DIY Travel Paintbrushes! Make a set for cheap! Video Lecture - Master

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today I'm going to show you how to make
your very own travel brushes because a
bunch you guys asked me to I bought a
set of three of these double ended
brushes from Jerry's Autorama a bun
month ago and they were on sale is $10
for three but they had double ends so it
was like six brushes in one and I
thought it would be perfect if I cut
them in half and have a set of my
short-handled travel brushes that I
could like put in a little envelope or a
little pocket and put with like my
little travel kits cuz they're about
this in my travel tens because of all
this stay a little bit longer but I put
them in like a little pouch or maybe my
um I usually keep like an old sock or
something with the end cut off that I
fold in half and put around one of these
chin so I could slide my brushes in
there but that way I'd have the
versatility of a few different brushes
and I wouldn't take up very much space
plus these are inexpensive enough that I
wouldn't feel like light if something
happened I wouldn't really feel bad if I
lost one these were the best do OB es te
duo by creative Marc I think they're
actually having a BOGO sale at Jerry's
right now currently and then after I cut
them well let's just do it why don't you
explain all this it's just to show you I
just had those there so I can white
balance my camera um so what you're
gonna need is a fine-tooth saw and
you're gonna need a couple of blocks to
to kind of support your brush while you
cut I also recommend that you do this
with inexpensive brushes and what you
want is kind of a brush it comes to a
good point
now the drawback to these brushes I
found was that they have a well they
first they're great points is they have
great great snap great come to a great
point but they don't hold a ton of water
so to correct that what I did and this
is gonna probably horrify you but I'm
actually rubbing them on sandpaper and
what this is doing is it will flag the
ends of my bristles a little bit cuz and
your more expensive synthetic brushes
will be flagged that basically means
like the end of the brush hairs or split
I'm actually gonna take off this top
layer this is just a you can use any
like fine sandpaper this is just like
the kind you'd use to sharpen your
pencils it's just uh it was handy
so that's why I'm using it because I had
it already and so it's not really going
to
that much difference but it's gonna
slightly stop in the brush but since
these are synthetic and really snappy
already I'm not worried about about
losing that and it's going to kind of
fly the NC so they hold more water and
I'm hoping that it might kind of also
abrade I'm trying to get them like whole
shaft of the bristles to make contact
with the sandpaper because I think that
if I can pick that and rough that up
well then it's going to hold more water
and as I'm a water colorist that's what
I want if you're an acrylic artist you
probably don't want to do this or if
you're an oil artist you probably don't
want to do this but this is since I'm a
water colorist that's what I want to do
what I'm doing the same thing here just
going around I'm being gentle I mean I
don't want to I don't want to hurt the
point but I want this brush to hold more
water besides I have a couple smaller
ones in the set for more details so I'm
not even if I do lose a point on this if
it holds more water because there's a
lot this is a nice fat belly it's got a
lot of bristles there so I know that
this is gonna be my most absorbent brush
so I really want to I want to make sure
that that feature is preserved hopefully
I'm not giving anybody that
heebie-jeebies over the sound of the
sandpaper but but you got to do what you
gotta do
I try to standing sponge but it's just
not it's not abrasive enough for that
okay and you will want to rinse off that
brush before you touch it to your
watercolors you're gonna leave some
sawdust behind the sawdust if it's brush
dust I don't know so then what you're
gonna do is are you gonna put your
bristles you'll be your brush across
your two blocks of wood
now if you don't have a double-ended
brush that's fine just cut your brush to
the heat to the length that you want it
I've had to do this before when I've had
long long handled oil painting brushes
it wouldn't fit in my my French easel
box I just cut them down a little bit so
they would fit and not a big deal it's
not difficult to do so I'm gonna shoot
for this little this little divider here
where they goes from black to white but
you could just measure it and make them
all the same length whatever you want to
do they're gonna be slightly different
cuz each other brushes started off is
slightly different so your first couple
like your first cut you're gonna just
have to go kind of slow and make
yourself a little groove
okay so it's the same thing if you're
just cutting a brush short for travel
once you've got that little food they
can go back and forth but I do think
that this saw I think this only cuts on
the push I could be wrong
now if you wanna be real careful kind of
turn a little bit so you don't end up
with a wood like a splinter or anything
now this cut really cleanly now you
could leave it just like that but I'm
gonna round it over a little bit and on
some of the smaller ones actually
sharpened it to quite a point so I could
actually use it for some scraping
aspects I'm gonna show you it in action
