A guide on how to make sure your brushes don't break, and if they break - how to save them. But mostly it's about giving your brush the proper care it deserves before it's too late.
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Emil On
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Painting miniatures for your warhammer & d&d games. Age of sigmar and warhammer 40k. Space Marines, Space Wolves, Stormcast Eternals, beastclaw raiders, ogor mawtribes, cities of sigmar, chaos space marines, painting scale models, miniature busts! How to paint NMM. How to paint warhammer, how to paint d&D figures.
To those who wonder what to use kolinski brushes for: I Use them a lot - almost all the time. Glazing, layering, highlights, details etc. Anything with acrylic paints - I use them 90% of all my painting. but you can make them last longer by skipping a few things that's hard on the brushes. Think of them as a nice regular car for every day use. Maybe a Tesla. And cheap synthetic brushes like a tractor for the dirty work.
So I have about 4 feet of my hair I cut off a year ago(after 14 years of growth) where can i send it to make some brushes lol
@Onryo-of-Okiko Yeah, but the paintbrushes aren't gonna kill your budget. If you can afford the 40€ Terminator box, as a hobby expense, you can also afford a 30€ set of paintbrushes, can't ya?
a nice regular car for everyday use: 120.000 Dollar Tesla........VIworldrs life is surely somethimg out of this world......
@Joshua Ginn buy a 100 pack of eyeliner brushes on amazon for 4$
@Joshua Ginn midwinter minis did a video on it :)
First time I ever heard of not using sable on metallics, washes, or taking paint out of pots. You can do all those things as long as you keep too much paint from going in the ferrule and do a good job cleaning at the end of your session using the brush soap. If you were to follow all the rules here you would never use them for anything. People have to get over the fact that all paint brushes are disposable, even super expensive kolinsky, and no matter what you do it will eventually degrade and you'll have to buy a new one.
I've noticed a bunch of these but I didn't know the science behind them.
Im gonna keep doing these things.
WOW Split ends are really bad! "Says the bald guy"
I feel like some of this will even help my cheapo brushes. At the very least i dont feel guilty anymore for snipping my stray hairs. Also are you wearing a clip on mic while having another mic infront of you?
Safety haha. Had a few accidents so we had to re record.
The key takeaway is that 90% of the time you shouldn't use them.
What if to use hair shampoo / conditioner on a kolinski brushes instead of a soap? :)
@Squidmar Miniatures wow, thanks for a such a quick reply!!!
Yeah that works :)
I just bought a Windsor and newton professional sable brush and the hairs are split ..is there any way I can fix this ?
To add..I haven’t even used it yet
thank you so much
I've literally used all my Citadel fine detail brushes in the exact ways you said not too....*heavy sigh*
Hello! So what do you suggest to use for detailed metallic painting? Synthetic brushes lose their tip so fast :/
Great video, keeping these ferrules clean can't be stressed enough. On the topic of Kollinski brushes and oil paints, I think I'd like to add something. While I wouldn't use a fresh brush for this, I love using older, still functional ones for getting a really smooth blend. Dmitry Fesechko "taught" me this, and he knows a thing or too about oils in miniature painting 😘
7:36 i thought it was tea
"Don't do this, don't do that, and especially don't do this." "Ah, yes, I see." *Me, who literally did all the things listed in the first 5 minutes of the video, a few hours ago*
I would imagine if you add a bit of glycerin to the rinse water it would break the surface tension enough to let alot of the floating particles/pigments sink to the bottom? Just a though.... perhaps an experiment is in order.
I missed your Kickstarter but I do have a Raphael brush and some connoisseur brand kolinsky sable... which I used like twice since I got them. For everything else I recommend Windsor and Newton cotman brushes. It’s synthetic but it’s super well made and behaves like a natural hair brush.
Well I've done ALL the don'ts and didn't do almost all of the do's. Thanks for the lesson!
Oh wow very useful info :D
Really great tips thank you. Just bought a bunch of brushes today, some of these tips will help to have them for longer hopefully.
You forgot to cover the population of painters who are "brush lickers" = who like to shape the tip of the brush with our lips. (I mean it cant only be me). I guess that goes on the dont's list aswell :)
What is that shiny metallic paint for the tip with the basecoating? Looks amazing!
Where can i get your brushes?
www.squidmar.com/latepledge :)
I killed a brand new Army painter brush with their washes. After a week of of painting, it was unusable
So, my professional artist friend keeps his brushes submerged in transmission fluid for storage. I wonder what you think about this?
I've never heard anyone do this and I don't really know what the fluid is consisting of 😅🤔
Is this a joke? Why would I ever use these if I can't use a bunch of different paints/techniques with them?
