would love to switch from acrylic to oil paint but I'm just afraid since my studio is in the basement without any ventilation. This is helpful thanks.
Would buy a starter set from Mark if I can use the paint safely in my room.
Just be sure to have a current will.
If you have no window keep door open and have a fan to move the air
Use water mixable oil paint and medium, so there is no need for solvents.
Beware any advice telling you to "never" do something or to "always" do something.
This is the first video I've seen from you. I looked up your portraits, just stunning! You're obviously a master. I'm going to try your method. I keep wearing my brushes out from cleaning them. I've been trying to get them really clean. Common practices and knowledge are often not true. thank you!
It also depends on how you're cleaning them, and what you're cleaning them with Jane. Common practices and knowledge is often common for a reason.