we're not probably going to do a
painting but I'll show you some
different strokes and kind of tell you
why I did what I did that way if you're
not crazy about that idea idea you don't
have to do it so for these though since
they're bigger I think I'm just going to
round them off a little bit so I've just
got my multi size pencil sharpener here
and actually I use this pencil sharpener
a lot for my colored pencils so it's
nice to sharpen something like a stick
well a regular pencil actually is
perfect but this will actually kind of
clean the gunk the color pencil gun
cutter my sharpener so it's kind of a
good thing now I do find a sanding
sponge easier for for doing this part is
better will give so it'll kind of poke
around this over and my apologies if
this is giving you guys the creeps
because the sound and other microphones
about a foot away from the sanding
sponge it's probably probably freaking
you out but that's nice and getting nice
and smooth I need more if I need more
sanding I can actually put that right on
top of there and do that there that's
nice and smooth I know I could coat this
with paint in fact that's probably all
do probably coat these are rounded ones
with a little bit of nail polish just to
seal them up really good make them look
a little nicer you don't have to do that
it's totally optional you'll notice like
in a lot of brushes you will have the
end contrasted like that they I know
some some do some don't but half and
half
okay so that's nice and it's not I might
stand it more later but you get do you
get the point so there we have two nice
travel brushes there now I did a sharpen
these and Sandi's to more of a point
they're not like they're not sharp
because when I look at a necro handled
brush I know I'm going right here so
just had it right here
this isn't sharp either these beveled
scrapers aren't sharp the reason all
these scrapers are made of acrylic or
plastic acrylic acrylic is because if
you paint the end it will transfer paint
so I was gonna originally asked my
husband to cut it off on a nice clean
angle and then I was just gonna sand in
paint it but then I realized if I go
scraping my paper I'm gonna leave paint
behind probably just like if you've ever
tried to like you if you're making a
card or your may be tearing watercolor
paper and you go with your frail and
you're wearing nail polish it like to
crease some paper it will leave your
nail polish behind so I didn't want that
to happen on a nice painting so that's
why I opted for that and then I realized
on these smaller brushes if I wanted to
I just took a pic of drinking straw and
cut it in half and I could put that
right on there if I want a longer brush
if that is more comfortable for me to
hold I'm not really that picky but that
is pretty darn comfortable honestly I
was a little afraid that I was gonna
mess the balance up of these brushes
because they were tapered quite a bit
smaller in the center when they were
together so this one matched up with
this this one so it got skinnier in the
center which made it really easy to cut
through but then I was where he don't
know maybe maybe they did that because
of the extra weight on the other side
and I'm gonna feel very off-balance but
I really they're they're lightweight
enough that it's not like the tops are
so heavy then it feels off-balance to me
I would suggest if you do want to do the
straw thing these fatter brushes are
going to need a bigger straw I think
like at fast-food restaurants like that
sell milkshakes probably have bigger
straws that you could just NAB you have
one next time you go in there I probably
like McDonald's or something they have a
fat straw that you could get or like if
you're like us and use glow sticks a lot
like Halloween and stuff they come in a
rigid tube like the glow stick necklaces
and stuff and you could save those and
use that so let's just uh this is
obviously just the back side of a sky
that I was working in skin tones I'm
working on that tutorial from skin tones
up it would clearly I did more work but
but I figured we could do a little
sketch here on the backside of that so
let's just use this first one here I'm
just gonna grab the closest water color
palette oh and I got a rinse don't don't
forget it rinse off your brush after
you've sanded those bristles because you
don't want to get any debris on your in
your watercolor paintings I'm just going
to use these inexpensive Jane Davenport
ones because they're right here on my
table and we'll just I'll just kind of
get an idea cuz because this is let's
pretend we're out in the world and we're
painting a picture so I probably start
off with my juiciest brush which would
be one of these two when you try both of
them um and I would wet the paper look
at that one in the paper pretty well
that's just one different water and I've
got almost a half half of this nine by
twelve paper wet so I didn't show you
before I will tell you it's it's better
to sand these when they're dried you
just get a better abrasion we try to do
it when you're wet the bristles want to
kind of flatten a little bit and it's
and it's just harder to get a give any
sand off quite frankly all right I'm
gonna grab some of this ultramarine
color I think I'll add mixing a little
bit of this uh kind of brings in a light
color nothing wrong with painting with
these I think the flat actually is a
little bit more absorbent than my around
yeah I think this one actually for some
reason maybe the personal note the vs.
