Home Forums Explore Media Oil Painting The Technical Forum Need advice on keeping brushes and palette wet for many days

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  • #451734
    Thinky
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        I’m trying to paint flowers every morning, portraits every afternoon. I use at least 30 brushes for each painting. :grouphug::confused: Can anyone share tips on how to keep two sets of brushes and palettes wet, ready to use at any time?
        How do I make oil painting as easy to start and stop as pastels?

        #569787
        Gigalot
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            Use slowly drying paints. Some brands dries slower than other. Use a mixture of 50% safflower oil + 50% OMS as a painting medium. That helps.

            Some artists use clove oil addition into brush cleaning fluids. You can add clove oil to safflower oil and use that mixture as a cleaning fluid. After painting session, put palette and brushes into freezer.

            #569789
            ecar
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                For brushes, you can put them in a container containing sunflower oil at the end of the session. Simply remove the oil by soaking in OMS before painting.
                I noticed that the brushes get damaged much faster when you wash them.

                For paintings, I leave the colors on the palette. Except some colors that dry in a day (burnt sienna, umber, etc.) Cadmiums can stay 15 days without drying.

                #569798
                TomMather
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                    You can try using a sealable palette case to keep some of the air out. Don’t use alkyd mediums like Galkyd or Liquin, which dry quickly. There are plenty of slow drying mediums, such as walnut and safflower oil.

                    #569796
                    Richard P
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                        As Tom said use a sealable palette case and put it in a cold location. A fridge would work but you don’t want to have food in there too if you have solvents in the paints.

                        #569782
                        WFMartin
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                            I’m trying to paint flowers every morning, portraits every afternoon. I use at least 30 brushes for each painting. :grouphug::confused: Can anyone share tips on how to keep two sets of brushes and palettes wet, ready to use at any time?
                            How do I make oil painting as easy to start and stop as pastels?[IMG]http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/21-Feb-2018/226788-IMG_20180221_094429.jpg[/IMG]

                            I paint flowers routinely, and I have done so for a great many years. I also paint portraits, as well as still-lifes, abstract, and impressionistic landscapes.

                            How does one make oil painting as easy to start and stop as pastels? Well, the logical answer would be to……work in pastels, if the allure of “easy cleanup” is more important to you than creating successful oil paintings.:rolleyes:

                            I’ve been painting in oils for over 30 years, now, and I don’t recall ever having more than 3 or 4 brushes in use at any time, nor do I “maintain” a “working palette” once my painting session is finished.

                            I wash brushes as I require them, during a painting session, and I scrape the paint off my palette at the end of each painting session. When I am not painting, my brushes are always dry, and “fluffy”, and my palette is always sparkling clean.

                            I wash my brushes (solvent, then soap and water) after each painting session, as well as cleaning my palette. In 30 years I have never had a brush deteriorate faster because of washing it!

                            If you have become accustomed to the incessant dust, and powder that are the by-product of pastels, you should feel profoundly relieved that all you have to do with oils is to wipe, or swish your brushes in a container to clean them, wash them with soap and water, and rinse, and dry. Buff your palette clean of paint, and you’re ready for the next session.

                            You can give all those paint-saving, and brush-saving techniques that others usually suggest a try, but when I tried that, I was constantly dealing with compromised, less-than-optimum paint, and so I quickly discarded all those paint-saving methods, in favor of a thorough clean-up after each painting session.

                            I’m sure others will disagree, but that’s my opinion, and that method has been serving me well for many years.:)

                            wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
                            https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

                            #569793
                            contumacious
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                                Palette

                                You might find something useful in this thread of mine dealing with submerging your paints in water. I often paint large and use LARGE amounts of premixed paint. Wiping the palette clean every day would end up wasting hundreds of dollars worth of perfectly good paint every month for me as well as adding many hours to remix the paint.

                                https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1431669

                                Below, listed in order of longest “life” to shortest is what my experience has been for paints whether pure or mixed colors.

                                  [*]Sucking the paint into syringes (lasts just like it was still in the tube but does take time, unlike a palette box)
                                  [*]Under Water
                                  [*]In an air tight palette box in the freezer with some clove oil on a cotton ball
                                  [*]Same as #2 but in the refrigerator
                                  [*]Air tight palette box with clove oil on a cotton ball at room temperature.

