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So a couple weeks ago I was doing some serious dry brushing of red on my Word Bearers and today I went to go dry brush white on something else and it turned out pink. Seems like I didn't clean all the red paint deep in the bristles of the brush, can anyone give me any advice on how to get all that paint out of there so that I can dry brush again with it without having to work about bleed through. Thank you.

Master's Brush soap. Comes in a little round plastic container. Keep cleaning till the water comes off clear on a white paper towel.

Reds can be extra difficult to clean though as they tend to soak in more. A little reg pigment will also cause a big change to white paint, so patience is in order. When you think you are clean, repeat your process two or three more times.

The only thing worse are metallics, some of those flakes get stuck between the bristles and will come out months later when you least expect it (I've since switched to having specific brushes for metallics just to prevent them from fowling a paint job).

If using natural bristle hair brushes, using a good shampoo works wonderfully if you do not have the brush soap. After going through the process detailed above, to maintain your bristles and prevent split ends/breaking of bristles, work a bit of conditioner into them, just be sure to rinse it out before painting again. I have done it for years and I am still using some of my same brushes for the last 10 years.

Here is a silly question (not meaning to jack your thread btw >.< ) How do you fix split ends. Brushes are expensive at Seven bucks a pop, and no i'm not using the GW brushes. i Do ALOT of commission painting locally, and simply guessed it was from damn near non stop use. But i just bought a entire new set of brushes (almost 45$ on them) and half have begun to split only after a few uses..So...yea I'm lost.

Once they split - they are done for. You really can't stick em back together and giving them a hair cut changes the brush.

Not sure what is causing your split ends though. Which brushes are you using? Normally I get several years and several hundred miniatures painted before I start to see significant signs of wear.

Proper care of the brushes should help though with all but the lowest quality brushes.

You want to avoid keeping your brushes wet unless you need them to be wet. While working, I will usually rest a brush I am no longer using on a bit of paper towel so the bristles are touching it (not standing on end though). This wicks the moisture away. Wet brushes damage the wood and the bristles if left that way for too long too often.

If I am done with it for more than an hour or so - I give it a good cleaning with Master's soap (or a liquid soap if I had been using metallics, inks or other PITA to clean paints - followed by Master's for the reconditioning aspect). Clean, shake dry, shape - then set them aside with the bristles protected from being bent (either standing up or laying flat).

Just like people hair, excessive sunlight, heat and dry air are bad for them. Make sure you don't have a heat register or radiator too close to where you keep your brushes. You also don't want them to be in direct sunlight.

When you say "split ends", do you mean the bristles have separated? Is it separating just at the tip, or further down the body and near the base of the brush? I used to get the bristles separating because I would let paint dry around the metal band. I came from painting enamels which take significantly longer to dry and so moving to acrylics I wasn't cleaning them often enough. When the paint is wet it draws up the bristles, reaches the band and it can dry there, causing the bristles to separate. Once paint dries there the bristles just go where ever the hell they want, usually not to a nice point. Try to avoid paint reaching the band on the brush, and if it does, wash it reasonably soon so it doesn't have a chance to dry.

Once the brush has split, it's mostly done for as Sean said, you can try giving it an epic clean with some sort of paint stripper and sometimes they'll come back. I had a tin of old crappy brushes that my Mum decided were still good and tried to clean, amazingly some of them actually came good, though most of them the bristles fell out after she cleaned them! I don't know what she cleaned it with, possibly turpentine or methylated spirits. I never asked her to clean them she just decided to do it, lol (this was back when i was probably about 15).

HOWEVER, if you do desperately want to keep using it, you can. Just don't expect to do much quality work with it. Personally I have a big arse brush I have used for years to do a rough basecoat on miniatures and the brush tip split and since I'm too lazy to go buy a new one and also big brushes tend to be expensive, I just keep using it.

Assuming by "split ends" you mean what I'm talking about, the trick to keep using it is to wet the body of the brush up to the band and then, while it's wet, roll the brush on your palette from the body of the bristles up to the tip and you'll regain a tip. If it's a flat brush rather than rolling gently press it on the palette and move it side to side to bring the bristles together.