aren't longer for whatever reason this
one see maybe I stay into this one a
little more vigorously it seems to be
holding more water get a nice guy this
is not going to be like some fantastic
painting guys this is just me showing
you what I would do here if I was using
this out in the field then you do a
little bit more so a nice dark sky
always add my color to the top of the
sky this is really cheap paper by the
way so it's a Daler Rowney aqua fine
that sketchbook but I just love it
because I don't have to worry about it
I'm not like fretting that oh my gosh
I'm ruining his paper on this graphics
painting made
got a couple of clouds my rag maybe add
in a little bit of a little bit of
shadow there under those clouds I feel
like I could control this is it's still
the fattest one in this in this set just
put a few gray clouds in there maybe put
in some water I don't know why I'm
painting this like lame landscape um cut
because I want to show you some effects
okay so that's we're gonna put in to
make some green oh my gosh this is
horrible
alright so I'm going to just grab some
really bright green and grab some warm
yellow okay so let's say we were doing
some grasses here and for whatever
reason I can't get a fine enough line
well let's try the finer lines with
these little brushes okay that's giving
me a finer line except I'm going into
wet paint but that's fine so I've got
that I've got that availability but then
if I want to get some really fine dark
lines I can scrape with the bottom of
that brush where I had um where I had
sharpened SOC now I have all these
really nice fine lines there um
now I might have like a puddle and let's
say I decided I wanted to extend this
brush so I've got that on the end of my
brush there and I've got this puddle I
can actually draw some lines up with
that use that like a nib of a pen it
will give me super super fine lines like
I was doing hair or something so so
that's useful there and I'm sure I'll
need to trim it because it will run
it'll get kind of frayed or soft with
use but it you know even if it's frayed
or soft I could still use it as a handle
to balance my brush if I am concerned so
I'll just give you a quick a quick
overview of what my brushes what the
shapes are here I got the set first ten
bucks like I mentioned I don't know if
it's still on sale because it was kind
of like a BOGO thing but
but it might be I mean because it was
like an overstock thing it might but it
might be a he might be like a it should
be in the BOGO sale because it's a
creative Mart product so there's that so
you get a lot of uh holds quite a bit of
pain look at that I mean I'm going right
to town with those swirls can't claim
about that I did sand all of these so I
am getting much better results that I
was originally so we got this flat those
two were there were were there mates and
then we get the medium sized brushes
which would be like this guy here and
this one here I think Oh know what this
was the smallest one right here I
grabbed the wrong one first that's
alright get the hang of it so that was
the smallest one that was going like
with tons and tons of paint for a long
time that ones doing pretty well too and
our two biggest ones I go is just so
over this and do something on top of it
so and this is really cheap paper so
please don't fret if you're like oh my
gosh you're wasting all that paper
that's terrible
forget about it not important okay so
but I'm like most excited about the big
brush because I like how I can get a
pretty fine line there but I also have a
nice wide line I can get because it's
such a fat thirsty brush and it's
thirsty here because I sanded it and
then we've got this nice flat here which
I was surprised at how much it held
that's a pretty color that's like a teal
that was the de l'eau blue and they
little greens very pretty this but this
one I think I was a little more
aggressive when I sanded this one
because this one holds quite a bit but
there you have it so again to recap to
do the extender on the fatter brushes
you're going to need a fatter straw such
as a milkshake straw if that's important
to you
doesn't really bother me but then but
you do want to cut your straw a kind of
short so that it can go like in your
little case or tin or whatever and I
wish I had grabbed my you if you this is
gonna sound weird okay so you take out
like a tube sake and cut the toe off and
you fold it in half a couple times you
could tuck the ends of those brushes in
you can actually slide the sock over the
outside of your palate or you know what
you could sew a little pocket in your
painting rag or whatever just to kind of
keep them handy or you could make
yourself a fancy pouch sell yourself a
fancy pouch or something but I like how
this is small if you actually put it in
your if you wear a smock you could put
in your smock pocket or if you wear like
a like a like a big men's shirt as a
painting shirt you could tuck it right
in here like the little pencil protector
pocket the men's shirts have and that
would be a great way to store them but
they've got I've got a beautiful set of
six short little brushes this would have
costed me like 50 bucks to go by I made
it myself for ten so I'm very pleased
with that I hope you give something like
this a try maybe you have some old
brushes in your stash they just aren't
getting the love because um they're not
your favorite so you don't bother using
them in the studio they're not quite as
absorbent as the brushes that you
usually love to use but you need a set
to go traveling with it's a perfect fit
get those brushes you're not using try
this you know if you're not using anyway
then they're already bought and paid for
so practically could be a free project I
hope you enjoyed this I will skip back
I'll show you I did a few little
examples with the on an old page here I
was when I was just kind of first
experimenting the before and like as
before with these brushes I would get
like maybe four inches of watercolor
before it started to break up books
about four inches of watercolor before
the start to break up and then I just
really hazy lines and then after cutting
after sanding them you can see I get
much better lines after sanding it once
I could get like a full line like that
so I got double the flow of my of my
brush so you know again it's a do it at
your own risk type of project but but
I'm really happy I did it and now I have
this lovely set of six little travel
brushes um so there you have it I hope
you enjoyed this tutorial please give me
a thumbs up if you did until next time
happy grab
ding