Tips on keeping the tips of your brushes

[noobk]

Proper care on how to maintain the tips of your brush longer? Mine seem to be going pretty quick, I have tried to make sure I do softer strokes and try to make sure I go at the same angle.

[phlop]

It has been my experience that the cheaper the brush, the faster the tips go. One thing you can use is Pink Soap. It is for cleaning and maintaining brushes. There are other products, you can find them at Michaels.

[GunjiNoKanrei]

Some basic tips are cleaning the brush after each use, form the tip with your mouth after cleaning. Also while painting make sure not to let any paint get in the ferrule.

I am very rough on my brushes, but a good quality brush will hold a good tip, well, for a very long time. And don't get near synthetic brushes. The tip will get a 'hook' in no time.

Or do you actually mean how to maintain a fine tip while applying paint? There is no secret really. As long as you use a good quality brush there shouldn't be any problems maintaining a good tip.

[noobk]

I am very rough on my brushes, but a good quality brush will hold a good tip, well, for a very long time. And don't get near synthetic brushes. The tip will get a 'hook' in no time.

The brushes I use are very cheap. And I do understand you get what you pay for so after both replys I will chalk it up to that. They are just cheap brushes and it's something you have to live with. I will look into a better brand in the future to make the comparison.

[Istal_Devalis]

Some basic tips are cleaning the brush after each use, form the tip with your mouth after cleaning. Also while painting make sure not to let any paint get in the ferrule.

I do the mouth thing myself.  Of course, dont make it such a habit that you keep doing it when you're not using acrylics. 

[Xtrahmxwohld]

I do the mouth thing myself.  Of course, dont make it such a habit that you keep doing it when you're not using acrylics.

I use my fingers to shape the brush, much more sanitary.

[ShadowRaven]

I use cheap bushes. Ussually packs of the brightly coloured kids ones that you get at Walmart. Even so, the brushes last a reasonable amount of time if you wash them off, and take care to reshape the tip, and store then standing upright

[GunjiNoKanrei]

I use my fingers to shape the brush, much more sanitary.

Maybe ... but your fingers are greasy. Also the saliva helps to preserve the perfect form of the brush while stored (in an upright position as ShadowRaven already pointed out).

[awclawson]

I have a brush that cost less than a dollar and I have been using for almost a year.  I think the trick is to not overload it with paint, clean often and store properly.  I never plunge the bristles into the bottom of the cleaning cup (cup of water), I whisk it in the water keeping it off the bottom.  I dry it on a wash cloth by placing it flat, fold the cloth over it and put light pressure while twisting the brush in one direction and pulling out of the cloth.   For brushes that I do not use a lot or are spares I cut various gauges of wire and pull the copper out and put  the shething over the bristles. (some brushes come with the protector already)

[noobk]

Well I still like my cheap brushes, I have one in particular I always use for base coating, then poor thing is beat to hell but it more than serves its purpose. But I would not mind one or two kolinsky brushes for detailing and other important parts. But my collection is mostly brushes you get from hobby lobby, I have some wal mart stuff too.  :P

Does anybody know if you can actually buy a kolinsky brush in a store? I have googled it but I could not get anything to come up, just online retailers.

[Cyttorak]

Whether I clean them religiously or not, my brushes always gunk up until I have to throw them away. They last about 2 or 3 months on average, so it's just cheaper to buy nylon ones. The difference in quality isn't worth the money, and sable is harder to find locally anyway. I think $3 nylon brushes are perfectly adequate.

...oh, and I actually *like it* when the tips bend. I find it easier to isolate the tip for fine painting without applying too much pressure, and I can use it to paint around corners.

[Bedwyr]

<soapbox>

I'm not piling on you Cyttorak, but I do want to defend the high end brushes. :)

A good kolinsky sable brush that has its bristles properly selected and arranged will nearly *always* keep a very sharp tip if you take good care of it.  Small (0 to 18/0) hobby brushes in the $3-8 range will eventually develop a hook as they get used no matter how well you take care of it.  Because of that almost pyramid like tip, what I used to do with a 000 brush I now do with a #1 sable brush.  It's essentially the same tip, but better paint loading capability.  And this is the biggest defense I can make of getting a good sable brush.  You actually save money.  By now I would have spent $20-30 replacing the cheaper "good" brushes at Michael's.  After the equivalent of 2+ years of use my sable brushes are still fighting trim.  $11 now or $3 + $3 + $3 + $3 + $3....?  Anyhow that's my defense.

