A guy in my old art class swore reusing turpentine from a jar that sat for 6 months was fine for cleaning brushes. I tried it last Tuesday and my sable brushes are ruined, the bristles turned stiff and brittle within an hour. He said the sediment would settle and the top layer was still good, but that leftover resin painted a film over everything. Now I'm out 3 decent brushes and a $14 jar of fresh cleaner to try and salvage the rest. Has anyone else gotten bad advice about reusing solvents that cost you more in the long run?
I had this big metal box of 24 gouache tubes I dragged everywhere for years, but after a weekend trip to Asheville I realized half the shades were dried up and I only used maybe six colors the whole time. Swapped the whole thing on here for a compact 12-color travel set and a few tiny mixing wells, plus some spare brushes someone threw in. First week I kept reaching for colors that weren't there, like that weird teal I never actually used, but now I mix everything from primaries and it honestly forces better decisions. The lighter bag is a bonus, my shoulder doesn't ache after sketching downtown for three hours. Anyone else downsize their paint stash and find it changed their style more than they expected?
Last month a woman at the swap table in St. Paul pushed a nearly full set of oil paints on me, saying 'just add linseed oil, they're fine.' I took her word for it and skipped the test swatch. Three paintings in, every tube had turned to stiff putty that wouldn't blend, even after overnight soaking. Turns out they'd frozen in her garage back in January. I lost 14 hours of work and a roll of canvas. Should I just toss the whole lot or is there a way to revive paint that's been through a freeze cycle?
Bought a 12 piece palette knife collection back in January thinking I needed all the shapes. Turns out I only ever use the tiny diamond one and the flat one. The rest are just sitting in a drawer. Could have spent $6 on two singles. Anyone else buy those big sets and only touch a fraction of them? What do you do with the extras, just trade them here?
I had two almost empty tubes of viridian and payne's grey, and someone here swapped me for a beat up set of gouache pans that looked totally dead. I was about to toss them, but I soaked them with a little water and left them overnight. After 2 days of testing, they're way better than my old student grade tubes, the pigment is so much richer and the coverage is unreal. Has anyone else revived dried out gouache or should I just keep buying new tubes?
I had like 8 half-empty tubes of gouache that were crusty and unusable, plus a bunch of scrap watercolor paper nobody wanted. Instead of tossing them, I soaked the dried chunks in a jar of water overnight and turned them into a sort of liquid watercolor wash. Mixed it with a little gum arabic I found in my sister's old kit and used it to prime a sketchbook cover. The colors came out muddy but honestly perfect for a background layer, and it kept 3 tubes from the landfill. Has anyone else tried reviving dried paint with water and a binder, or do you just give up and swap those out too?
I was at Mabel's Art & Drafting on 3rd Street yesterday and saw a whole bin of half-used tubes of Windsor blue and burnt sienna labeled 'free.' Has anyone else found random free paint stashes in weird spots like that?
I swapped with someone on here last week for a brush set that looked barely used, but after two strokes the bristles started falling out mid-painting. Has anyone else dealt with brushes that shed on you and found a way to fix them or just toss em?
I was at the art store last month staring at two sets of watercolors. One was a student grade set for $25 and the other was professional for $80. I went with the expensive ones thinking they'd be better. But now I'm barely using them because I'm scared to waste them on practice sketches. I end up just doing small swatches instead of actually painting. Has anyone else dealt with this guilt about using fancy supplies?
I counted my stash last weekend and found 100 partially squeezed paint tubes. That is way too much for someone who only paints twice a month. Most were colors I bought for one project and never touched again like burnt sienna and dioxazine purple. I put up a list on this swap board and already traded 40 tubes for some decent brushes and a sketchbook. Who else has a number that made them realize they had way more than they needed?
I had a half-used tube of cheap craft acrylic and a fresh tube of Liquitex for a mural I was painting on plywood last month. I used the cheap stuff for the sky and the Liquitex for the foreground details to see if there was a real difference. The cheap paint took three coats to cover and cracked a bit where I layered it thick, while the Liquitex stayed solid with one coat. Has anyone else swapped around paint brands on a big project and regretted or loved the results?