This is essentially using either the paint/water to re-wet the area of the brush that is buggered so you can force it back to a single tip. Once you finish painting, clean the brush and then wet it with fresh clean water (not the grubby water you just used to wash the paint off, as this will cause the bristles to dry hard) and roll it again to get the tip back and leave it to dry and it might stay in that position. However it'll want to spring back so really there's no way to permanently fix it, at least not that I know. Maybe someone with more knowledge can comment.

But yeah, you'd be better served just buying a new brush. It'll make painting significantly easier if you have a good brush. The only reason I do this is because my brush that split is my big arse brush for rough basecoats and also washes so I don't really feel the need to replace it. I probably basecoated and washed 100 models (including some big ones like my giant and Trygon) with it before it split, and since it's split I've probably basecoated and washed another 50 models with it. Even after it split it's significantly faster to basecoat/wash with that rather than a small brush) If, however, it was one of my detail brushes I would have replaced it in a heartbeat. And I should really replace this one too when I get around to it.

EDIT: Also sorry for the wall of text... I'm tired and just started writing and didn't realise I'd written a short essay, haha.

See, thats just it. i am doing all of that. I buy my brushes from Michales (A art supply store here in the states) The brands vary, most are American Painter. I'm paying from 2.50-8.99 For different brushes.I just bought this new batch, and started painting. Halfway through the bristles split apart after the third model. As in literally the tip split down the middle. This has happened a few times.. Here is exactly what i do when i paint as i am a creature of habit.

grab brush, dip in paint, wipe off access on jar lid, Paint in small strokes, or long. depending on what im doing. Then wash brush, tap off access water..take paper towel in fingers, place brush in tween paper towel and twist back and forth to ensure brush is clean. When clean use very tips of my lips to reform tip (force of habit..no clue how or why i started it..now i do it every time without thinking)

American Painter like these:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/loew-cornell-american-painter-brushes/

That is a Taklon fiber brush - which is a good choice for oils, enamels and other solvent paints...but less so for acrylics and most hobby paints (I know they say they are a good choice for water colors and acrylics there...but advertising words are generally somewhere between outright lies and half truths). They also have an aluminum ferrule which will be more sensitive to heat changes.

Anyway, the Taklon brushes are designed in a different manner than natural fiber brushes. Generally speaking - they hate water. The wood which is used is a little bit spongy in order to keep the bristles nice and tight - and it normally isn't sealed on the end. Unfortunately the engineer who is making the brushes and the ad man who is selling them rarely talk - so it leads to situations like this.

You will want to get some good weasel butt hair brushes (Kolinsky or Red Sable...red sable being a bit cheaper and easier to find at craft stores like Micheals). Squirrel is a good third place too.

If you can't get any of those and have to use the synthetic fiber brushes pretty much forget all the stuff about brush care mentioned above. Taklon is a synthetic fiber - a nylon if memory serves me right. Using a regular brush soap will not help it at all as it can't absorb the oils - and honestly because it causes the bristles to slip in the ferrule (causing the splits you have seen to happen faster).

So - how do you care for one of those brushes? Turps, white spirits, thinners of all sorts. Something which will burn if a match is put to it. Rinse in the thinner and then wipe on a paper towel till it rinses clean. Once it is clean, give it another good rinse and then store upside down to dry (only takes about a minute...nice thing about solvents is they evaporate quickly). Don't try to reshape the bristles or otherwise spin - twist - squeeze or poke ate them. Once dry - store away with your other brushes to keep from dust, children and cats.

Again - the Taklon is a slippery fiber. If you swist it...even gently you are going to mess up the position of the fibers in the ferrule. If you use a brush soap for natural fibers, you will coat them with oils and make them more slippery. If you soak them in water - you will mess with the wood and make the ferrule loose.

I have a selection of Taklon brushes for use with my oil based paints - and I normally get a couple years out of them. They are not quite as long lived as natural fiber brushes, but I don't normally loose them to splitting like you are seeing. Generally, because of repeated use in the same general direction the tips of the fibers begin to curl over. Once they start to look J-shaped, the brush is done for and I buy some new ones.