                                There isn’t a huge difference with or without the clove oil in the freezer, more so at room temp or in the refrigerator. Some mix clove oil in their paint, I don’t.

                                I use two or three separate glass palettes, one for my source colors and one or two for mixing. If I am not going to be painting for a while, I will put everything in syringes if I have large nuts of paint on there. I use the largest Masterson blue lid palette box and a tempered glass cutting board for my 3 palettes. Be sure to let the box and lid warm up before opening them if kept in the freezer, otherwise they will crack.

                                These glass cutting boards fit the Masterson perfectly. Larger kitchen supply shops like Bed Bath and Beyond, often have some that will be OK.
                                https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1441805

                                Brushes

                                On brushes, wiping them clean with a rag then saturating in soy solvent or a non drying vegetable oil keeps them from drying for a LONG time. Walnut oil on the brushes only stays soft for me for a few days but I will sometimes use that for overnight since I don’t need to clean the oil out before painting, just wipe them dry.

                                My most used system when done for the day is my studio brush tank which is filled with Klean Strip inexpensive OMS and holds the brushes with the tips just submerged, at about 25 degrees on a wire baking rack in a turkey roasting pan with a lid. It is in a separate room with a vent fan. Using Gamsol makes it less intrusive if it is in the same room. I tend to use that more than the oil saturation method as it is easier to do large numbers of brushes which it sounds like you end up with from your sessions. The cleaner the brush before you put it in there the longer the solution lasts. I wash them first in two brush cleaning jars filled with OMS when I am done for the day. Just wipe them dry when ready to paint. My current setup is crystal clear and has been in use for about 6 months. This is faster than the oil soaking method for me and I don’t ever have to worry about hard dried brushes that didn’t get totally clean with OMS.

                                Be sure that the brush tip aren’t bending, be it standing upright or laying down, in whatever solution / method you choose.

                                #569788
                                Thinky
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                                    Thank you so much :) Gigalot, Richard and Tom for all your suggestions, I’m really glad to hear your thoughts!

                                    Thank you :) Ecar, if I put the brushes into a container of sunflower oil, won’t all the paint melt away from the brushes? I was hoping to keep the paint on the brushes so I won’t waste it.

                                    :) Bill WFMartin, Thank you so much, I’m glad to hear your advice and wisdom after years of painting in many subject matters. What brushes do you like to use?

                                    :) Contumacious, Thank you for your detailed answer, your list is so helpful, and I’m very interested in reading your methods. Do you just put a loose cotton ball with clove oil or does the cotton ball have to be contained in a little cup or something? I was hoping to not have to wipe off the paint after each session because there’s still a lot of color on the brushes.

                                    #569790
                                    ecar
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                                        Thank you [B]:) Ecar[/B], if I put the brushes into a container of sunflower oil, won’t all the paint melt away from the brushes? I was hoping to keep the paint on the brushes so I won’t waste it.

                                        Normally at the end of a session, there is very little paint on the brushes.
                                        Wipe your brushes in a cloth before putting them in the oil.

                                        #569797
                                        Richard P
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                                            You could always wrap your wet paint brushes in clingfilm to stop the oxygen drying the paint.

                                            #569783
                                            WFMartin
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                                                Bill WFMartin[/B], Thank you so much, I’m glad to hear your advice and wisdom after years of painting in many subject matters. What brushes do you like to use?

                                                My favorite brushes are the soft, synthetic bristle type. Something such as Taklon, or Golden Taklon brushes serve me very well. I use flats, filberts, and rounds, mostly.

                                                I generally find stiff, hog-bristle brushes much too stiff for my tastes, and for me, they usually plow up about as much paint as they apply. There are some brushes that are about halfway between the stiff, natural-bristle brushes, and the softer, synthetic, Taklon-style brushes. And, they are the Ruby Satin brushes by Silverbrush. I use them quite often for glazing, in situations in which I need to spread the paint thinly, without diluting the paint with medium.

                                                wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
                                                https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

                                                #569786
                                                AnnieA
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                                                    For brushes, you can put them in a container containing sunflower oil at the end of the session. Simply remove the oil by soaking in OMS before painting.
                                                    I noticed that the brushes get damaged much faster when you wash them.

