Hello and welcome back to my studio.
Well, if you want to use your oil paints
but you don't want any solvents in your studio, what are the options?
Is the use of water-based oil paints the only option?
Well, actually, there are so many non-toxic brush cleaners
coming out these days that you may be able to continue using your regular oil paints
but still eliminate all your solvents from the studio.
That's what we're going to do today.
Have a look at a few brush cleaning
options and see whether we can get rid of these solvents for good.
Let's have a look at a few of these
cleaning options for you to decide whether they are a good fit for you.
Now, if you've seen those Bob Ross painting videos, you would have seen him
take his brush out and dip it in the the brush of solvent,
slosh it around and smack it on the table leg or something like that.
And I look at it today and I just cringe
thinking of all that solvent flying around in the studio where he was painting.
Well, we certainly don't want to do that today.
In old-school way of cleaning yes,
you could use kerosene and that brush would get rid of the oil paint in a snap.
But you'd have to take all sorts
of precautions, paint or clean your brush outside, and of course,
not be allergic to the smells and getting that stuff on your hands as well.
So let's get away from all of that.
Water mixable oils, well, I like them. They're good.
But I actually prefer my regular oil paints.
My Rembrandt oils or whatever I'm using, I still enjoy using them.
So what is the oil paint really made of?
Of course, it's pigment and it's held together with linseed oil.
Linseed oil is not a toxic substance, but it is a fat.
So to clean that brush,
you need something that's going to emulsify that fat, get it off
the bristles, and get your brush clean that way.
So we need ways to tackle that, but without solvent.
All right. Now there are, as I said, several options.
I'm going to look at three in this video.
Starting with this one, I made by Green Piece.
Paintbrush cleaner made in the USA,
100 % non-toxic and a small business that wanted to create something that they
could use for cleaning their paint brushes.
There's another one here made by Chroma called Incredible Brush Cleaner.
Comes from Australia, I believe, and also something that is more like a soap.
We'll see how that works out.
And finally, when all else fails and you have nothing left in the house,
you can raid the kitchen, get your dishwashing liquid.
Is it a viable option?
Well, let's have a look.
So here's a range of cleaners that I'm going to try out and all non-toxic
alternatives, especially for the oil painter.
But of course, it also applies to acrylics, gouache,
whatever brush cleaning requirements you need as an artist.
I've got here paintbrush cleaner by Green Piece.
This is made in the US.
Hundred % natural is the claim, cleans, restores, conditions your brushes.
This one, Incredible Brush Cleaner by Chroma.
I think this is made in Australia.
Also for cleaning, preserving natural or
synthetic brushes, acrylics, oils, lacquer.
Even removes dried paint that's years old, okay?
So that's quite a claim.
When all else fails, you got your dishwasher and liquid.
Well, that's nontoxic.
And as we know, it will clean off the fats in your dishes.
So it should have no problem with your brushes.
The only problem is it going to ruin your brushes?
The jury, as they say, is out on that one.
So let's just get started because what
we're trying to find here is a way to just keep solvents out of your studio and brush
cleaning for oils especially is a problem if you use solvents.
Okay, so number one: paintbrush cleaner by Green Piece.
All right, it's a powerful cleaner,
safe for your hands, smells like oranges, zero turpentine, thinners.
You won't find the ingredients
on the bottle, so I can't tell you what it's made of.
Inside you got this peach-color.
And I'm actually going to use these shells as a way to...
For you to actually see it a bit easier than in a jar.
Here, I've got a paint brush with some oil paint on it.
I was using this yesterday.
I didn't wash them last night.
So let's just get right in there and work the green piece cleaner into the brush.
You can see the paint coming off.
Using it neat, undiluted, get it in.
Okay, right, let's pull that out.
You can see the residue there.
So I've got some water in this jar, and that's just to rinse.
Rinse it out.
Get a rag, just take up some of that moisture.
All right, so you can still see a bit of paint coming off there.
I'm pretty satisfied that that's now a clean brush, but it is not 100 %.
So what do they say about that?
On the directions, it says use hot water
and a little dish detergent to rinse off the cleaner and remaining paint.
Okay, so there is an assumption
that there's going to be a little bit of remaining paint.
So getting rid of that dishwash,
and I'm just going to put a little bit in the palm of my hand there.
Take that brush, work that in.
You see all the paint still coming off?
Okay, still a lot of paint.
Look at all of that paint.
Rinse that off.
Now that brush is clean.
Absolutely nothing.
With oil paint, you really need something that's going
to emulsify the oil and get the fat out of that paint.
So it will dissolve and come away nicely clean.
I have spoken to the manufacturer and they do say it's really intended ideally for
cleaning your acrylics properly and also for reconditioning old dry brushes.
Okay, so I've got a brush here that has got acrylic paint on.
Some ultramarine blue.
And let's get a bit more that green piece cleaner.
I'm going to put some in this
shell over there and get in there, clean that brush off.
So end of the day, clean your acrylic brush, do it over a sink or something.
Okay, so you can see all the paint coming off there.
No problem.
A little bit of a rinse off in water, and all the paint off.
Okay, so perfectly clean.
Always rinse your brush to make sure there's no residue.
Dry it gently.
In other words, don't force dry the bristles.
Just get rid of some excess like that.
Let your brush lie flat with the bristles up or in a jar as well as upright.
