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Hello everyone. I finally jumped the shark and started painting my collection, with an Ork Beast Snagga Boy as my first mini. It was a nice experience, quite fun. The result was also decent, not great but not "Thin your paints!" YouTube video worthy. My biggest issue with this is that I just painted a single infantry model and my brushes have been annihilated, their hairs being messier than a punk kid's haircut. I was too rough with them. The problem now is I'm having a really hard time aiming and painting the small crevices without smearing acrylics all over the place.
So yeah, can I put the brushes back into shape or do I need to go get myself new ones? They were Van Gogh brushes if that's on a need to know basis.

Don't press too hard when brushing. I come from a sketch artist background, so it took me YEARS to get that down. I also clean my brushes with "The Masters" brush soap. It's really made my brushes last longer.

Brushes splaying can because you’ve got paint up in the ferrule. Find a plastic carton or similar container where you can lay them down and soak them for a good while and then try washing them thoroughly in warm water. If you don’t have specialist brush soap, use shampoo (it’s designed for washing hair after all). Probably won’t get them good as new, but might make them usable.

To stop this from happening, as well as using smooth, gentle, strokes (no rough scrubbing!*), make sure you don’t get paint more than 2/3rds up the brush. Use the biggest brush you possibly can; the temptation is to think “it’s a small model, I should use a small brush”, but save those for the real detail stuff, or areas which are difficult to access. Good brushes will still have a pretty fine tip and a bigger brush will have a bigger belly, allowing it to store more paint and give better coverage. Also, clean your brush off regularly, so that you don’t have paint drying on the bristles.*

I use a size 2 brush for most infantry stuff and a size 4 where I can get away with it, or for larger models (cavalry, etc.). Vehicles get the big square brush (or the airbrush). I rarely use the size 1 anymore (which is about the size you’ll get in most starter kits), because if I need to do detail I’m probably jumping down to a 0 or smaller.

* unless you’re dry brushing, for which you should have a separate set of brushes, because that technique will knacker them for normal use.

 Jadenim wrote:
Brushes splaying can because you’ve got paint up in the ferrule. Find a plastic carton or similar container where you can lay them down and soak them for a good while and then try washing them thoroughly in warm water. If you don’t have specialist brush soap, use shampoo (it’s designed for washing hair after all). Probably won’t get them good as new, but might make them usable.

To stop this from happening, as well as using smooth, gentle, strokes (no rough scrubbing!*), make sure you don’t get paint more than 2/3rds up the brush. Use the biggest brush you possibly can; the temptation is to think “it’s a small model, I should use a small brush”, but save those for the real detail stuff, or areas which are difficult to access. Good brushes will still have a pretty fine tip and a bigger brush will have a bigger belly, allowing it to store more paint and give better coverage. Also, clean your brush off regularly, so that you don’t have paint drying on the bristles.*

I use a size 2 brush for most infantry stuff and a size 4 where I can get away with it, or for larger models (cavalry, etc.). Vehicles get the big square brush (or the airbrush). I rarely use the size 1 anymore (which is about the size you’ll get in most starter kits), because if I need to do detail I’m probably jumping down to a 0 or smaller.

* unless you’re dry brushing, for which you should have a separate set of brushes, because that technique will knacker them for normal use.

Huh, that's an interesting point of view regarding brush size. I'll keep that in mind.

 ShadowsAndDust wrote:
Don't press too hard when brushing. I come from a sketch artist background, so it took me YEARS to get that down. I also clean my brushes with "The Masters" brush soap. It's really made my brushes last longer.

I second The Masters brush cleaner, and it is actually pretty reasonably priced too.

Apologies if this is too much info, but as someone who’s been caning their painting, here are my tips to keep your brushes in decent condition.

1. Don’t overload it. Assuming you’re using GW or otherwise Sable brushes, just dip the tip into the paint. It’ll suck some up into the body of the brush.

2. If you do overload your brush, rinse it off in clean water immediately (I use filtered water specifically, as I live in a hard water area)

3. Even when not overloading your brush, rinse it fairly frequently.

These three steps will stop the paint drying within the brush, which will cause the bristles to splay.

4. Invest in a brush soap. My friend bought me a pot a couple of years ago for Christmas, and I swear by it now. Brand if you’re interested is “The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver”. Whilst not cheap, it lasts a long time and helps your brushes last even longer, so it’s a worthwhile investment

5. As said, right brush for the right job. You don’t necessarily need to buy a Drybrush, but I’d say you do need to dedicate a brush or brushes to Drybrushing.

