This post is for those who are just starting to draw or just want to start. Taking good care of your instruments is necessary and beneficial. Prices are no longer what they were under the Soviet Union. Now even the lousiest thing costs a lot of money. That's why it's so important to take care of your instrument.
The brush is perhaps the most common item among artists. After working with oil, you need to wipe the brush well (before this you can moisten it in turpentine or other solvent with which you are working) so that most of the paint remains on the rag, then it is advisable to rinse it under hot water with soap. That's what I did. This is necessary so that dried paint does not turn a regular brush into a very hard brush. If this happens, then you need to use a solvent and “stretch” the brush.
With a watercolor brush everything is easier. Rinse well under water. Possibly with soap. And under no circumstances leave it in the glass. Otherwise the brush will take irregular shape and you can throw it away :) If you don’t wash your brush, then dirt and pigment will have a destructive effect on the hairs of your brush. The brush will climb and it will become worse to paint.
Water also softens wooden base brushes, they begin to wobble, and there is less pleasure from painting.
By the way, I want to say a few words in favor of artificial bristles for “oil” brushes. Firstly, artificial brushes are cheaper than natural ones, and secondly, they are also very good in practice. Now for oil painting I use brushes with artificial bristles. I have 5 of them. Very convenient. Each brush is responsible for its own group of colors. They are soft, since I don’t like hard brushes in general.
The brush is an extension of the artist's hand. The way a brush looks and the condition it is in says a lot about the artist himself.
You need to take care of your brush and store it correctly! After all, the future work directly depends on its quality. To ensure that your art brushes serve you well and for a long time, just follow the basic rules for their care and storage.
5 ways to extend the life of your brushes
1. Keep your brushes clean. Of course, never let the paint dry on your brushes. Although it is tempting to leave them as they are, don’t be lazy and wash your brushes thoroughly after use. You should always wash your brushes after use!
However, if you plan to continue working the next day, you can store bristle brushes in water after cleaning them from paint. But remember that you should not store brushes in water for a long time, because art brushes may lose their properties. At least this is from personal experience.
There are tips to store brushes in sunflower oil. This method also works, but it’s probably easier to wash the brush :)
If the brushes were used for oil painting, then first the brush must be wrung out using a small piece of cloth (you can also use paper), then rinsed in a solvent. It is more convenient, of course, to use fabric, as it absorbs solvent and paint better. Can be washed with warm clean or soapy water and wipe dry. Be sure to wipe your brush dry.
It will be even better if you wrap the tip of the brush in paper and leave it to dry in it. The experience of many artists has shown that brushes can last for years in this way, because the tip of the brush wrapped in paper does not fluff up and retains its original shape.
Important! Make sure that the brush immersed in the solvent does not come into contact with the bottom of the container, otherwise its shape will be deformed.
If you work with watercolors, just wash your brushes in clean water. It is also better to wrap the washed brush in paper or newspaper to dry. The main thing is to store the brushes horizontally or with the bristles down - this will prevent water from getting under the metal part and destroying it.
2. Use brushes only for their intended purpose. If used, use it only for oil, watercolor means watercolor. Mixing paint types can cause the brush to harden and become completely damaged.
Another important point: If you paint with acrylic paints, always place the brush in a container of water while you work with another brush. Acrylic dries quickly, and a dried piece of paint is almost impossible to remove without damaging the brush.
3. Store dry brushes in a glass or jar with the bristles facing up. Don't forget about it! You can store brushes in a suspended state, the main thing is with the bristles down.
4. Wash your brushes once a month with soap. Try to squeeze out all the remaining paint at the base of the pile. And by the way, never wash brushes with acetone, otherwise the hair will start to split. It's easier to use white spirit.
But there is a pitfall here: white spirit, if it gets under the metal part, can soften the binder that holds the tuft of pile. To avoid this, you can wash your brush with warm water and soap.
5 . Store natural bristle brushes in a tightly sealed container with moth repellent. You can put a special anti-moth tablet in the package, although dry orange peels, lavender or fragrant cedar will do just fine.
If your brush has lost its shape
If your brush has lost its shape, you can try to restore it in two ways:
- Hold it for 2-3 minutes hot water(80-90 degrees Celsius);
- Lather the pile with soap, smooth it out and set it aside to dry. After a couple of hours, the pile should be rinsed with water.
Take care of your brushes and keep them clean and dry. Remember that not all brushes can remain in water for a long time.
The same brush can last for years.
Brushes and their care
To ensure that your brushes serve you for as long as possible, it is enough to follow very simple rules for caring for them.
Brushes can vary in shape depending on their purpose, but they all consist of three main parts: a hair tuft, a metal capsule and a handle. Hair can be natural or synthetic. The metal capsule is usually made of nickel-plated or gold-plated brass, which does not rust. The handle, made of varnished or painted wood, can be long or short, flat or round.
Types of brushes.
