so, i had a brush on it's last legs due to some drybrushing... and i decided to cut it down to three bristles. It works great for eye & supreme detail. i recommend this to anyone tossing those brushes out...

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Customizing our customizing brushes, are we?

Actually that's a really good idea and I've granted a couple of brushes longer life by doing this.

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Wish I'd had though to do that with some of mine before I simply turned them into stirrers (bristles became so clogged they turned into solid blocks.)

What did you use to trim it down? Last time I tried to cut a stray hair off my brush with the Xacto, I lost half the bristles.

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That's cool. I did the same thing. It's the brush I use for the whites of the eyes. Glad to see you got to keep ol' yeller there.

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A very, very fine point pen also works well for eyes and watchfaces.

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I have a couple brushes that have gotten a last minute reprieve by using them this way. Makes detail work a lot easier.

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i used a small fiskars-type scissors (very sharp ) that i picked up at michaels.

there was more luck than science involved...i just quit when i got down to the last couple,
cutting from both sides (it was a flat brush) until i got near the middle -

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I used an xacto...with a sharp tip you can separate out the bristles you don't want and get rid of them pretty easily.

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one step up and two steps back...

so, last night i was letting my brushes soak in dish detergent, as i was going through them too fast to keep them clean... and i forgot them overnight.

so, today i have a bunch of clean brushes that had soaked up so much water in the handles that they split the paint...

oh well, at least they're clean!

//Jm7o: adopting the 'natural' look...

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LOL! Yeah, I think most of my brushes have suffered that fate. Of course most of them are practically antiques anyway...

And a fluke of leaving a small round brush in water too long...


But it's perfect for edges, especially those hard to reach ones. It's now my favorite brush and I keep repairing the place where the handle and metal meet so I can keep using it!

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I cut old, worn out brushes down to detail brushes too. They don't hold there pointy shape too long but I get at least a few more strokes out of them. Like MacGyver I have some curved brushes that I was for certain painting like edging or something that needs a curl look to it. I also have some wild bristle brushes I've used for dry bruching or painting dio stuff with. Some of the worst offenders end up as enamel brushes.

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