                                                    For paintings, I leave the colors on the palette. Except some colors that dry in a day (burnt sienna, umber, etc.) Cadmiums can stay 15 days without drying.

                                                    I’ve tried leaving brushes soaking in oil, but find that if left more than a day or so they become gunky with oil, even when the bristles have been fully submerged. It’s taken me quite a while to bring back some brushes that I made the mistake of leaving for several days soaking in oil, which I had heard was a good idea.

                                                    It must be that you and the others who suggest this method are doing something different than what I tried, if you don’t experience the same problem. I notice you say you clean afterward with OMS, but the whole point of cleaning with oil for me is to avoid OMS use. Do you think it’s the OMS that makes the difference in our experiences, or is there something else? Perhaps it may be a question of the amount of time they’re left in the oil?

                                                    All that said, at the end of a painting day, I generally clean first with oil, then with hand soap, and finally with Master’s Brush Cleaner. Once clean, I often put a little Master’s suds on them to shape the bristles. Then, I hang the brushes upside down (bristles facing down) to dry overnight. They’re completely dry and ready to go again in the morning. By drying upside down, water doesn’t migrate into the ferrule, which is a major cause of splaying, and the Master’s conditions them very nicely. It also is an amazing cleaner. I often think after the hand soap cleaning that a brush is fully clean, but when I use the Master’s, pigment still shows up in the bristles. This is even the case when I’ve used Lava (it contains a mild abrasive) soap first, as I had to do because of the oil gunk I mentioned earlier.

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                                                    #569795
                                                    shudaizi
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                                                        I’m a new painter so take this with that in mind. But, from day one I’ve used Mark Carder’s method for brushes. I dip just the bristles in a mixture of Safflower oil and Clove oil (ratio: 98:2 by volume — the Clove oil inhibits oxidation of the Safflower oil). Then I place the brushes horizontally on a simple stand (mine is just a small cardboard box with the lid folded in and triangles cut out of the top edges so the brushes can lay flat into the notches on each edge). The bristles stay shaped, moist, and soft for a long time — two weeks is no problem. I’ve never had one stiffen up or get “gunky” in over a year of doing this, though I do re-dip them if I haven’t painted in two weeks, which is rare. (I did have a gap of about eight weeks during the summer, however. Re-dipping every two weeks and all was well.) In the year I’ve been painting, I’ve only used soap and water to clean two brushes. The rest have been kept this way without a single issue. A quick wipe in a paper towel to remove most of the oils and they are ready to paint the next time.

                                                        EDIT: I do clean the brushes quickly with Gamsol/OMS before dipping in the Safflower-Clove mixture. I don’t put them away loaded full of paint.

                                                        EDIT2 (sorry!): Perhaps worth noting is that I only use hog bristle brushes, so I have no experience with this method on synthetics or mixed brushes.

                                                        #569791
                                                        ecar
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                                                            … I notice you say you clean afterward with OMS, but the whole point of cleaning with oil for me is to avoid OMS use. Do you think it’s the OMS that makes the difference in our experiences, or is there something else? Perhaps it may be a question of the amount of time they’re left in the oil?

                                                            Hello Annie,

                                                            yes, I think OMS makes the difference.

                                                            What I do :
                                                            – I wipe my brush on a cloth
                                                            – I remove the paint by shaking it in OMS
                                                            – I wipe
                                                            – I put the brush in the sunflower oil (low cost kitchen oil)

                                                            Since I do that my brushes are no longer damaged and I’m winning a lot of time. Sometimes I cleaned some brushes when I use very strong colors (prussian blue or phthalo).

                                                            Generally, my brushes are synthetic filbert (Manet 963 serie).

                                                            Eric

                                                            #569792
                                                            MDerby
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                                                                I use Geneva fine art brush dip and never clean brushes unless I use liquin or lead white. Geneva paint has an extended open working time but a learning curve for effective use. Drawmixpaint dot com has a formula for slow dry medium that you can use with any tube paint. I store my open paint in the frig and it lasts for many days.

                                                                The craft is an art in itself. http://www.mikederby.com

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