</soapbox>

[Bedwyr]

And to actually follow up on proper brush care, let me pass on what Sounguru taught me.

1. Get a decent brush (see above).

2. Always store bristles up or hang bristles down in a wire holder.  Never rest it on the bristles.  Ever.  Some fill a cup with sand and put the brush handles in there.  I just store sideways in a cloth-roll-up holder laid out on a keyboard tray.

3. Never soak paint all the way up into the ferrule.  There's no faster way to splay bristles and retire your brush to drybrush status.

4. Pull the brush as much as you can, minimizing the times you push on the bristles or bend them.  You'll have to some for detail work, but do try to minimize that.

5. Pour fresh (distilled?) water into your pot every session.

6. Always wash your brushes when you're done.  Gently with tepid water, spreading the bristles out.  Use soap.  Usually either pink Mona Lisa stuff or Masters.

7. When you're done cleaning run your fingers through to reshape the tip.  If you can find brush shaper, I highly recommend it for storage and as a restorative.  It's very effective and is actually the stuff that makes your new brushes feel stiff like they have hairspray in them.

8. If your brush came with a plastic sleeve, save the sleeve and put it back on when you're done.  If you bump something or trip, you won't ruin the brush.

[GunjiNoKanrei]

Does anybody know if you can actually buy a kolinsky brush in a store? I have googled it but I could not get anything to come up, just online retailers.

Yes you can and should in fact. Any decent store carrying artist supplies should carry kolinsky sable brushes. Buying them in store lets you take a look at the tip before buying.

Whether I clean them religiously or not, my brushes always gunk up until I have to throw them away. They last about 2 or 3 months on average, so it's just cheaper to buy nylon ones. The difference in quality isn't worth the money, and sable is harder to find locally anyway. I think $3 nylon brushes are perfectly adequate.

Well, I can only echo what I said earlier ... stay away from synthetic (nylon) brushes. Yes there are a few good painters out there using those brushes (you obviously being one of them), but from my experience I can say that once you try a (good) sable brush you will never want to use a synthetic brush again. It is not just the tip but also the way the body holds and releases paint. Much superior.

Bedwyr already proved that the in the long run the high end brushes are actually cheaper. And you don't even need to religiously clean them ... I am very rough on my brush, often get paint in the ferule and rarely use soap to clean them, but I have kolinsky sable brushes (davinci maestro series - highly recommended) which hold a perfect tip even after years of (ab)use.

[Cyttorak]

Well, if *you're* recommending them I may give them another look.

[GunjiNoKanrei]

 ::)

[MemphisMark]

I won a GW mega paint set 3-4 years ago, and have been using those brushes the whole time. My fine detail brush has only now started to hook on the tip, but only if I don't spin it while painting. I always wet them before and after use. I then drag out the extra water, spinning them to keep that tip, then dipping them in the paint. I also wet and spin a tip on them before putting them back in their tip protecting tubes.

[noobk]

I found a local paint shop that DOES sell nice brushes, they kept the kolinskys behind the counters. :) I have been using it extensively for detail work. Cheap brushes I have used do tend to show wear and tear after a week of solid use. I have been using this one now for roughly a week and still looks like I just bought it. If the brush lasts a month (which at this rate i'm sure it will) it will have paid for itself. I could easily go through 2 cheap fine point brushes in a month which would equal the total value of the nice brush I bought.

So at the end of the month I'm expecting the nice brush to be the better bang for its buck.

[God and Davion]

I use a Brush Restorer solution from Vallejo (ref num. 890). It lasts years and you only have to rinse the brush in it. It works wonders with old brushes and it restores the shape of the brush. It is hard to find because they have a different restorer now. This one is blue colored.