I have a quick studio tip to share with you today. I am a really clean painter. Getting paint everywhere bugs me. I don’t paint with gloves or an apron and I rarely get paint on my clothes. That’s not bragging, I just work better when I keep my paints and where they go organized. Sometimes I wonder if I am not missing out on the full studio experience by not flinging paint everywhere and getting it in my beard and all over my clothes! 🙂
Here is a shot of one of my drawers of paint. Some are clean, some are not.
When I would squeeze some paint out of a tube, it seemed like inevitably the tubes would quickly end up looking like this:
Yuck! I’m sorry you had to see that. Those tubes are nasty!
I realized that a large part of the problem was that when I would squeeze paint out of the tube directly onto my palette, some of the paint would get mushed onto the side of the threading at the top of the tube or it wouldn’t be flush with the tube opening and would put excess paint into the cap and it wouldn’t take long for it to accumulate and drip down the tube and onto whatever surface I was storing them. A few years ago I found a little trick that helps me keep my paint tubes clean.
I found that instead of putting the paint directly from the tube onto the palette, I could use a palette knife to cleanly cut the paint from the top of the tube and put it on my palette. It has helped me keep my newer tubes really clean! Here is a little video that I made to show what I do now:
If this isn’t something you already do, I hope that you found this post useful!
Sincerely,
Howard
It’s a stroke of genius. Thank you, Howard.
Cool tip will give it a shot. I hate the runny paint down the tube too.
Thank You!!! I hate when the tubes get all messed up…and when the caps crack or no longer fit back on because the paint is all in the threads! I have spent hours trying to clean them with a razor…only making a mess by accidentally squeezing paint out while doing it. The problem is real! LOL… I am using this method from now on!
AT LAST . . . I’VE FOUND MY OTHER BROTHER!!! Chuckle. Seriously, I’ve been doing just that for a couple of years now, and for some of your reasons. It works well, especially with larger tubes with large caps/openings. Keep painting, brother.
Another tip, to go with this one: you can buy new caps for paint tubes online. Gamblin sells them if you contact them directly and ask, and so do a few other places, I’ve found it’s not a listed item usually but they do have them for sale. Be sure you are getting the right size as there are a few different ones for different paint makers. It’s a good feeling to use a fresh cap after cleaning up your act in the studio so you don’t have to dig old paint out of cap grooves!
Great tip, thank you!
I started doing this as soon as I saw Shari talking about it one of her instagram posts and I’ve been loving it! Thanks for a great little tip, Howard.
I feel so called out.
I realized that a large part of the problem was that when I would squeeze paint out of the tube directly onto my palette, some of the paint would get mushed onto the side of the threading at the top of the tube or it wouldn’t be flush with the tube opening and would put excess paint into the cap and it wouldn’t take long for it to accumulate and drip down the tube and onto whatever surface I was storing them. A few years ago I found a little trick that helps me keep my paint tubes clean.