Mustel brushes:the most expensive and valuable. They have very elastic hair from the tail of the Siberian marten. Suitable for watercolors and silk painting.
Squirrel brushes: from the tail of a Russian or Canadian squirrel. They take up a lot of paint and are often used for painting on ceramics.
Ferret brushes: from the fur of a Russian, polar or Chinese ferret. They are especially flexible and are recommended for oil painting.
Badger brushes:mainly used for restoration. These brushes are good for working with moderately liquid paints.
Bristle Brushes:from the backbone bristles of pigs or boars. Strong and elastic, suitable for oil painting and for painting various crafts.
Synthetic brushes: appeared in the 1960s. Modern synthetic brushes are not inferior in quality to a good brush made from natural hair. The paint is distributed evenly, the stroke is excellent. Suitable for any painting technique and for any surface. They are easy to clean and do not deteriorate.
Care and cleaning.
Even the most expensive brush can easily become damaged if it is not cleaned immediately after use. Never leave a brush in water with the tip touching the bottom of the container. Use a special device with spirals that allows you to keep the brush suspended in a container of water, e.g. :
If you use acrylic paints, pigments or watercolors, rinse your brushes generously with water and wipe them on a bar of natural soap, moving the brush in the direction of the hair. Clean the edge of the primer especially often, where paint tends to accumulate, otherwise the brush will lose its shape over time.
Dry the brush with a towel or napkin and give it to the hair, lightly squeezing it, into its original shape with your fingers. Then store the brush in an upright position with the hair facing up until next use.
To eliminate leftovers oil paint, clean the brush with a cloth soaked in a special thinner, and then rinse with water and soap until the foam is clear, without traces of paint. Then wipe them as described above.
Never leave wet brushes with the tips facing up, because water can get under the primer and wooden handle will swell from moisture. Dry your brushes by rubbing them over a cloth or napkin. Keep them away from heat sources. When the brush is dry, position it so that the bristles do not rest on the surface.
Problems and solutions.
- After long use, the bristles may lose their original shape.
You can remove bent or protruding bristles with scissors and thus restore the original shape of the bristles. It is very important, as already mentioned, to follow the rules for storing your brush. If the brush is stored with the bristles covered with a cap, then we need to ensure that the bristles remain separate and not stick together when we put the narrow cap on the brush. You can’t put the brush in a stand with the bristles down; it’s better to dry it hanging, securely fastening it (here again we will find a special device with spirals very useful, which allows you to keep the brush suspended, like a stand-holder for brushes from an Italian manufacturer Stamperia - see above). Only dry brushes can be capped and put into a case where they will be stored horizontally. Curved bristles cannot be straightened; such a brush will have to be replaced.
- Before you start using a new brush, you need to soften the bristles.
If your brush is large, we recommend putting it in water for a few hours to soften the bristles. Then the bristles will not break during the first use, sticking to the work. If you feel like you bought a bad brush because a lot of bristles fell out after the first use, don't worry, you can solve this problem by soaking your brush first. Remember that when soaking the brush should always be kept suspended. We have already mentioned that there are special devices(see above). To avoid bristles falling out, professional painters put their brushes in water overnight before starting work.
- The bristles must be protected during transportation.
For transportation, we recommend using a special case in which the bristles are not deformed. If the bristles become bent, they will be impossible to straighten. Therefore, a case with compartments where each brush is securely attached is The best way protect brushes from damage.
Any professional artist will tell you that to create a real masterpiece it is very important to carefully choose not only paints, but also the canvas, and even workplace With proper lighting, but the main tool for work - brushes - must be chosen especially carefully.
The numerous variety of brushes that can be seen on modern market, is caused not only by the difference in the availability of raw materials for manufacturers and the consumer capabilities of the population, but also by the variety of techniques and colors that each artist chooses according to his own taste. Everyone decides for themselves which brushes to use. acrylic paints Better, however, there are also brushes that are not at all suitable for painting with acrylic.
Material
When choosing a brush for any type of paint, it is important that the tool fits well in the artist’s hand, being, as it were, an extension of it, and at the same time has a certain strength, which will save it during prolonged or careless use. For greater durability It is advised to choose those brushes that are equipped with a solid metal clip– there is no chance that it will accelerate over time.
If the material of the handle depends only on the convenience of the artist himself, then the material of the hair bundle is critical to obtain the expected result. In particular, most artists generally prefer brushes made of natural hair, however, when working with acrylic-based paints, they are not used. The fact is that the polymer part of the dye, hardening very quickly at the base of the hair bundle, renders the product unusable in the shortest possible time, making it impossible to draw with it.
Possible solution The problem could be if the hair bundle is constantly in water, however, such conditions are destructive for natural hair.
Most experts agree that beginning artists working with acrylic need, first of all, synthetic brushes, in particular nylon ones. They are much less susceptible harmful influence acrylic, which, when hardened, causes individual hairs to lose their elasticity, but you also need to work with them carefully, in particular, be sure to wash them thoroughly after each drawing session.