You can use kolinski brushes how ever you want, but using them for their intended purpose, the fine work will last them a lot longer
how can I clean while I am choosing a color? I mean I use to pick quickly some colores,meanwhile I got an old cloth to clean the chunk and a glass of water.
Wish I'd knew all of this 4 years ago, it would have saved 3-4 sets of brush. Thanks
Saw the opening with brushes tossed bristles down. I only do that with my shit brushes lol Good brushes just get rinsed in water.
Thanks Emil for explaining the do and do not. Do you have any additional Storage Tipps? I have o lot of brushes with clear protectiv cap are they a good Cover for „in between“ time or not? Should brushes laying or hanging for drying/ pause time?
I looked at you brushes for the Kickstarter. Are they angled or is that just a weird photo?
On some browsers the site makes the last pixel extended. They are normal
Can't know how I bumped onto this. Anyway Awesome content 🥇. I also watched those rather similar from MStarTutorials and kinda wonder how you guys create these stuff. MSTAR TUTORIALS also had amazing information about similiar things on his vids.
@squidmarminiatures can u advise on any particular synthetics you’d use for the metallics, bases, drybrushing, contrasts, washes etc. I’m not at your level, so those paints actually make up 90% of my painting n layers/glazes as finishing touches only. I just bought some Windsor&Newton brushes n feel like I should’ve saved my money based on this video?
Squidmar Miniatures thank you, that was a rapid response! I guess I need to shop around a bit.
I'm using cheap ones from Wish, but i heard monument hobbies have great. never tried them though :)
So Basically... BRUSHES SUCK!
Hi, I love this channel, never post before. This is important, no just for saving money, but for saving animals... Just remember that a wild animal has been killed in the process of making your brush... I can't justify to kill an animal just for painting miniatures or any other art. If you have bought this brushes, made it last as long as possible, an next time buy sinthethics.
Where is a video on the care of the synthetic brushes that I actually have :))))
These brushes are display pieces not actually meant for practical use: just to look longingly at...
I painted Necrons for a good year. Please, if you're going to rinse your brushes, then get a glass larger than your largest brush and dip them brush-side up in DISTILLED water, or give them a quick dip in 70% alcohol rub and a rinse in distilled water.
Oh, and one more thing - and this might sound silly -: wash your hair brushes in hair conditioner once a week, depending on use. Preferably an animal conditioner.
Also learn to use toothpicks. They'll save you a buttload of time and are disposable.
Don't know if you have it over there, but for dried on paint, the best thing I have found is hand cleaner. The stuff auto mechanics use to wash their hands. Like Gojo, Goop, or Fast Orange. It really will take the old dried out paint out of a brush, then use a good conditioner on it, or just give it a swirl in brush soap to condition it.
Wow calling me out in front of all these people not cool man. Not cool.
The title of this video is misleading. Couldn't get past 3:39 because of all the paint restrictions. Should mention in the title this is how not to mess up one particular type of brush.
Not a topic anyone cares about - but the kolinsky animal is cruely bred or trapped and killed exclusively for the fur industry especially for brushes. We always hear “kolinsky is the best” but I will never use actual kolinsky hair brushes. I found a brand of “synthetic kolinsky” from Mimik that you can get at Jerry’s Art-o-rama online - Zero cruelty, and just as much spring and precision and no animals had to die.
I REALLY needed this video, I can't tell you how many of these mistakes I've accidentally made. Thanks a lot!
Question: same rule of not using the expensive brushes for glazing?
@Squidmar Miniatures ty!
Just try to keep it clean and as little paint as possible in the ferrule :) I glaze all the time
So these fancy brushes should be sued for details, edge highlighting and blending. I normally just use a spray can with the color I want for the basing. The best bushes for dry brushing are make up brushes, trust me they make it way faster. I keep cheap brushes for washes and metallics. But about 80% my paint time is spent doing the detail work. If you don't do any highling or detial work you shouldn't be buying fancy brushes as you can just slap paint on with any old brush and the outcome will be the same.
Sees thumbnail: Brother this happens to me after 1hour
The mods on the FB group are out of control. Kicking people for saying mentioning how they have emailed about bum brushes but just kind of think da vinci may have dropped the ball here. This attitude and approach is really bad for the brand. Thw issue is beyond some brushes at this point and the issue is that it seems there is a bit of a cover up with the way your admin are handling people voicing their opinion in a respectful manner.
