Brush Care 101: How to take care of your paint brushes!
In this live tutorial, Christie Renee Hawkins of The Social Easel walks viewers through the essential dos and don’ts of paintbrush maintenance to extend brush life. She begins by highlighting common mistakes, especially leaving brushes in a water cup, which can bend bristles and cause wooden handles to swell and crack. She demonstrates a quick rescue method using a small pot of near‑boiling water to soften and straighten bent bristles. Hawkins then introduces her preferred cleaning product, Masters Brush Cleaner, and shows a step‑by‑step cleaning routine: adding water, working the hard soap into the bristles, rinsing, and repeating until all paint and soap residue are gone. She stresses the importance of fully cleaning the ferrule area to prevent bristle separation. After cleaning, she explains drying techniques—laying brushes flat or hanging them bristle‑down—while noting moisture can still affect the bristles if not properly removed. Throughout, she answers live viewer questions, shares a free brush‑care guide, promotes her 15‑piece brush set (including a canvas carrying bag), mentions the upcoming launch of her Tribe community, and provides links to her Amazon store and text‑list for product access. The session ends with a recap of key care points and encouragement to join her community for further resources.
Chapters
Hey everybody, it is Christie Renee Hawkins with The Social Easel, and I'm joining you today somewhere a little bit different than I normally do. We are upstairs in my studio and I've got my sink here, and I thought I would jump on and show you guys the proper way to take care of your paintbrushes so that they last you for a long time. So let me know when you're here in the comments. Say hi, let me know you're here. We're going to talk about the dos and don'ts of proper brush care, what to do with them when you are done painting, what not to do with them when you are done painting. I'm going to share with you my favorite brush cleaner. that I use, and I'm also going to share a tip with you on if, you have been like me and left your brushes in your water cup for too long, and you ended up with some bent bristles. I'm going to show you how you can fix that as well. I may have to more tell you than show you since I don't have boiling water here. Um, so hey, hey, hey Lori, hey Kayla and Carol. All right, so we are gonna go ahead and get started. Um, so the first thing, um, I usually just use an old mug or whatever, um, for my water cup. I took these brushes out. So remember I told you we're going to start with what not to do. So, um, let me know before I jump in too much further, you guys can hear me, everything's good. I haven't seen otherwise, um, but I just want to make sure before I jump right into it. So I am known to jump around from things quite a bit, and it is not unheard of for me to leave my paintbrushes in the water cup after I'm done painting. Okay, so it's kind of like that parent saying, like, do as I say, not as I do. I'm going to tell you what not to do so that your brushes stay nice and pretty and last you longer. But usually I'm jumping around and trying to do like 5 different things. and I end up leaving my brushes in my water cup like this. So let me know if anybody else does that too. I am going to go ahead and get some water in here because I am going to paint, um, this afternoon too. So anyways, just to be completely honest, this is what I did before I left last week for my trip with my husband to Jamaica. Gone for 7 days. These brushes sat in my cup for 7 days during that time. Thankfully they had enough water in there, um, they were fine. But I'll show you what can happen. It's usually with your, um, set all this in there. It's usually with your finer tipped ones. Can you guys see that okay? Kind of holding it over my face. But what happens is if you leave them in your water cup, obviously down, they're going to get a bend to them. And then when you go to paint again and you want this really fine brush and you want to make that perfect line, you're irritated because now it's curved and you can't get it straight again. Um, so the very fastest way to fix that, um, what I do is take a— I mean, like, your tiniest little pot that you have, and you only need to put like an inch of water in it, and you're going to boil it, which does not take long because it's such a tiny pot of water. And all you're going to do is just dip your bristles in there for like 2-3 seconds max, like 1, 2, 3, take it out, and then you can straighten them and lay them flat to dry. This Depending on how hot your water gets— this water gets pretty hot here, um, as well as my water from home. Have to let that run for just a minute. And I can usually, um, even just running them in hot water, it's just enough to soften that curve and it allows you to straighten them out. I just run it under that hotter water for just a second, and then I can straighten it out so that it's not so crooked. So again, I normally use boiling water to do that if you need to repair your brushes. So step number 1, your first don't-do, is don't be like me and don't leave your brushes sitting in your water cup. Um, that's reason number 1, is that it will bend your bristles. Reason number 2, this is what will happen. This one's starting to crack, just so my other one— and the paint on this handle is starting to crack. That will not happen to your paintbrushes if you don't leave them in the water. So whenever I see that, I always know it's because I left it in the water cup. So what happens is if the water gets in here, then the wood underneath that handle starts absorbing that water, and the paint on top of the handle then cracks. So if you don't want your brush handles to crack on your paintbrushes, don't leave them in the water cup. Okay, so that's your other don't do. Um, grabbing a paper towel really quick. So what you do want to do is when you are done