Protecting Brushes on Location

One of the more common problems you can run into when painting on location is damaged brush tips. There are different types of brush cases you can use when travelling outside the studio. However, I have found many of these do not protect the brush's bristles effectively. 

Tac in a Box

A solution I have been using for almost a decade now is with a lidded box and two rows of sticky tac. Find a metal or plastic pencil box big enough to fit the brushes you use. I prefer the hinged types. Place two rows of sticky tac across the inside of the box. You can do this with both the bottom and top lid if space allows. Make sure the top row of sticky tac is placed where the ferrules, the metal part of the brushes, will adhere. With the second row positioned closer to the end of the brush handles. Add your brushes as required.   

The Right Way to Dry Your Brushes

This method of brush storage has one very big advantage over most other brush carriers. When you have finished painting, cleaned your brushes, and put them back in, the box can be placed in your bag or backpack, with the brush tips pointing down to dry. Brushes should always be dried tips facing down, now you can do it when on location.

Test Things First

As with anything, always test the brushes and other implements you will be using. Various brands of sticky tac have different adhesive strengths. Some won't hold at all! I use UHU brand tac as it stays malleable and has good holding strength. Additionally, different materials adhere with varying degrees of strength. Some plastics can stick quite strongly to the tac, making them harder to remove. With wooden-handled paintbrushes, be careful of ones with cracked enamel on the handle as the sticky tac could lift it off. 

Organizational Advantages

Besides all the benefits mentioned, this provides great organization and easy storage. I keep most of my brushes this way, some are stored by type. For example, the far right set of brushes below are all squirrel or synthetic sqirrel hair. The far left box I bring for my workshop students.

A simple solution that gives convenience, protection and longer life to your brushes.

Messing With Manet

A great exercise is to do a copy of a master's painting. The classical example is to spend an extended period of time carefully mapping out and painting a copy as close to the original as you can; line for line, stroke for stroke, and colour for colour. Traditionally this is done in a museum or gallery from the actual painting. Most of us won't have that opportunity so we work with images found in books or on the internet.

However, there are different considerations and levels of finish that can be taken into account. For this series of exercises, done as demos for a student who loves Manet, the basic shapes of the painting were blocked in loosely. The aim was to work on colour and brush strokes, or mark-making. The original images of Manet's work were to serve as a guide and inspiration but NOT to be strictly adhered to in terms of demanding perfection. It was to help the student loosen up, look at large areas of colour and work on using abstract brush marks to create representational objects.

Messing With Manet 
My student loves Manet's paintings and selected a number of pieces to work with. I call it messing with Manet because we were not doing exact copies but using his work more as a starting point, inspiration and a specific focus for each exercise.

Messing With Colour 
We used Edward Manet's "The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil" painted in 1874 as our first selection. The emphasis here was about laying down large areas of colour while keeping the study as direct and simple as possible.

Messing With Brushes 

Manet's "The House at Rueil" from 1882 was next. Here the use of various paintbrushes was looked at in the process of creating unique marks. We even cut up a few brush tips for special effects. Again, Manet was our starting point, but the exercise took priority. Especially evident in the tree foliage, as it is quite different from the original. Some points of interest. The actual house in Rueil, which still stands, looks very different in reality. Manet added some windows on the main floor and lengthened out the house horizontally. The present house has no shutters, so he may have even added them in!

Messing With Strokes

The final exercise was all about making stokes. My student had the natural tendency to fill in areas of colour with a flat application of paint. Not a negative thing, but they wanted to explore more impressionistic stokes as well as utilize a few "abstract" strokes to convey something that would read more representationally in the end. Manet's 1864 "Peonies in a Vase" became our next selection. 

Having Fun While Messing

Again, the exact placement of leaves and flowers was not the purpose. It was to create a look of leaves and flowers, using strong, direct brush strokes. Being more focused on spontaneity and not overworking the paint. Put the stoke down and leave it alone. Taking the "perfection" element from these exercises makes for an important aspect of painting, enjoying yourself and having fun!

Not All Images Are Created Equal
One thing that we discovered throughout this process, is the wide variety of colours available for the image you select. Some images are brighter, some are duller, and some have very extreme colours. Simply go online, Google a specific painting, and you will see exactly what I am referred to here. We selected images that appealed to us, that had some vibrancy and life to them.

Select a famous painting that you like and try one or more of the exercises listed above, and remember to have fun.

Restoring Brush Tips

A quick and simple way to restore the shape of a damaged brush is with a cup of boiling water. I have had a lot of success using this method. The first time was with a flat brush whose bristles, were bent out of shape due to poor packaging. Using the steps outlined below, it restored it to its original factory shape. 

Some Typical Examples 
These two brushes were part of a bag of thirty, bought at a thrift store for $3.00. Most of them were good-quality brushes, but many were bent and splayed as seen in the "before" pictures below. You can see the dramatic restoration that took place using this method. 

Important Before Beginning

Many brushes look out of shape when they are dry. It is important to first test your brushes by dipping them in cool water. Give the paintbrush a flick to remove any excess water from the bristles. This will show you the brush's true shape. At that point, you can decide whether it needs to be repaired or not.

How It Works

Boil a cup of water in a microwave. Dip the brush tip, about halfway down the length of its bristles, into the boiling water.* Swish and rub the submerged half of the bristles against the side of the cup for 3-5 seconds. Remove the brush and flick it over a sink. Check the shape and tip. If there is still some damage, repeat the previous steps as required. Once the brush is ready, let it air dry with the bristols pointing down. *Caution: NEVER dip the bristols of a brush into the hot water down past the ferrule (the metal or plastic piece), or you can affect the glue holding the bristols in place.

An Alternative for Slight Damage

If you have a brush that is only slightly out of shape this method may not be necessary. Clean out any dried paint in the bristles of the brush using a brush cleaner. Once clean, shape the tip with your fingers, then let the brush dry, bristles down, with the soap left in it. Rinse out the soap before painting.

Some Important Provisions

I am always cautious about presenting a method like this because there are always unknown variables. Things like brush quality, age, etc. all play a factor. This method is for severely damaged brushes. Try this with caution and at your own risk. Practice first on a brush that you don't mind losing to get comfortable with the process. To date I have only done this with synthetic tips, I am not sure how natural bristles would respond. As with many things, dealing with the damage before it gets too severe is always recommended. 

This method won't restore every brush. Sometimes it is simply that a brush is too old. Paintbrushes do wear out but don't throw these ones away. They are great for other types of mark-making when painting.

Repairing Damaged Paintbrush Handles

Over time the lacquer on some paintbrush handles cracks, with entire pieces breaking off, exposing the wood beneath. This condition worsens over time as water, turps, or oils work their way into the unprotected wood of the handle.  

One fix for this is to use an Acrylic Gel Medium. First, remove any loose pieces of lacquer from the brush handle. Smooth down the remaining lacquer edges on the handle using fine-grained sandpaper. Wipe off any remaining grit until the handle is smooth and clean. Then spread the gel medium over the exposed wood and cracked edges with a soft-haired brush. Continue brushing the gel around the full circumference of the damaged section of the handle. Doing this helps to create a stronger seal.

Below the gel medium has been freshly applied to the handle of the brush. 

Once the medium dries to a clear finish, the paintbrush is ready to use with the exposed wood sealed up to help extend the life of the brush and prevent further damage to the handle. 

This method also works for sealing the ends of brush handles that you want to shorten. Once the handle is cut down to the desired length, smooth the end with sandpaper to round off the edges. Cover the exposed tip with the gel medium, continue covering about one inch up the brush handle to create a strong seal.

The earlier you can repair this type of damage, the better your chances of extending the life of your brush.