Excuse me, are you dipping your brushes in CHOCOLATE MILK?!

I've always wondered about this, how do you all change your water? I've heard that a good way is to have containers of clean water to switch to or something like that nI sound completely lost, because I am, LOL. Help please??

I bring an old juice bottle full of fresh water to keep with me... if I'm outside, I just dump the old water on the ground behind me and refill... if I'm inside, I have to leave my table for a minute to go dump it before refilling, in which case I usually fill it at the tap since I'm there anyway.

Yep... same as perry. I keep a jug o water to refill regularly. But I don't wet my cakes with my rinse water... I have a spray bottle and a dropper bottle for that.

At festvals I have a full 5 gallon water jug that has a little tap on it (I think they make them to put in refrigerators) and a 5 gallon paint bucket. Clean water is in the big jug, and the dirty water goes in the bucket. When I'm done, I put the lid on the bucket and take it home and dump it down a drain. It isn't great for the grass or plants to have paint water all over them, as it interferes with their ability to take in food and sunlight and could kill them. Plus, it doesn't look nice to have a wet and colorful spot on the ground in your booth and if you have another vendor behind your booth, they sure as heck don't want your dirty paint water in their booth either.

JBax wrote:Yep... same as perry. I keep a jug o water to refill regularly. But I don't wet my cakes with my rinse water... I have a spray bottle and a dropper bottle for that.

That's all well and good, but some brands of paint you are not supposed to do this with, especially paint that has a low need of water, like Wolfe or DFX. You spray them like that, it may make them really hard to work with. It's not recomended. But for mehron, it works great. (or so I'm told).

That's why I have the dropper bottle. One drop of water at a time usually is enough for wetting the paint for brush work.

Punky wrote:

JBax wrote:Yep... same as perry. I keep a jug o water to refill regularly. But I don't wet my cakes with my rinse water... I have a spray bottle and a dropper bottle for that.

That's all well and good, but some brands of paint you are not supposed to do this with, especially paint that has a low need of water, like Wolfe or DFX. You spray them like that, it may make them really hard to work with. It's not recomended. But for mehron, it works great. (or so I'm told).

You know I didn't know this and my wolfe black recently seemed kinda mushy and hard to pick up wiith the brush at the end of a long 3 day weekend event. Guess the misting finally got too much for it. Thanks for the tip, I did not know this. My wolfe will get a bit less misting and I'll do more brush dip with that one.

Oh and more on the subject... I have a $1 plastic beach pail I throw my dirty water in and my fresh water is in one of those plastic spout ice tea despencer things...get it at Walmart cheap. I did have a cool Iron man tin waste basket with on eof those foot levers to pop the lid open, I would throw my water in it but I left it at a park gig and it was swiped .

JBax wrote: a dropper bottle.

What exactly is a dropper bottle?

It looks like an oversized version of what the liquid bling comes in. I got it at a beauty supply store. I got the idea from Shannon, I put a drop or two in the center of my black or white, and work from it. It works well for me, anyway.

I have ice cream buckets - two, one for my clean sponges and one for my used sponges. The used bucket starts off with an inch of water in it to keep the used sponges wet (stops them from staining) and then as I work I dump out my water from my water tub into the used bucket on top of the sponges, add fresh to the water tub from a gallon jug of filtered water and continue. At the end of the gig I put the lid on the bucket and go home. If there the a handy sink in a public washroom I will empty the dirty water and refill with clean tap water, just to keep the sponges moist.

I add clean water to my paints a drop at a time from a 4 ounce squeeze bottle (the kind with the flip top lid - you can get them in the travel accessories section of a dept store).

I also use 5 gallon buckets w/ lids & handles. I keep my clean water in 1 & dump my old water into the other. I just dump & then scoop. I usually dump it before the next gig or when I get home. I like this system because it reduces my time away from painting.
Thanks for the tips on the DFX. I've been spraying away.

i keep a large container to wash my brushes then a smaller clean water container to rinse b4 putting into the paint, plus i refill the dirty bucket regularly , either with water bought from home if no taps available or a the local tap. plus use a spray bottle on my tag paints! this seems to work 4 me

I accidentally dipped my brush in my coffee once.
I painted myself and my coffee was just too close to my cup of water.

