When I started painting, I didn’t think much about wiping my brush off. I was just eager to paint! A lot of the time, the colors began to intermix within the brush and my paintings were not as clean. This means the colors that should not be there were there on the brush. I was not sure why I was not getting these clean colors. One of the more simple things you can do is just to clean your brush often. Generally, I mix a color, put it on, and clean it directly after. I always want to clean it because I want to make sure the color does not get injected by other colors around it.

I know we want to continue painting when we are in the moment. But, from my experience, cleaning your brushes more often is important for the end result. Especially when you get into something like a sky area. You are really looking for cleaner color there. You do not want the green from the tree mixed with the sky.

In order to get that clean color, you have to have a clean brush. You may need to really clean it out using mineral spirit. Get the color totally out before painting again. Sometimes, it can be enough to wipe the brush on a paper towel to pull that color off. It really depends on the painting, but even cleaning or wiping your brush off will help get that cleaner color and is better than not cleaning the brush at all.

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