There’s so much to learn when you’re slinging paint and pencil, so today begins a new monthly segment here on Muddy Colors… ‘Art Tip of the Month, with Jeff Miracola‘.
Each month, I will create a short video with a handy tip to help you create magnificent art.
My art tip this month is ‘How to restore paint-hardened brushes’. We artists are a distracted bunch. It’s easy for us to forget to clean our brushes, sometimes leaving paint sit for days at a time until the paint has become so hard that we’ve destroyed the brush. But Is that brush truly ruined? In this video I’ll show you how to restore your brush to useable condition.
It just so happens that I have a few brushes that are suffering from similar neglect. I am gonna give this a shot and see what I can salvage. Thanks, Jeff!
Awesome segment! Thanks so much for the advice!
You're very welcome 🙂
My pleasure.
I'd also recommend Winsor & Newton's Brush Cleaner and Restorer. It's quite a bit more expensive than Murphy's Oil Soap, but it works great on Oils and acrylics. I've used it on brushes that are near fossilized, and you can use it several times.
As a high school art teacher, I LOVE Murphy's Oil Soap!
I can tell you it also removes acrylic paint, even when students leave large gobs of it on a brush and hide it because they were to lazy to wash it…
Only thing Murphy's doesn't remove are some of the gels and primers and glues…
You have been a big help in my decision to pursue art in my life while struggling with depression and other mental disabilities that are invisible to people. I plan/and am working towards the goal of becoming a professional artist such as yourself. Thanks for the videos and the kickstarter projects!
That's wonderful to read. Thanks for sharing that with me. It's why my wife and I keep making the videos. We know the vids are helping people in so many ways. Thank you.
Nice tip Jeff!
The Murphy oil soap you show in this video looks alot like another product called “Brown Soap” here in Denmark. I have used this brown soap to clean my brushes to the same result as you describe in the video here. Im not sure what this “Brown Soap” is called in english. “Brown Soap” is just the dirrect translation, but a quick google on the subject says that its called “Brown soft soap” The Danish word for it is “Brun Sæbe”.
So if you cant get your hands on this murphy oil spoap i will recomend brown soap.
Nice tip!
I have used a product that is called “Brown Soap” (if translated directly from danish) an get the same result as you describe here with the oil saop.
I think the correct english term for the product is “Brown Soft Soap” it is a realy nice product for cleaning brushes just like the oil soap shown here. So if you somehow cant get you hands on this Murphy Oil Soap I will recommend “Brown Soft Soap”
Ps. The danish word for the brown soap is ” Ægte Brun Sæbe” if you want to google it and see the product. It is a bit thickter then the oil soap.
WHAT !!!! I just saved 100s of brushes I thought dead :O Thank god I kept them !!! WOW ! What a tip thank you !!!!
I know there’s solvents just for cleaning brushes, but oil soap remains the best for cleaning and salvaging brushes. One of the best tips I’ve learned.
Local pine (oil) soap in my go-to. If the situation is dire I comb through the bristles with a comb – it has saved a lot of brushes.