At proper care such an instrument can serve its owner for quite a long time, but it is still not considered by professionals universal remedy for drawing. To expand the quantity art technician When used for painting, brushes based on natural bristles are most often used.
Why nylon?
Although in the arsenal of an artist who has long and fruitfully painted with acrylic, there will probably be brushes made of other materials, beginners are almost always advised to first use nylon. It makes sense to understand why this particular material and not any other:
- High elasticity and resilience. It should be noted that nylon brushes are generally considered a middle ground between hard and soft brushes, and therefore are regarded as universal and well suited for any beginning artist, not just those who paint with acrylic paints.
- Thanks to these properties, the hair bundle leaves clear and smooth strokes on canvas, while the material withstands repeated bending quite well and does not break, which is very appropriate in the case when its owner has still not decided on the optimal pressing force.
It is noted that, in principle, it is much easier to paint with brushes of this type, although they do not leave large space for artistic maneuver.
- High resistance to water. The specificity of protecting the hair part of the brush from the harmful effects of quickly hardening acrylic lies in the active use of water, and synthetic materials, unlike natural hair, withstand constant exposure to water much better. Because hair will quickly deteriorate without regular rinsing, the ability to soak in water for long periods of time is key for acrylic tools.
- Ease of maintenance. No matter how optimized nylon is for the use of acrylic, the polymer part of the paint still sticks to it, however, here too the synthetic brush has a clear advantage, namely: the smoothness of its bristles. Natural hair has bristles with a certain roughness, which makes it quite difficult to clean them from pieces of hardened acrylic. In the case of nylon, acrylic may harden, but this happens on the surface of the bristles without reliable adhesion to them, so you just need to rinse the tool well to make it suitable for use again.
Choice of shape and rigidity
Choosing nylon as a hair bun material does not mean that the final verdict has been made - after all, you need to choose at least several tools in order to achieve various artistic effects. For this purpose, preference is given to brushes different shapes and elasticity:
- Most universal choice in terms of shape, it is a round brush, but due to its versatility, it does not allow any effect to be performed with the highest quality.
- Brushes with flat hair tufts are designed for more convenient painting of large, monochromatic areas.
- Contour brushes are somewhat similar to them, but their beam width is much smaller, so artists often use them to draw color transitions.
- A cunning instrument is a brush in the shape of a cat's tongue - wide, but with a very pointed end, which makes it both round and flat, but for a beginner, fully working with it usually turns out to be too difficult a task.
- Finally, linear brushes have extra-long bristles and are usually used for writing calligraphic texts.
- As for elasticity, here too the tools differ, depending on the needs. Soft bristles are better suited for neat, fine drawing of contours and other small details. Hard products are chosen more often for a relief design, as well as for applying large, bold strokes.
It is advisable to use the following two types of brushes when working: bristles and synthetics. Synthetics are divided into hard and soft; a soft column is much better because has a longer service life. Flat synthetics come in a variety of sizes from the largest to the smallest.
Round synthetics must be used small sizes, it is used to create soft transitions when modeling the body. All this applies to bristle brushes. It is necessary when working “dry” and “rubbing”, when writing in corpus, etc.
A fan brush is also used. It is used to combine and smooth the paint layer.
It must be remembered that the service life of brushes depends mainly on how they are cared for.
Tools necessary for care.
When working, you need a clean rag to wipe your brushes and a washing can to wash them. Washing is necessary at the moment when you take a different color, and wiping no longer helps. The composition of the washing solution is prepared as follows: turpentine and white spirit are mixed in equal parts. The composition of the mixture is due to the fact that during the work a “tee” is used, in which dammar varnish and linseed oil are used. Oil dissolves with white spirit, and varnish with turpentine.
After completing the work you must:
Wipe the brush thoroughly with a rag
Rinse the brush in a rinsing jar
Wipe the brush again with a rag
Finish the treatment by rinsing the brush in warm water and gray ordinary laundry soap.
Thin brushes need to be “washed” to give them a pointed shape; this makes the brushes last longer.
Before starting work, rinse your brushes in a rinsing jar. If you worked with varnishes, do not be too lazy to immediately wash your brushes in a washing jar and with soap and water.
If the brushes are dry, because... were not washed at the time, then put them in a washing jar for a while, so that the hairs of the brush do not touch the bottom. Once your brush is wet, wash it with soap and water as always. As you understand, drying out is highly undesirable for brushes, as this affects their durability. Wash your brushes every time you use them.
Although rinse jars are commercially available, you can make your own. Take a 1L glass screw top jar, a smaller tin can, cut it in half and insert it so that the grooved part is at the top. Make holes in the grooved part so that the paint is better deposited on the bottom of the can. To prevent evaporation of the washing liquid, screw the jar tightly after work. The flushing fluid can be used repeatedly. Let the mixture settle, drain off the light part, and pour out the lower part with the paint. Rinse the jar with warm water and laundry soap, fill the light part and continue to use.