6. With suitably thinned paints, you only need the lightest pressure to get the paint on the model. This again helps prevent knackering your brushes.

7. Watch some painting videos. These will show you how others handle their brushes. Any will do, but Games Workshops have solid close ups for easier study. It doesn’t matter what they’re actually painting, as it’s the brush holding and strokes you’re wanting to see.

8. Two water pots as a minimum. One for rinsing, one for cleaning. Add a third if you’re using metallics.

9. Don’t let your brush dry before you’ve cleaned it!

10. A finer brush of course has its uses. But when base coating, it’s better used to tidy up splodges and overspill than the basecoating itself, depending on what you’re painting at the time.

Green stuff world brush soap is great for cleaning brushes and has saved some of mine by getting paint out the ferrule. They also have a brush repair gel which is ok. The thing is some brushes are beyond repair. Cheap brushes (especially cheap sable) just fall apart when you look at them.

You are better off with a good quality synthetic brush (like a Windsor newton cottman 111 round) than cheap sable/kolinsky

Tacked on to this, I am wondering if anyone here has tried different brush soap / cleaner / restorer products and if they have any feedback on what they think is best?

I've nearly run out of The Masters, and need to decide whether I buy another pot of that (which I know is good) or if there's something even better out there...

 Frozium wrote:
Hello everyone. I finally jumped the shark and started painting my collection, with an Ork Beast Snagga Boy as my first mini. It was a nice experience, quite fun. The result was also decent, not great but not "Thin your paints!" YouTube video worthy. My biggest issue with this is that I just painted a single infantry model and my brushes have been annihilated, their hairs being messier than a punk kid's haircut. I was too rough with them. The problem now is I'm having a really hard time aiming and painting the small crevices without smearing acrylics all over the place.
So yeah, can I put the brushes back into shape or do I need to go get myself new ones? They were Van Gogh brushes if that's on a need to know basis.

In any case - Keep the "destroyed" brushes for rough jobs. Replace one or two detailed brushes for clean detailed work.
If your brushes are synthetic then I would just go buy new ones. Check out an art store first, a hobby store second. Art stores usually have deals, and hobby stores tend to be a bit overpriced. I shop at a hobby stores only to "support local business"

If you brushes are natural bristles (Kolinsky, Squirrel, Swine, others) Good resource (https://www.artworkarchive.com/blog/12-artist-hacks-on-how-to-bring-your-brushes-back-to-life)
Then you can try this:
1 - If brushes are paint crusted, leave your paint brushes in a jar of Isopropanol Alcohol 70% overnight. Then wash them in the morning. Works for both Oil and Acrylic.
2 - Wash the brushes in hot water with soap, then use a sheet of paper to roll the bristles in, let brush dry like that, hopefully the paper roll would help brushes hold its shape.
It is good practice to hot towel the face before shaving, makes your own face hair softer, So hot water the brush, reshape and let it dry might be good thing to try.
3 - When cleaning use THE MASTERS : BRUSH CLEANER AND PRESERVER It helps to re-hydrate the bristles and takes care of the brushes overall.
4 - If the brush lost most of the bistles and looks like a stub, there is a thing we did back in the art school: Use a lighter to heat up the metal part of the paint brush, that will melt the glue that holds the bristles, then use pliers to pinch and pull the bristles out a bit. With pliers apply pressure on the metal part to pinch it shut. Now that you have more bristles to work with you can start, IsoAlcohol soak, then hot water soap wash, repshape and let dry.

I would do all of that, if my natural bristle paint brush are 1-expensive and 2-damaged beyond repair. Then I would see if the paint brush is good-enough to do what it did before. If not, then time to get a new brush and take better care of it.

Good advice all around, let me add my 1+'s to:

* Be gentle.
* Rinse often.
* Use the biggest brush you can.
* Keep the paint on the tip, out of the ferrule
* Brush soap. Get it, use it, love it.
* Cheap pack of synthetics for learning and rough jobs.

My daily drivers are a 5/3/1 set, and the #1 only comes out for stupidly small or hard-to-reach areas. Wash your brushes after every session with brush soap and learn how to reshape the bristles for storage. Practice with golden taklons or another synthetic. They will hook faster than naturals (fine tips become permanently bent) but will teach you the skills necessary to keep a paintbrush in optimal condition without breaking the bank. They're also perfect afterwards as drybrushes and other dirty jobs like paint mixing/transfer. Never stand your brushes in the water cup hair down, nor smoosh them against the bottom when rinsing.