Far from false. I was removed from the group yesterday. Literally the question by someone else: "Is anyone else bothered by the amount of conversations being shut down by the admins anytime someone me tions a bad batch?" Was met with the answer: "Maybe try customer service before bitching publicly" This is what the group has devolved too. The false statement is you claiming I was not removed. I think your admin team is lying to you, bud. Even completely irrelevant to the criticisms presented sometimes admin are just spam replying "you should have contacted the sales team" then locking comments. If you say something like "I emailed already. Here is what I think happened..." you get removed because they cant just aggressively interject with "email the sales team". I believe you will fix the mistakes made. But your team is handling this very poorly. You basically cant talk aboutthe brushes at all unless you spend 100% of that time fellating everyone involved. It comes off as though they are trying to hide something. Really a bad look.
Hi Zachary, this is quite a false statement. No one have been blocked from the group for months, no posts have been deleted - it's all still there. They did however lock some of the discussions after a few hours as they are not really bringing anything new and its generally the same 5 people over and over dog piling in the comment section for no good reason when they can reach out to our customer support and get replacements if its a factory error. We have shipped to 6500 backers at this point, well over 30 000 brushes and have received less than 30 requests to replace bad brushes. It's never fun to receive a bad product - we wouldn't be either - And we'll help those people get replacements.
Where do you get less expensive, but still decent synthetic brushes?
Convince me to spend 5 to 10 times more on your brushes.......Never mind, I'll be off then.
how ignorant, its not a video convince you why to buy them. There's about 1000 videos from 800 different creators that do that. This is so you don't ruin them.
There's a arts and crafts shop across the road from my house, and the brushes go for 3.50 USD for the small bristle brushes.
Ok, this should be an instruction video when you purchase brushes... where were you a week ago when I started... on my 2nd nice brush already. HA
I think this is one of the most comprehensive tip videos on brush care I've seen. There's one thing that you usually don't see which I picked up from monsieur Darren Latham - if I have picked your curiosity check it out, don't want to post spoilers ! Agree with most of the tips, though I think some things could be debated due to the additional time/effort they take - like switching a brush for a quick shade, but if doing more stuff like that, sure! There's one thing I'd debate - the basecoat - that totally depends on what type of basecoat you're doing and what end result you want to get. What I mean is the varying level of smoothness - and I did paint Imperial Fists marine with 4 layers of Yriel Yellow as basecoat... I'd rather that be super smooth!
Biltema penselrens. Biltema runde syntetiske pensler i pakker er veldig bra. Jeg har jobbet på kunstnerbutikk og de pakkene med runde pensler på biltema er best.
This is why havnt touched my artificer brushs yet, definitely good know to stay way from anything but base paint and layer, i use the citadel brushs (small layer and base) at under 8 bucks a piece i dont really care how i use them. But the more i get into this hobby the more i find there is no 1 brush for all things. And ive really come to respect having a shade brush vs layer brush vs dry brush. I started with super cheap bulk brushs then switched to the citadel line. Got use to useing each brush as intended. Now that ive gained that experience i feel like a can buy these expensive specialty brushs. And thats what they are, a specialty brush. Not a all in one brush.
My brother is both an semi successful artist and professor at a fairly prestigious art school when I asked him about it he suggested after cleaning the brush to use " Fels Naphtha " to reshape the point then wash it out next use. It's amazing and works great!
Any advice or on how to stop or what causes the tips to curl on a brush ? It's never the whole brush or belly that curves just the tip. I rinse and clean my brushes a fair bit, keep them flat after usage too.
Auto Detailer here, I personally spray my new detail & wheel brushes with turtle wax seal and shine, essentially coating the bristles in SiO2 properties making them not only last longer but allowing nothing like brake dust to dry and stick for an easy clean
I learned a lot, thank you.
"Don't do anything to your brushes because it will damage them" Got it
Cant ruin em if you dont use em!
And when you're done not painting with your brushes, wash them with fancy soap in an 80 degree angle.
That's really good advice, I was wondering why the nice brush (Not THAT nice, but nicer than my starter brushes) suddenly was getting messed up after applying some Tesseract Glow. Mystery solved... Glad I was correct to cut the offending hairs off, though.
Really glad you made this video. My wife bought me some posh brushes for Christmas and I’ve been too scared to use them 😀
Don’t use for washes and base coating!?! 🤯
Is it commendable common white soap to clean my brushes?
Pratically the message is.....DON'T use these brushes for almost everything. For brushes' soap the trick is take some pieces of it and place in an old cap, so you've always a clean one
Don't use the brush, got it
So they are ok for basically painting with water, anything else ruins them :)
Great video. I went and ordered the brush soap already. I never use the brush to get paint out of the bottles but I feel like I waste paint using the back of the brush to transfer paint to my wet palette when using the Citadel pots. I noticed you put them in dropper bottles. Do you just pour them as is into the dropper bottles?
@Squidmar Miniatures Thanks. I'm definitely going to do that
Yeah :)
I have those exact same drinking glasses.
