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hi gang,

just a little poll to see often people clean their brushes. by "clean", I mean a thorough rinse and the use of some sort of cleaning agent like masters brush cleaner or whatever. I tend to clean mine after I finish a project (complete a model, for example), but that may involve several days of painting. I'm wondering if I should be doing it more frequently, though.

I usually clean even during paint sessions and sometimes do a thorough clean up. if I didn't do that I would have buy a lot more brushes.

I truly dislike having to replace toosl due to negligent use, so I'm pretty meticulous about cleaning the brushes after every use. (and even sometimes during use, if I'm going to be spending more than an hour straight just painting.)








EDIT: And then I go wash my hands. Again and again. My filthy, filthy hands. I'll wash them until they're just bloody stumps. Then I'll go wash my filthy, filthy bloody stumps.

i clean after every session. and sometimes during.

I chose "every few days" as the moderate option, although it's rare that I even pick up a brush that frequently. Basically, I clean as often as necessary, whether that's three times in a session or once a year.

The new brushes I've started using have much longer and finer bristles than the previous lot, so with dilute paint and frequent rinsing, very little (besides water) reaches the ferrule to cause the usual tip-splaying buildup of gunk. With those, I break out the Master's as soon as there's any reason to (deposit at ferrule, noticeable staining of bristles), but that usually takes several hours of painting spread over several sessions.

My dedicated metallics brush and tiny drybrush, however, develop all sorts of nastiness with staggering speed by virtue of their assigned tasks, so they get the soap quite a bit more frequently.

I just clean them with water when I'm done.

At the end of every painting session. Any build up affects their performance, especially how well they hold a tip. Cleaning with brush soap takes less than a minute.

Every session, and sometimes during.