If you see a cheap sable or kolinsky brush, it's probably fake. I'd stick to buying those after mastering brush care and from reputable companies only.

Fire_Forever wrote:
Good advice all around, let me add my 1+'s to:

* Be gentle.
* Rinse often.
* Use the biggest brush you can.
* Keep the paint on the tip, out of the ferrule
* Brush soap. Get it, use it, love it.
* Cheap pack of synthetics for learning and rough jobs.

My daily drivers are a 5/3/1 set, and the #1 only comes out for stupidly small or hard-to-reach areas. Wash your brushes after every session with brush soap and learn how to reshape the bristles for storage. Practice with golden taklons or another synthetic. They will hook faster than naturals (fine tips become permanently bent) but will teach you the skills necessary to keep a paintbrush in optimal condition without breaking the bank. They're also perfect afterwards as drybrushes and other dirty jobs like paint mixing/transfer. Never stand your brushes in the water cup hair down, nor smoosh them against the bottom when rinsing.

If you see a cheap sable or kolinsky brush, it's probably fake. I'd stick to buying those after mastering brush care and from reputable companies only.

What I'd like to know is how I managed to destroy my brushes so quickly with just one mini. I tried to only use the tip and with care, and never had them standing in the cup. Is it possible rinsing them too hard can have negative effects (as in putting them in the water cup and swirling them), because I couldn't get the paint off otherwise.

 Frozium wrote:
Is it possible rinsing them too hard can have negative effects (as in putting them in the water cup and swirling them), because I couldn't get the paint off otherwise.

Rinsing can damage brushes but you generally have to be extremely aggressive or have an incredibly delicate, tiny brush (000+). I assume you aren't mashing the brush down into the bottom of the rinse cup like it's a mop! Touching/swishing on the bottom/sides is fine, just don't bend the bristles at an extreme angle. Acrylic paint should not be difficult to wash out - if it is, it's probably drying on your brush. You can use brush cleaner, soap or solvent (be very careful with this, last resort and requires reconditioning the brush) to remove dried paint but ideally it's best to not let the paint dry on the brush to begin with.

If you're in a very dry climate, that might mean whipping up a DIY wet palette (shallow container, kitchen paper towel and some baking paper + water) to help keep your paints at a better consistency. It might also mean rinsing more often than you have been, even if you don't have to change colours yet. Don't work with a dry brush either, always wet the brush, blot off on towel then pick up paint. This is another of those wibbly-wobbly feel things that one has to learn by experience but anytime the paint isn't readily flowing off the brush or looks like it's caking up, rinse.

It's also possible you just got a bum brush. I'm not familiar with Da Vinci's (my go-to's are Raphael) but as a hand-crafted item it's possible to get a bad batch. Either way for a beginner you want a whole bunch of brushes to play around, fail and learn with. Don't be spending more than 5$ a brush at this stage of the game - your brush control isn't likely to be good enough that a higher quality tool will make any difference (yet). Even the budget golden taklon synthetics should not be dying after one painting session. Now's a good time to get into the habit of having a sacrificial "dirty job" brush for scooping, mixing, applying glue or textured paint, weathering rough surfaces or any other task that will likely damage a point.

https://deluxematerials.co.uk/products/brush-magic

This stuff is wonderful for restoring brushes to their former glory. Obviously it can't restore bristles that have been snapped off, but it gets all of the dried paint out of the most ill used brushes.

Edit-I have never bought from that site, it is just the product that I am recommending, to be clear.

 Frozium wrote:
Hello everyone. I finally jumped the shark and started painting my collection, with an Ork Beast Snagga Boy as my first mini. It was a nice experience, quite fun. The result was also decent, not great but not "Thin your paints!" YouTube video worthy. My biggest issue with this is that I just painted a single infantry model and my brushes have been annihilated, their hairs being messier than a punk kid's haircut. I was too rough with them. The problem now is I'm having a really hard time aiming and painting the small crevices without smearing acrylics all over the place.
So yeah, can I put the brushes back into shape or do I need to go get myself new ones? They were Van Gogh brushes if that's on a need to know basis.

As I'm painting my brushes are scissored smaller and smaller, that's one way to work with (cheaper) brushes.
I do have some expensive brushes but never used them because "they are expensive" (yes im a huge derp when it comes to these things, I'd sooner destroy 10.000 cheap brushes than upkeeping a single expensive one..)

I also never really managed to work with a wet pallet but I dip my brushes into a glass of water constantly inbetween, then drying them off with toiletpaper.
Now that I think of it I break all the brush rules as I let them stand in the water when unused and smash them like a mop. Lol.