painting, at the end of each one of your sessions— while you are painting though, I do want to bring this up really quick just because I just had flashbacks to when I taught paint nights, and as women were painting with me, in between their brushes and different stages of their painting, they'd lay their paintings on the table. And instead of putting them in your— in the water cup, if you do that, you're going to end up with dried acrylic paint on your bristles, and that's much harder to fix. So in between your steps of your painting, try to remember to put your brushes in your water cup. During your paint session. Um, when you are done, let me show you the lid. This is the Master's Brush Cleaner. This is my favorite brush cleaner, um, and I've been using it on my brushes for years and years. It conditions them, it helps preserve them. You can use it for oil paint, watercolor, acrylics, stains. It's very versatile and it's super easy to use. So I'm going to show you how to use it in case you haven't ever done it before. So my brushes are already wet. I'm just going to grab these 3 that I have here because all the bristles are about the same size. I usually do— keep in mind, I used to have to wash, you know, over 100 brushes a night when I was teaching paint nights. So I'm not going to do each one one by one. You can if you want to. But you have your wet brushes, and this is a hard soap inside of here, okay, in this container. So I've got my brushes, I'm going to get a little bit more water on them, kind of hold this where you guys can see it, and I'm pushing down and it's making the soap suds up in the bristles. Okay, so now I've got some super sudsy paintbrushes here. But that's not all. You don't want to just do that and then be done. Um, back when I was in art school, this took several minutes at the end of our class, and we'd have to allot enough time for that because you want to make sure that you're getting all the paint or any residue, um, completely out of your brush. And what that means is we would spin— you would see us all standing over there in the corner, and it looks like we're painting our hands. We're making sure that that soap gets all the way up to where the bristles meet that metal there. Okay, so I'm just going to kind of keep— I'm pushing down so the soap is getting in there, and then I'm going to rinse. And then I'm going to check to make sure that I got all the soap and the color out of my brush. Okay, so probably can't see this from the camera, but if there's still a little bit of a milky color, I know there's still soap in there. And then obviously if there's still color, you know, you've still got paint in there. So I'm just going to keep checking. These bristles, making sure that they're all the way clean and that I don't have any more milky substance coming out of them. Okay, um, so that all my soap is out of there, all my paint color is out of there. But you want to keep doing that. Sometimes you will have to go back to your brush cleaner again and do another round if people are real— I mean when I used to clean the big brushes from paint nights, if people were very, very liberal with their paint, a lot of paint can get stuck up in the top part of those bristles. So you may have to repeat, um, a couple times to get all that paint out. And that's important because if it gets stuck in the top up here, it starts separating your bristles, and then you won't have that nice shape that you have to them. So after you do that, I go ahead and dry them, and then I lay them flat to dry after that. So you can reshape them if you need to, and then you want to lay them flat to dry after. So that is the best way to take care of your brushes. And then I would do like a set of like the skinny ones that I was using. And we're going to do the same thing. And you can see on here like the paint residue on the side. That's okay. You can see blue going into it because there's still some blue stuck in those handles. So I'm just going to repeat the same process, making sure that I'm getting plenty of soap up in those bristles. And if you guys want this information that I'm sharing today, we do have a free brush guide that, um, not only tells you how to care for your brushes, but it also tells you what brushes I use for what techniques. So if you're curious, what is the difference between a flat and a filbert, or a round and an angled? And what do I use a fan brush for? That guide is going to break down all of those things for you. So it's a step-by-step guide telling you what brushes to use for what technique. And then the second page is going to tell you how to properly care for your brushes, so you're not having to remember everything that I'm saying right now. Um, so the link for that is in the description. Let me know if you guys have any questions. Give me just a second here. Okay, what else was I going to show you? Do you guys have any questions for me? Um, Anja, I think is how you say your name, um, she said, I have a thing that holds brush handles so they can dry hanging down with the bristles pointed down. Is that not good? I think that's probably fine as well. I've never had one of those. I usually just lay them, um, flat to dry, but I think that would be fine. You don't want them facing up to dry until— I mean, you can store them that way once they're all the way dry, but then again, any moisture that is in there kind of settles to the bottom of those bristles and can still mess with them. So I think hanging down to let them, or flat after getting the excess water out, is fine. So I think you are good with that. And then I just had my palette knife in here too. So if you guys use a palette knife, especially if you add any like gel medium or anything like that, sometimes it can get stuck on your palette knife. So same thing, I usually just soak this in water a little bit. There's no need for the cleaner, but the warmer the water is, and then I use my nail, or you can use another