Practice question · Put in order
Arrange the steps of cleaning and storing a brush in the correct order.
- Wipe the loaded brush out on a rag before any solvent touches it
- Rinse in solvent, working the hair against the side of the container rather than the bottom
- Reshape the hair to its point or edge while it is still wet
- Stand the brush upright on its handle end, or lay it flat, to dry
- Wash with soap and lukewarm water right down to the heel
Hints
- The first step costs nothing and removes most of the paint.
- Reshaping only works while the hair is still wet.
Show the answer
- Wipe the loaded brush out on a rag before any solvent touches it
- Rinse in solvent, working the hair against the side of the container rather than the bottom
- Wash with soap and lukewarm water right down to the heel
- Reshape the hair to its point or edge while it is still wet
- Stand the brush upright on its handle end, or lay it flat, to dry
Why
The third step is the one people skip and the one that decides the brush's life. Solvent removes the paint you can see; only washing to the heel removes what is wedged where the hair enters the ferrule, and that is the deposit that splays a brush permanently.
Practise Brushes, Tools and the Mark
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Painting I is free to start.
More questions on Brushes, Tools and the Mark
- Why does a brush die at the heel rather than at the tip? Select every statement that is true of the heel.
- Sort each described passage by the mark it is.
- Arrange these developments in the painter's toolkit in the order they happened.
- A scumble requires an opaque light film dragged across a dark ground, whereas a glaze demands transparent…
- A brush is best cleaned by standing it tip-down in a jar of solvent overnight.