Off the Air
Water Jars, Brushes, and Soap
I am devoting this whole blog to cleaning after art. First of all, you have to get out your materials. This decides what you will clean up later. I just use acrylic paint and clean-up is easy. I have used clay in art class which does get messy. So, start should be thought about with finish.
Clean-up is easy.
Get out a medium size canvas, your easel, a palette, brushes, something to blot with, water jars, and paint. You paint on the canvas and paint gets on your easel but you don't have to clean it. The palette should be cleaned when done. I use pie tins and wash them in the sink with soap and water. Acrylic doesn't stain the sink like oil does.
Brushes can be cleaned in the sink with liquid dish soap which is easier to use than a bar of soap. Brushes, when done with for painting, should be bristle down in the water jar to keep the paint wet or it will harden on the brush and never come off. You may spend three hours painting and use one brush the first hour and never again. A moist brush is easy to clean like you just finished using it, and the paint is still wet and so is the brush. The brushes are the most of what you have to clean.
Lots of paint or a little bit of paint,
clean-up is easy.
When you blot the water off your brush eventually you will blot with paint and get paint on your blot material. Paper towels or a white tee-shirt to wear works good. If you don't use a lot of water, a big brush, or thick color; a paper towel is all you need to blot your brush with. Paper towels work good for watercolor too. I use a tee-shirt and when I fill it up I hope to wear it. Your tee-shirt can dry stored with your paints. You can keep paper towels until they are fully used up and then throw them away.
Your water jars should be rinsed out with water after you pour the paint water out. Have running water while you pour the paint water out. Sometimes you have to rinse the clot paint out with your fingers. Rinse it good and put them away to let them dry. Canning jars are good to use as water jars. Paint and craft stores sell water jars also.
Lots of painting time,
a small amount of clean-up time.
Your paint tubes shouldn't get too messy. After squeezing out paint, a light squeeze, on opposite sides, can pull the paint back in. You don't have to cap it if paint is hanging out of the tube. Sometimes you will have to scrape the paint off the screw thread. It does dry there. Use your fingernail. It can be hard to recap it without cleaning it. It should be easy to open if you keep it clean. Use your teeth or a paint store tool to open it when it gets stuck.
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