How often does one need to thoroughly wash their oil paint brushes?

Between using turps and washing properly with soap %26amp; water?





After every painting session? Once a day? Or can they go a few days without a proper soap %26amp; water wash but being swooshed well in turps?How often does one need to thoroughly wash their oil paint brushes?
I actually don't use turpentine in my oil paintings. It causes cracks in the dried paint over time. It also melts plastic, which I find a little frightening.





TLDR: turpentine is scary. Mineral spirits are cheap, safer, and can be used to get most if not all of the paint off the brush. Soap isn't particularly necessary. Washing only after painting sessions is enough.





I use mineral spirits to initially clean my brushes, like when changing colours and to get most of the paint off. It's easier on the nose and safer than turpentine. It also comes pretty cheap in large cans at home improvement stores. Just don't wash it down the sink - it may clog your pipes. When I'm done with a painting session, if I'm not lazy, I'll wash my brush with soap after getting most of the paint off with the mineral spirits. But really, as long as you wash the bristles with the mineral spirits, the brush should be fine without soap. And you only need to wash the brushes after painting sessions, unless they somehow manage to get paint on them when you're not using them.





I could go into the chemistry of this since we just covered it in my chemistry class, but that would just be over the top.How often does one need to thoroughly wash their oil paint brushes?
Terpentine will clean any oil paint covered brush quickly! i clean it after every session. but depending of the quality of the paint you could go a couple days or a week. if the paint is real oilly. any longer your brush is ruined. but some times it works to get that stuff that gets old drie paint out of the brush. to get oil paint out of clothes there is a secret that should be reveled : dish washer soap.
well, I guess it depends on how you work, on whether or not you're done with a particular colour/tone and whether or not you're lazy...As for me, I don't do it often...a tip I picked up from Marlene Dumas...And to be honest it makes for more interesting paintings...
Well I get lazy and just use turpentine which isn't super good for my brushes. I would say if you don't want them to get hard as fast to use soap and water after every painting session.


Hope this helps :)
Most artists grow quite fond of their brushes and use their favorite ones as often as they can. That said, we should take the best care we can of our best brushes to make them last for years.