How to wash your oil painting brushes?

I use a little turpentine to get the worse off then use ';The masters'; brush cleaner. It's a soap and preserver. It says you can just wipe your brush off without turp. and then use the soap. It is very good and sold at any art store and some good craft stores.How to wash your oil painting brushes?
Go to a hardware store and buy odorless mineral spirits. It is less toxic than turpentine and doesn't smell nearly as bad. And it is cheaper, too. After you clean the paint out of your brushes in OMS, wash the OMS out of our brushes with soap. This last step is vital. The OMS that will be in your brushes does contain paint (afterall, you just cleaned your paint into it.) This paint will build up over time and ruin your brushes. That is why you need to clean the OMS out of your brushes, too.





Then, dry the bristles and reshape your brushes between your fingers with a little soap. Let them dry standing up.





This is the best way to take care of your brushes.How to wash your oil painting brushes?
The best cleaner I have ever used...I bought it at Michael's. It is cheap, comes in a clear bottle. There is blue writing on it in French and English. There's also a giant skull and crossbones on it declaring that it is poisonous.


The size and price of it is really good and it works. You just need a little bit of it and scrub your paintbrushes with a toothbrush, the tooth brush going away from the handle.


Hope that helped.





Windsor and Newton's paint cleaner also works, isn't toxic and costs a bit more :/
with water thoroughly... with hot water actually.. oil paint never comes off so let the brushes soak up the water
Natural bristle brushes (hog, squirrel, sable) are like your own hair. Initially clean with something oily - like turp, mineral spirits, then wash with a shampoo that would be kind to your own hair. Synthetic brushes benefit from a good art commercial soap as mentioned by other respondents. Always reshape and press dry your brushes with a dry towel. Make sure they are cleaned ';deep'; near the ferrule as paint build up will push the individual hairs apart and make your brushes get ';bushy';. I am a professional portrait artist and like it or not I find that I need to replace my best filberts for the finish work about once every two or three portraits for a good clean line. I use the very cheapest hog bristle brushes I can find for the massing in of the first layers of paint.
First use turpentine (it's oily, so it won't totally dry your brushes out like paint thinner). Then use The Master's Brush Cleaner - specially formulated to clean off oil/acrylic/watercolor paints. You can buy it at Michael's or JoAnn's, or any art supply store. It's great, and one can lasts a long time. It's great for cleaning up my hands too!
Annmarie wants you to ruin your brushes! Oil paint would just gum up with water. You need to use turpentine to get oil paint off, or mineral spirits will work.
Anne Marie what are you thinking????????