 Leopold Helveine wrote:
I also never really managed to work with a wet pallet but I dip my brushes into a glass of water constantly inbetween, then drying them off with toiletpaper.
Now that I think of it I break all the brush rules as I let them stand in the water when unused and smash them like a mop. Lol.

Well, if you only get the inexpensive multi-pack brushes then it's not as much of a loss when one goes, though it's rather wasteful. A well treated quality brush can last for many years. Brush care might seem intimidating but it's really only a couple of minutes of mild effort at the end of a painting session.

 Leopold Helveine wrote:
As I'm painting my brushes are scissored smaller and smaller, that's one way to work with (cheaper) brushes.

Paintbrush bristles are tapered, so if you cut them with scissors the brush isn't going to behave the same - it will be stiffer and won't keep a point. Good way of making a drybrush, stipple or terrain texturer out of a worn out round though.

Fire_Forever wrote:

 Frozium wrote:
Is it possible rinsing them too hard can have negative effects (as in putting them in the water cup and swirling them), because I couldn't get the paint off otherwise.

Rinsing can damage brushes but you generally have to be extremely aggressive or have an incredibly delicate, tiny brush (000+). I assume you aren't mashing the brush down into the bottom of the rinse cup like it's a mop! Touching/swishing on the bottom/sides is fine, just don't bend the bristles at an extreme angle. Acrylic paint should not be difficult to wash out - if it is, it's probably drying on your brush. You can use brush cleaner, soap or solvent (be very careful with this, last resort and requires reconditioning the brush) to remove dried paint but ideally it's best to not let the paint dry on the brush to begin with.

If you're in a very dry climate, that might mean whipping up a DIY wet palette (shallow container, kitchen paper towel and some baking paper + water) to help keep your paints at a better consistency. It might also mean rinsing more often than you have been, even if you don't have to change colours yet. Don't work with a dry brush either, always wet the brush, blot off on towel then pick up paint. This is another of those wibbly-wobbly feel things that one has to learn by experience but anytime the paint isn't readily flowing off the brush or looks like it's caking up, rinse.

It's also possible you just got a bum brush. I'm not familiar with Da Vinci's (my go-to's are Raphael) but as a hand-crafted item it's possible to get a bad batch. Either way for a beginner you want a whole bunch of brushes to play around, fail and learn with. Don't be spending more than 5$ a brush at this stage of the game - your brush control isn't likely to be good enough that a higher quality tool will make any difference (yet). Even the budget golden taklon synthetics should not be dying after one painting session. Now's a good time to get into the habit of having a sacrificial "dirty job" brush for scooping, mixing, applying glue or textured paint, weathering rough surfaces or any other task that will likely damage a point.

Well, the Van Gogh brushes I use are like 1€ the brush, so not much of a loss. Still, it was my understanding they were quite decent, not premium quality, but not sale bin either. Also, I do live in an area with a very dry climate (even though it's been raining quite a bit lately), and I went dry palette for that first paintjob. I just made myself a homemade wet palette, so let's see how that goes.

Another consideration is small round brushes are typically sold with "sizing" on the bristles - think water soluble glue or starch. New brushes should be rinsed well before the first use, especially the pointy type.

After rinsing your brush should still make a nice point. If it doesn't, it's a poor brush and won't be useful for anything but the rough and dirty jobs. Post-use, water and optionally a bit of brush soap lather can be used to shape a brush and help ensure the fine point is kept. Usually I don't bother doing this with anything but my best kolinsky sable brushes. If there are any rogue hairs, cut them at the ferrule with nail clippers or fine scissors. Even good brushes may develop a couple hairs that are bent, curved or otherwise wonky.

Best guess is the dryness + dry brush + dry palette were all conspiring to make your acrylic set too quickly. As a bonus, wet palettes keep paint at a much better consistency for mini painting. Dry paint isn't just bad for brushes, it makes applying the paint a lot more difficult than it needs to be and leaves more obvious brush strokes.

There is a repair gel for paint brushes to recover the tip, but even before the repair gel, you should clean your paint brushes with a special paint brush soap.

 Haighus wrote:

 ShadowsAndDust wrote:
Don't press too hard when brushing. I come from a sketch artist background, so it took me YEARS to get that down. I also clean my brushes with "The Masters" brush soap. It's really made my brushes last longer.

I second The Masters brush cleaner, and it is actually pretty reasonably priced too.

I agree with both of the people above - I use this at least every other month on my brushes.