knife to just kind of scrape off that. Excess paint. Um, Lindsay, if you go to the description where I explain what we're doing, um, in this Facebook Live today, that link is there, and then I'll put it in the comments as well. Let me see if I can do that really quick. Hang on just a moment. Okay, I've got that. Brenda said, well, that explains why I have fat brushes. That's funny. Hello, hello. Um, okay, so I think that's it, um, unless you guys have any other questions for me. So we kind of talked about the dos and the don'ts. Um, I'm just gonna do a quick recap. Um, you don't want to leave your brushes in your water cup when you're done with your painting session. So there's 2 reasons why it will bend your bristles, and it will also cause your paintbrush handle to crack, because that water swells the wood underneath. And then, of course, it's— once it swells, it's going to crack the paint. So those are reasons why you don't want to do that. If you properly wash your brushes after each session, unlike me, then they are going to last you for a long time, and they are going to stay in fantastic condition. If you do not have a good paintbrush set, you can— we have them back in stock. They were sold out for a while, but we have them back in. You can get my 15-piece brush set in my store, um, and it has all the brushes that you will need whether you're doing acrylic or watercolor. And it comes in this super cute canvas carrying bag, and we made this big enough to hold your paintbrushes, your palette knives, some pens and markers, all the stuff that you would need to do art on the road as well. So this is a 15-piece brush set. You can see these are still even wrapped up, but it's got a variety of different brushes. It's got a couple angles. Filbert, a fan, um, it's got several rounds, and then also your liner brushes. But I custom designed these. I picked these out. These are what I use when I am teaching. The newer set, if you don't have a newer set, are now numbered also. So when I'm teaching, I can say I'm using number 15, and you know exactly which one, um, out of the set to use. So, um, those— it is only $40 for the brush set. It comes with the carrying bag, and, um, I will throw that link in the comments when I jump off here. I don't think I have it, um, handy to drop in the comments right now. Awesome, I'm so glad you love them! And just said she received hers last week and she loves them, so Sylvia has 2 sets of the brushes. She loves them. Barbara likes them very much, and the pouch is so cute. Oh, someone else had, um, Sherry had a suggestion. She said, I use 2 cups of water when painting, 1 cup of warm water and a couple drips of Dawn dish soap. I put the used brushes in there, swish it around with the soap, and then put in the plain water to rinse and then dry. Awesome. The only thing I would advise is you really still need to make sure that you're getting all the paint out. So I don't know if you were with me when I was doing that part, actually cleaning the brushes. You just want to make sure that you're getting some pressure in there, because paint can be pretty sneaky, and it will stay trapped up in the top of those bristles where it meets the, the ferrule. So Um, Lindsay said, is your Tribe still open? Lindsay, we are not open yet, but we open in 18 days. So make sure you're on our waitlist if you're not already, because when we open doors to Tribe Sisters, we're gonna have all kinds of amazing bonuses, um, and you're going to want to be one of the first ones to join. So if you're not on the waitlist yet, make sure you are on there. All right, this was a fast one. Today. Um, but let me know if you have any other questions. Otherwise, we will jump off, and I'm not sure if I will be able to jump back on next week. It may be the week after. Excuse me. Um, I was going to show you again in case you popped on late. This is the brush cleaner that I recommend and that I use. And if you want a link to my Amazon store— as I fall over, almost fell into my sink, that would have been fun to catch on video— um, if you want a link to my Amazon store, text the word Amazon to the number that you see on the screen. That will put you on my text list, so you'll get the direct link to my Amazon store. This is where all my favorite products are, um, that I don't sell myself, including the brush cleaner, um, as well as everything else I use in my studio. It's all there for you in one spot. Um, and that will also get you text alerts, so whenever I go live, you will get a text alert to let you know. And then Neeva's also dropped that link in the comments for you. Hey Amy said, I love your brushes. Um, too rough. Um, yeah, Amy, that shouldn't have happened. Um, so you can email, um, support. Um, but yeah, they're, uh, the— yes. Laura, I have tried the pink soap as well. Um, but yeah, Amy, these brushes should last you, um, for a long time. So if you've had any problems with them at all, um, just email support and we'll help you with that. Um, Lori— Laura said, have you tried the pink soap? I have tried the pink soap. I like Masters so much better. Um, it's less waste. One, one of these containers It comes with the, the hard soap inside, will last me for over a year. And that was even when I was doing, um, paint parties and having to wash hundreds of brushes a week. Um, so I felt like there was a lot of waste with pink soap, and I also just don't like the smell of it. So, um, I love this one. So I think that's, that's all, that's all I have for you guys. Um, have an awesome rest of your day and week. Make sure you're on our our email list if you're not already, because we have sent some links to some free tutorials, our newest blog post, and then of course you will be on the waitlist when we open doors to new tribe members in 18 days. So we've got lots of fun things in store over the next month in anticipation of opening doors to new members, and we cannot wait to have you. I'll see you soon. Bye!