Do that for your brush care and you should get a comparable length of time from yours - even with water based paints. Just be sure to keep the ferrule out of the water when you are rinsing between colors and the like. Water in the ferrule is evil, and you want to avoid it.

That is exactly the brushes i use..and exactly what is going on ! Thank you Sean, Again if i may ask a question.. Which is best to use for what we are doing with them..Acrylic paints for painting warhammer minis lol. I normally buy a paint bursh according to the tip Size and length..a good tiny tight tip is normally what i choose And these American painter seem to have the best.. But i don't want to deal with it anymore now that i know whats going on. So so what would you suggest?

Arrathon wrote:That is exactly the brushes i use..and exactly what is going on ! Thank you Sean, Again if i may ask a question.. Which is best to use for what we are doing with them..Acrylic paints for painting warhammer minis lol. I normally buy a paint bursh according to the tip Size and length..a good tiny tight tip is normally what i choose And these American painter seem to have the best.. But i don't want to deal with it anymore now that i know whats going on. So so what would you suggest?

Everything Sean has said is totally right, I'm just going to throw my own advice in here since I was discussing it only recently

For mini painting, you are best to steer clear from synthetic brushes. Yes they are a bit cheaper and feel nice to start with, but they will split, fork, and hook at the ends no matter how well you look after them. Drop the extra few coins on sable brushes that will last years as long as you clean and condition them properly.

A proper sable brush thats size 0 will have a tip so small you will be shocked. I have double and triple zero series 7 sables and have no reason to use them, the 0's are tiny enough. If you want to replace your brushes and go for sable and not synthetic, winsor and newton series 7's will run you about €12 for a size 0 and you can order them in from any decent art store ( just make sure they come in their cigar tube plastic protectors) or you could try rosemary sables from http://www.rosemaryandco.com/ which I have heard nothing but praise for and are very cheap if you can get a good shipping price.

I have yet to really be disappointed with anything I have bought from Dick Blick - they normally weed out all the crap before it makes it onto their store. Prices are pretty good too...so I am going to cheat some:

http://www.dickblick.com/watercolor/brushes/#artistgradenatural

For the vast majority of what the "pro painters" do you will want to look at natural fiber water color brushes. Because hobby paints are thinned considerably more than art paints are, the water color brushes have better handling properties for what materials most people use. Take a poke around their at the Sable category for brushes which are in your price range. Although I haven't actually used the DickBlick house brand - they are not the type to pawn off crap, so you should be safe with those too. All the other brands in that category I have used and am more or less happy with.

Before you make any purchases though - you may need to familiarize yourself with terminology. They have an excellent page for that too. It shows you what the different types of brushes are in terms of their shapes and cuts as well as how the measurements and what not are figured. There is also additional information regarding the different types of bristles used.

It can seem like an overwhelming amount of information - but take your time to digest it. Once you have read through it - grab your brushes and figure out what feels best for you. Some people like long bristles and full bodied brushes. Others like shorter stiff bristles. Make a list, compare your list to the various brush traits, find the brushes that match what you are looking for. It may end up being that you end up with 3 or 4 different brands of brushes - most companies don't make a full line which covers every possible variable...so it isn't uncommon to happen.

http://www.dickblick.com/productinfo/learn/brushes/

I appreciate all the advice you guys have given me. I will be able to start cleaning my brushes better now. Unfortunately I am using the GW brushes because in my eyes my skills aren't good enough to merit the purchase of expensive brushes. I just want these to last me until I can improve my foundation skills.

Yeah, when I started getting better at painting I still stuck to cheap brushes because I knew I went through them quickly, it can be a bit off putting buying an expensive brush when you've already destroyed a whole heap through misuse and people tell you just to take care of them and you don't know how. But good brushes most definitely make a big difference. Most recently I was painting a Trygon and half way through painting the scales it suddenly got a lot harder to paint perfect streaks and I thought I'd lost my mind/skills, but it turned out I had accidently swapped brushes and didn't notice which made things much harder to make look good.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:Yeah, when I started getting better at painting I still stuck to cheap brushes because I knew I went through them quickly, it can be a bit off putting buying an expensive brush when you've already destroyed a whole heap through misuse and people tell you just to take care of them and you don't know how. But good brushes most definitely make a big difference. Most recently I was painting a Trygon and half way through painting the scales it suddenly got a lot harder to paint perfect streaks and I thought I'd lost my mind/skills, but it turned out I had accidently swapped brushes and didn't notice which made things much harder to make look good.