I've definitely dipped my brush into pop or beer that people put on my table (yes, it's a table, but I'M USING IT!!!), haha. I either drink bottled water, or put it far away from my rinse water...lol

Kristal wrote:I've definitely dipped my brush into pop or beer that people put on my table (yes, it's a table, but I'M USING IT!!!), haha. I either drink bottled water, or put it far away from my rinse water...lol

Do you card the kids before using the beer water on them

after reading through this thread I just had to add...
I kept grabbing the rinse cup when reaching for my soda. Then I drank my paint water! It was awful.

eeeeeewwwww that's yuck.

My friend that I paint with takes 5 ltr container with a tap on it to refill. I had run out of fresh water so I asked her if I could top up, sure no probs.
That was the first gig of the day. Later that night after finishing my last gig I had just finished packing up the car & was very thirsty. So I jump in the drivers seat & grabbed the closest bottle to me & took a big gulp. oh no it was the water I had refilled from my friends container - she adds milton an antibaterial additive to her water cough cought it was sooooo bad.

FYI, it's not a 5 gallon bucket I use but an icecram bucket(why oh why did I write 5 gallon?). I've switched to a gallon water container w/ a VERY secure lid & still dump into the icecram bucket. I had a major spill in my fatmax, soaking my paints & revisited how I was doing this

As far as coffee water goes, I have the 3 cup rinse system. The 1st cup rinses off the majority of the paint, the 2nd cup takes off the rest & the 3rd cup stays clean.

LOl too funny! Didn't see this thread before.

Linda, I am going to try your system!

Okay, I bought these paint cups at Big Lots, in the paint section.They are blue and have a side storage if you wanted to put your paint brushes in them, which I sometimes do if I want to make sure they are clean before I put them back into my holder. I use one container for my dipping water, and one container I add brush bath to so that I can rinse my brushes in it. I dump both sets regularly into a huge mop bucket that is under my other table and I keep jugs of spring water beside my kit to refill my containers.

I do not put a ton of water in my cups at a time, I keep it pretty shallow, but, I change water a lot.

I'm always fiddling with my water setup.

At first I sprayed and dripped/dropped water when I was using mostly Snazaroo.

Now I use mostly TAG with some Kryolan and Paradise so my water system is different:

1. Small stainless steel bathroom cup for washing all brushes
2. Small rectangular dark colored water container with clean water for re-dipping brushes
3. Rectangular plastic container (leftover from deli turkey meat!) for dunking/dipping my sponges
4. Spray bottle for rainbow cake and sometimes my one-stroke cakes

So... yeah. Not very compact but it has the following advantages:

A. My rinse water gets gross but I keep it like 2" deep only so that you can't really see how nasty it is.
B. My clean water is for activating cakes and stays pretty clear even after 4 hours.
C. My sponge water is the biggest container and I need it to be wide and shallow so I can dunk my whole hand into the water and then wring out my sponges. It helps that this is a big old vat of clean water. I watch the parents' faces while I'm wetting and wringing out the sponges and they are fascinated
D. The spray is handy for when my sponge is already loaded and I just need a teeny bit more water w/o re-dunking the whole dang thing (like a rainbow cake!).

Maybe one day I'll be a one cup kinda gal like the Wolfe brothers.

~Heff

Yeah, one cup... but one very icky lookin' cup

I do not think I could ever be a one cup kind of gal. I have tried to condense but I just can't seem to do it any better. I think I must use an over abundance of water or something LOL! Seriously, I should get a Kroger discount for all the water that I buy. I thought of getting a rinse well but realized that I just use way too much water for on one of those things. I read all of the reviews that you guys posted and saved myself $20. I do think going shallow helps to hide the color changing water better.

I posted about what i use in another thread..
it's a material bag that folds up and hold brushes on both sides, you can't see through them and they look great. People ask me all the time "what's in there?"
Doesn't help you with changing it out.... except you don't have to do it as often as you can't see how dirty it is...lol
I spray my paints and reuse the same brushes for white and black so my water doesn't ususally get too dirty unless I get disorganzed and have to use the same brush for red and blue for example.
http://www.jerrysartarama.com/discount-art-supplies/painting-supplies/aqua-tote-travel-water-bags.htm

I keep two small cups with me, one for black and one for white.. All colors go in black cup, only white in the white one.. But since I drop water onto my paints with a little bottle, and I use one brush per color usually, I'm able to avoid the dark water.