But I like to lie them flat like this just
off the surface and let them dry overnight.
The one other test I'm going to put to the cleaner is this old brush.
It's got some encrusted paint in it.
This is all old dried oil paint.
And I'm going to leave that overnight.
Put some of that cleaner in a jar, work it in, and just let that soak.
Okay, so we'll have a look at that next day.
So let's try this next one, the Chroma Incredible brush cleaner.
I'm going to put a little bit in there.
A not cheap cleaner, I have to say, but I have been pretty impressed with it.
Now, it does tell you on the back here,
a superb soap for cleaning and maintaining all your fine brushes.
Directions.
If cleaning oil and lacquer, remove excess paint gently with a cloth.
Same with acrylic, wipe off excess paint.
Use brush, soap undiluted gently working
the cleaners back and forth into the bristles.
So that's standard but good advice. So work that in.
You can see that this paint I was using
yesterday coming off really because I believe this is a proper soap that is
emulsifying the fatty oil, the linseed oil, getting rid of.
I'm going to rinse that.
And I'd say that's already clean.
I don't see any residue there, but I'm pretty sure there is still some residue.
So let's put a little more.
Very strong.
Work the brush in.
Yeah, the brush still has a bit of paint on it,
but you can see not much coming off, but still a second cleaning.
But I can feel the bristles are soft and really doing quite a job.
All right, look at that.
Looking really very clean indeed.
Okay, so once you've rinsed your brush off, we can put that aside.
What is water like with your bristle brushes?
You have to really be careful because
some brushes, well made brushes, seem to handle water fine.
A bad brush won't last well being cleaned in water.
I just find that is the case.
All right, same thing.
I'm going to get a nasty old paintbrush.
Yeah, this one looks like it.
And I'm going to put some of that cleaner in there, work it into the bristles.
I'm going to let that
just soak and work its way overnight and see if we can make this brush any better.
All right, so two done so far as far as strength of cleaning is concerned.
The chroma handling the oil is much better
as a soap and the green piece great with the acrylics.
And last but not least, dishwashing liquid with the oils is a little bit in there.
This is also a brush from yesterday.
Work that in.
Well, that's quite a lot of paint
in there, and it's just come straight off right away.
Wipe some of that, rinse.
I can still see paint on there because there's really a large volume.
So let's clean that off.
Put some more paint cleaner,
work that in, and you can see still some paint coming off.
You can leave that to soak a little more
if you want, get into the ferrule and get the paint out of there.
But this brush is, for all intents and purposes, clean.
Nothing coming off.
I can leave that to dry and it should be fine.
All right, so we've got the three in action.
At the very least, you've got some of this at home and you could clean your brushes.
Make sure that you rinse them off well and let them dry in a place where there's
a bit of air circulation and just let your brush dry overnight.
And then you've got these two cleaners
and of course, there are many more on the market as well.
Let's have a look at the brush restoration results.
I'm going to start off
with the Green piece brush cleaner where I've soaked a brush overnight.
And I'm just going to see if we get all that nasty old or dry oil paint out of it.
Rinse the brush off of it.
You can see all that debris coming off.
Just wipe off the excess water.
That's what it looked like yesterday, and the bristles are nice and clean.
There's a bit of residual soap on there.
Let's get that off.
But for all intents and purposes, the brush is well restored.
It was never in great condition,
but the paint is out and it's pretty much clean to the ferrule.
Now the Chroma Incredible brush cleaner,
I actually had to use very little, but you can see how dirty
it has become with all of that gunk coming loose as it's soaked.
It seems to have done a pretty good job as well.
Let's clean that off and wipe off some of the excess water and
we should see fairly clean bristles emerging.
Yeah, that's not too bad.
Those bristles are nice and soft.
That's what it was before.
A real mess.
Now I can just get that brush and let it dry for a day and it'll be all right.
I also tried the dishwashing liquid on a similar brush.
And yeah, it's also done a pretty good job.
If you do soak these brushes and just let
them get on with it, your old paint is going to get cleaned off.
But I think the Green piece one actually did the best job overall.
Well, I hope that's given you a couple of options and something to think about.
But most importantly, you don't need to have solvents in your
studio anymore, even if you're using your traditional oils.
What about solvents during your painting
process, replacing white spirits or that thing?
Yes, there are non-toxic solvents for that as well.
And I use one called Zest It,
and there is a video in my channel on that, right?
It's also a non-toxic
substance that you can use to thin your paint out in the early stages as well.
I use very little, as I said, just to get a painting going from there on.
I just use the paint as it comes out the tube.
Why not get lots of thick and juicy oil paint onto your canvas?
And when the day comes to an end, you can use any of these non-toxic brush
cleaners and get a good job of cleaning your paint brushes.
There it is. I think that gives us some peace of mind.
But do whatever makes you feel happy and makes you feel safe in your studio.
You don't have to take unnecessary risks with solvents anymore.
That's the good news.
All right, I hope that helped you, gave you some info to consider.
And just make sure you keep your brushes nice and clean.
They'll last a long time and give you good results.
Now don't forget, I've got a free painting
course for you up here in my Art Painting School.
Check it out.
There's plenty of good stuff there for you.
And of course, I hope you've subscribed
to this channel so you don't miss another video.
And one will be coming up soon as well
on some more painting tips you don't want to miss.
Until next time, happy painting, and cheers for now.