What is that thing on your desk? Keep it clean!

Everybody has it. It is standing on your painting desk and it looks like some strange genetic experiment. It is colorful and you probably have a deep emotional tie to this thing. The thing I am talking about is you brush water container. Maybe it doesn't bother you, and you see it as some kind of badge of honor to own the most colorful and filthy thing on the planet. It may be that this state is a testament of your dedication to the hobby and nobody may touch it other than yourself. In fact, nobody else would dare to do so. In this case, stop reading there is nothing here for you.

In my case, I use a simple glass for my brush water. It is one of the type of glasses you can buy at the art supply store that come with this metal spiral you can use to hang your brushes in above the glass of water. However, I stopped using this spiral, because I do not like the way the spiral damages the wood handles of my precious brushes. So, it turns out that my glass had turned into a beast as described above, colorful and filthy. So I decided to clean it.

So what makes up the mess in this glass? One major part is lime. The water you put in is sitting there for hours, and of course it evaporates. While evaporating, it leaves these neat dirty rings. If you sometimes forget to clean out your container after a painting session the water evaporates completely, leaving lime at the bottom. This lime will be mixed with the paint you washed out of your brushes and the dust that collected over the days you forgot to clean out the water. In addition the upper area is probably decorated with a lot of paint.

To clean this up, just get some cheap descaler used for water heaters. Put in some of the liquid of powder, fill the glass completely with hot water and wait. After a little while, the natural acids from the descaler will have dissolved the lime and the old paint at the top will have softened enough for you to be able to remove the rest easily. Rinse it a few times with clean water and you are done.

Yes, it is that simple. You may also get away by using some vinegar you have in your kitchen. Does it somehow affect you painting? Well not so much I guess. Having clean water is always better. However I think the core point is that you should care about your tools and keep them clean. Also clean up your work area from time to time. This will really help. Especially if you have little time to paint this will probably reduce the time you need to get started painting and increase your actual time slapping paint on your minis.

Take care,
Dominic