3/26/2024 Hope this helps! Let me know if I forgot anything, or if you found out something different that I should address. This is for acrylic painting, gesso application brushes, varnish (water-based varnish) brushes and (water-based stains) staining brushes. If brushes are drying after cleaning, lay flat to allow drying time. 3/28/2024 Thank you reader for helping make this better. The stains and varnishes I am uses are all water-based.
If you stand the brushes up to dry, rusting can happen.
The smaller brushes used for painting will also benefit by laying the brush flat to dry. I've seen some people use a rack. I found out that if you use brushes with hogs' hair, make sure to dry them using a paper towel first. Dry it as much as possible before laying out flat. The brush with hogs' hair will get a mold or damage to the bristles if you just lay them to dry while wet.
The synthetic brushes are the easiest to clean and dry, but they still need to lay flat when drying. The wood handle of the brush under the Ferrel (the metal section that crimps the bristles) may rot if you stand the brush with the bristles up when drying.
After the brush is dry, I store the brush using a brush cleaner for conditioning. There are instruction on the back of the brush cleaner how to preserve the brush. I apply a little to the bristles, then wipe the excess with my fingers.
Dry brushes can then be stored upright in a container. You can use a lid, but the brushes must be completely dry. Some brushes come in a container or a fabric case for sorting. I found these are fine as long as the bristles are completely dry.
If you accidently leave a brush with acrylic paint on it, the brush cleaner pictured above works fine to remove the paint. Just be gentle not to break the bristles by bending them before the paint is loose. You can apply the cleaner with some water to the bristles and leave it on for a while (20 minutes or so) and then wipe the brush on a paper towel. Just repeat the process until clean.
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This post addresses the question "What kind of brush do I need to apply gesso?" and Yes! These brushes can also be used to apply acrylic paints to the canvas or board.