Yeah, I could imagine that this could have a big effect on the way a model turns out. For right now I am content just using the GW brushes but there is a plan in the back of my head that I want to upgrade to better brushes later on when I level up in my skills and when I start doing models for display.

On a side note that is partially related to this topic, does anyone know the sizes of the GW brushes, I can not find this information anywhere.

The GW brushes are sable brushes and from art supply stores in my local area are about hte same price as other sable brushes.

I have a nice sable brush that is a bit clogged with red at the moment (I'll be cleaning my brush more often even while using the same colour to stop this) i was told that acetone would help to remove the paint from hte brush but is it a bit to aggresive? i dont want it to damage the brush :(

I'll be trying the shampoo method first.

Acetone is a bit of a no-no... It causes the bristles to dry out excessively.

Although it would clean the brush extremely well! you could perhaps save a totally ruined brush for a little longer with an acetone cleaning, but it would never be the brush it once was.

I've dared an acetone dip on an old sable I really mucked up, and it did indeed get it squeeky clean but left it VERY dried out.

Keep in mind however that hair conditioner works on sable, and you can really revamp an old sable brush by giving a coating of some good quality hair conditioner and leaving it for a minute or two. Really adds the spring and smoothness back in, but it's no miracle fix for damaged bristles.

Who am I to give advice when folks like Ifaina are here, but heck, no ones said it yet so I'll throw my two cents in.

I use Masters every time i paint, and when my brushes start to get bad-bad, I use Windsor and Newtons brush cleaner, wash them out like crazy then use Masters as it conditions the brushes as well.

Since starting this routine I have had the same brushes for over a year now, before I was running my brushes into the ground in about 2-3 months.

A pot of boiling water, this worked for me to get some brushes that I had truly mucked up fixed, the hot roiling water will help any dried painted re-wet and release, the brush is much better now.

 chaplaincliff wrote:
A pot of boiling water, this worked for me to get some brushes that I had truly mucked up fixed, the hot roiling water will help any dried painted re-wet and release, the brush is much better now.

I'd have thought that the boiling water would have melted the glue holding the hairs into the ferule. Good to know.

Two things I do:

The first usually works, which is after I'm finished cleaning the brush, I wet it to about halfway up the bristle and shape the tip on a bit of paper towel (not wiping away too much water) and then let the brush dry. As it dries it will hold the tip in shape.

If this doesn't work I do the same thing, but then tear off a thin strip of paper towel and wet that. Then I roll the bristle up very tightly in the wet paper towel and let that dry for a day or two. As the paper towel dries it shrinks, forcing the brush to hold the shape.

These work for pretty much everything except the hardest used brushes such as a dry brush, which no matter what I've tried will eventually lose their point just from wear and tear.

What Darefsky said about masters is bang on, I thought it had been covered earlier but it seems it hasn't!

Using masters to clean and shape your brushes every night when you are finished will keep them in fantastic shape for a very, very long time. The only thing I have had masters fail at is cleaning out vallejo liquid metal which is metal flake in an alcohol compound, which is when I swapped to trying acetone/ white spirit.

A cleaning alcohol is not something you should be using for day to day brush cleaning, repairing the damage it would do would be impossible if you were using it to clean every time.

Tamiya X-20a is brilliant at cleaning / thinning the vallejo alcohol based metals.

I'm confident it's been said, but, in the event it hasn't,

do not dry-brush with your good brushes. Dry brush with your older ratty ones, as they will work just as well. I've got about 3 brushes on the go right now, one's got a fresh tip, the others' tip is wearing, and the oldest one has no tip anymore, and I find it best for dry brushing.