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Hello friends, I enjoy painting with watercolors and acrylic paints. While I work with watercolor paints sometimes I have my paintbrushes soaked in paint and I need to rest it while I work with another paintbrush simultaneously. It is important that the paint on the brush doesn’t touch other surfaces. I had some air dry clay ideas in my mind for which I had this material handy.
Find video that will guide you through the entire process of making DIY brush rest to painting Van Gogh Starry night inspired art.
Paint Brush Rest DIY
Make a Van Gogh inspired paint brush rest DIY with air dry clay. An easy idea with starry night painting using acrylic paints for the artist inside you or a gift. I will guide you through each process to create this beautiful brush rack that can hold 4 paint brushes at a time. You can make variations according to your need.
Materials:
- Air dry clay
- Blade tools
- Sculpting tool set for beginners (optional)
- Basic paintbrushes
- Nail file
- Acrylic paints
- Fine tip paintbrushes
- Painting acrylic palette
- Mod podge
- Jar filled with water
- Wax paper
Instructions:
Making Air Dry Clay Brush Rest:
- Start by rolling air dry clay into a roll. Make sure it is sized proportionately from both sides.
- Use a blade to mark the brush resting areas. Measure and keep equal distance between each rest zone.
- Now diagonally mark and cut the sides to give it a nice shape. Scoop out some clay to make hollow spaces where you can rest the paint brush.
- With some water wet a basic paintbrush to smooth out the sides and resting spaces.
- Let it dry for 24 hours on a piece of wax paper.
- Use a nail filer to adjust any imperfections once it dries and use a tissue paper to remove the dust.
Tip: Place air dry clay in a airtight plastic bag and vacuum out any air that is manually possible. Compress it and place in an airtight jar for double insulation. This way your clay will stay fresh for future projects for months.
Painting Van Gogh Starry Night:
- You will need acrylic paints in deep blue, sky blue, green, yellow, and white.
- Follow the video instructions to mark and dab paint that resembled the great artist’s style of painting.
- Try using thick paint so your colors are bright and vibrant.
- Let it dry for 20-30 minutes.
- Use mod podge to coat and seal your ceramic brush rest. I am using gloss mod podge to give it some fine shine and gloss look. You can choose to use matte if you don’t want shine in your piece.
That’s about it. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I also made a matching Van Gogh Painted Brush Holder.
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