I grabbed a half-used tube of titanium white from a swap and used it with a brush I got in the same trade, but now the bristles are stiff as a board and I'm torn between soaking them in baby oil or turpentine based on two conflicting tips from different artists at the meetup, has anyone tried both and seen a clear winner?
I picked up a bundle of 24 'professional grade' oil pastels from a discount bin at a hobby shop in Portland and got home to find half of them were just wax crayons in disguise. They dont blend at all and I ruined a nice piece of toned paper trying to work with them. Anyone else get burned by cheap art supplies that claimed to be something they weren't?
Met a guy at the recycling center yesterday who was dumping a whole box of half-used Liquitex tubes. I asked why and he said they smelled funky. Turns out old acrylic paint can go bad if it freezes and thaws a bunch. The binder separates and you cant mix it back. He said he tried to use a tube that was 3 years old and it came out chunky and smelled like cat pee. I never thought about that before. I got a bunch of free paint from a swap last month and now I gotta check every tube. Has anyone else run into paint that went bad like that?
A lady at the Portland Art Supply Swap meet last March gave me a whole set of Winsor & Newton brushes just for a half-used tube of phthalo green I was about to toss. She said she needed that exact shade for a sky she was blending, and I was just staring at my dried-up brushes. Anyone else end up with gear they didn't expect just by being at the right swap table?
Last week I traded a nearly full tube of cerulean blue for someone's "barely touched" alizarin crimson, but it was completely dried out and crusty around the cap. Maybe I'm the odd one out here, but hasn't anyone else had more duds than wins with these trades?
I swapped it for some random earth tone that someone said was "vintage ochre" but it's just brown mud. The red was my go-to for mixing flesh tones and now I have to buy a new tube full price. Anyone else give away something they later wished they kept?
I grabbed like 15 of them in different colors, three were even Winsor & Newton brand which is normally crazy expensive. Has anyone else stumbled on a clearance section like that or was I just lucky?
She was right, that $4 pad from the grocery store was basically paper towel, and now I'm stuck with three partly used tubes of Windsor blue because the new paper actually drinks up the paint instead of just soaking it into the kitchen table.
About three years ago I took a watercolor class at the local community center in Toledo. The instructor watched me clean my brushes and said I was pushing paint all the way up into the ferrule, which is why bristles were splaying out after a few months. She made me switch to only swirling the brush in a jar, never jabbing the tip against the bottom. Now I also use a little brush soap after each session and lay them flat to dry. Has anyone else had a teacher correct something you thought was totally fine?
A painter at the local open studio told me I was overworking my acrylics by going back over wet paint too many times. She showed me how to load the brush with less water and lay down colors in one pass. Has anyone else gotten a tip from a stranger that totally changed how you work with paint?
Last spring I hit up the Blick clearance in Salt Lake City and grabbed 3 boxes of willow charcoal for like $8 each. I still have 2 full boxes sitting in my closet because I mostly use graphite now. Anyone else stockpile stuff on sale and then never touch it? Maybe we can organize a local swap for half-used supplies.
She said she used to throw half-dry paint tubes in the trash until a student asked for them for a collage project. Now I save all my leftover acrylics and pass them to beginners at the local community center in Detroit. Anyone else got a stash they're holding onto for no real reason?
I picked up this beat up metal palette knife at a Goodwill in Austin for 3 bucks, just figured it'd be good for mixing. But I slapped some leftover oil paint on a scrap canvas with it and the texture came out totally different than any brush I own. Now I'm kinda obsessed with how much control you actually get with the edge, and I'm wondering if anyone else has had a tool they grabbed for one thing end up totally shifting their process.
She said to use baby oil to break down dried acrylic on bristles, and I tried it on a flat brush I'd written off. Worked way better than soap, has anyone else tested this trick on synthetic brushes?