When I get paint dried in the ferrule, what works for me is an ultrasonic bath of 5 minutes. It saved my brushes many times. One bath per week for 3 month and all m'y brushes are still like the first day. May that help ;)
I finally did the dang thing and ordered a set. This video will be on repeat
So basically you shouldn't use your expensive brushes. Gotcha
so dont use the brushes is the main thing i took away from this .... great ^^
Thank you
Painting. Do not use your paint brushes for painting. Got it. you do not actually want paint on your paintbrush it turns out!
Also... always use a toothpick or spatula to pick up paint from pots. You should never dip any brush.
My experience is that Kolinsky brushes are more forgiving and can take a beating better than a synthetic. I don't use them for metallics, oil colours, drybrushing and varnishes or other add ons. Other than that it's go!
Sable hair has a natural taper to it making them the best natural hair brushes over horse or squirrel hair
My ability to do everything wrong actually impresses me
I don't count on this one!
so dont use paint dont get any paint higher then half of the brush dont use ur brush as a hammer clean it like every 3 seconds done
if he ever saw the state my brushes are in, he would have a heart attack.
Words to live by, I use my airbrush and reasonably good synthetics for 75% of my painting, switch to kolinski for fine details and texturing strokes. Paint flows just as well off a synthetic with a good belly and tip, when I need an even better tip it's time for the best sable I can afford that I baby and pamper more than my dog. Synthetics are so cheap by comparison I just keep a fistful to hand and treat them like my wife treats her knickers, 3 categories, 1/ new and perfect, 2/ still good for blocking in, washing, glazing and everyday use, 3/ugly old friends for mixing for the airbrush, dry brushing (though mostly I use makeup brushes for that now) and lastly the pot of shame for texture paints, basing and terrain. Fortunately my wife has no fourth grade, she cuts the elastic waistband off to secure the top of binbags over the kitchen bin - strangely decorative - and bins the remains
What brushes do you recommend "for the dirty work"
Any cheap hobby brush
I have 1 wns7 brush I've used for well over 3 years, still my best brush and I use metallics, washes and have 0 issues. It's all about the cleaning process, not so much the avoiding useage.
😂😂😂 Pay 30x as much and rules 1-4 are, don't use half of your paint options.
Hey man, what about delicate work with metal paints? Do you use the kolinski fine ones with it or not? Is it better to try finding cheaper but still fine enough brushes?
I rec'd my Squidmar brushes yesterday and after watching this, I'll never use them.
Lol why? Use them like any kolinski brushes. For acrylics, every day use.
10 reasons to not use Kolinski brushes.
I am very torn apart as I really want to step up my painting game but I don't want to buy brushes with natural hair. I know with proper care natural brushes will last very long, so I don't need to buy many of them. But still, I can't imagine having a brush with the hair of an animal that might have suffered a lot on a fur farm.
Ach, ihr seid Deutsche 😅
Just started painting my first army in 20 years and I've done all the don'ts as my 2 first brushes can attest. Oh well, I'll keep the ruined brushes for the basing, metallic paints, washing and dry-brushing (90% of my painting) and get some nice brushes for the fine work. :)
'The ballerina of paint brushes.' Great copy-writing! 😍
As an artist cheep watercolour brushes are your best friend, they are some what soft and they can stand a beating. And they are cheap so if they broke just buy new ones.
Ok but what if I'm a lazy snob and just buy new fancy brushes when I inevitably ruin them....?
It's OK, you are forgiven 😁
Just ordered them there :) bought artis opus brushes a while back and really like them, I'm glad there is another option out there now cause realistically there was only 2 for me, I'm excited, cant wait :)
What I'm getting is that it's basically like fabric scissors... Use them once on paper and they're ruined
@Squidmar Miniatures well, yes, I've been using my pair of fabric scissors for years *on fabrics*, but if I ever use them on paper, they'll be out of commission, I'll have to like... sharpen them or something
Not really, they can last you a year for every day use if you use them with acrylics or water colors and don't use them for the dirty work :)
Or even better, leave the 'sable' hairs on the animals, and use synthetic brushes. Sable brushes (which usually aren't even sable hairs, but from minks, ferrets or weasels) are often a by product of the fur industry, and made in China where animal rights laws are non-existant or ignored. Would you wear a fur coat? No? Then don't use a paint brush made from animal hairs. Just google: peta kolinsky sable animal welfare
As a necron player: Fuck
If all else fails and you're thinking of throwing your brush away, hit it with some cheap acetone-based nail polish remover. Acetone breaks down acrylic extremely well but doesn't break down the proteins in hair. It does remove oil however, so you'll need to use a brush soap afterwards to recondition the bristles to working standards.
It's also how you store them, check Etsy for a brush stand made by ArticleStudio. Keeps the brushes inverted and individually separated.