Posts Tagged: brush cleaner
7 Must-Have Oil Painting Tools
Today I’d like to give a quick round-up of the tools I find indispensable when painting in oils. My must-have tools for acrylics are somewhat different, due to the different types of paintings I create with the different mediums. I’ll do a post on my favorite tools for acrylic painting at some point soon!
1. Tube wringer
I love this thing. It’s fantastically sturdy and heavy duty. It squeezes even the largest tubes with ease and doesn’t slip on the tube during use like some of the less expensive ones do. It does a fantastic job of squeezing out the last bits of paint from the tube, so you don’t waste any.
I use this primarily to mix paints on my palette. I have a whole set of various palette and painting knives, but mostly I just use this one. (In case you were wondering, a palette knife has a straight or very slightly bent handle while a painting knife has a large bend in the shaft between the handle and blade)
My favorite brush is the ‘bright.’ It’s a shorter version of the square-shaped ‘flat’ brush. I use these in a variety of sizes and tend to have multiples of each size so I don’t have to clean them off when I switch colors during a painting session. I also prefer the softer synthetic bristle brushes to the traditional bristle brushes.
This stuff is amazing. I first discovered it during college when I was taking a painting class, though it was my mother, who worked at Michaels at the time, who introduced me to it. It does a great job of removing paint residue from brushes (and clothes, I’ve been told, though I haven’t tried it for that myself) and hands. The scent is pleasant and not overpowering and it works very well for cleaning up both acrylic and water-mixable oils. I also used it to finish cleaning my brushes after cleaning them with turpentine/turpenoid when I was using traditional oils. They seem to have changed the name recently, as my newest bottle calls it Speedball Pink Soap.
Another fantastic invention. My mother gave me one as a gift once and I wish I had found it sooner. It’s great for tidying up edges and removing slight mistakes when your paint is still wet. There are two ends—a pointed, cylindrical one and a straight-edged wedge end. I use the wedge end almost exclusively.
My all-time favorite palette. I searched long and hard for something like we used in my painting class, which were glass-topped cabinets on wheels. I like to have my palette on the table next to me when I paint rather than holding it in my hand. I love how easy it is to clean off the palette too. Which brings me to the last item in my list:
I use this to clean off my glass palette. Once the paint dries, all you have to do is gently scrape the palette and all the paint comes right off. You do have to take care with the angle of the blade while you’re scraping, to prevent scratching the glass. The scraper takes a standard razor blade which you can reverse so the sharp end is inside the handle for storage. I found mine in a small, local art supply store in Connecticut but I’ve also seen them in the paint departments in stores like Home Depot and Lowes. They’re inexpensive and so worth it!
What are your favorite painting tools? Tell me in the comments below.
* Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward me a small commission – at no extra cost for you.
Product Review: Mona Lisa Pink Soap brush cleaner
I have a confession to make—I LOVE Mona Lisa Pink Soap Artist Brush Cleaner by Speedball. I first encountered it in college when I was looking for a decent, yet inexpensive soap for cleaning my paint brushes. I gave this one a try and I was hooked. At the time, I was using oil paints, so I used it after an initial cleaning with solvent to remove the bulk of the paint from the brush. This soap was fantastic at getting rid of the last of the paint residue and leaving my brushes clean and in good condition.
Now I paint mostly with acrylic or water-mixable oil paints, and Pink Soap tackles both of these quite easily. I use a few drops of soap in the palm of my hand and work it into the bristles, then rinse and repeat until no more paint comes out of the brush. It even does a decent job at removing dried paint and residual staining from the bristles, though no product will remove All staining. And honestly, I don’t particularly care if my paint brush bristles are stained, as long as they’re clean. The scent is pleasant and it also seems to leave my hands (and brush bristles) feeling soft. It does a great job at removing dried paint from my hands too.
Photo by Steve Johnson from Pexels
Now, I’m not one of those people who leave their paint brushes covered in paint, so I don’t know how well this soap would work for thick, very dry paint (If that sounds like you, try this soap out and let me know how it works!). I’ve tried a few other brush cleaners over the years, but I keep coming back to Mona Lisa Pink Soap . It smells nice, is non-toxic, and not overly messy. It’s also easy to find, since it’s carried in several of the major craft stores, like Michael’s, as well as online.
What is your favorite brush cleaner? Have you ever tried Mona Lisa Pink Soap? If so, what did you think?
* Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward me a small commission – at no extra cost for you.