Clean-As-You-Paint Tip

In a recent entry, I wrote what you could do to easily remove paint from your fingers when painting. This article addresses a very basic and straightforward problem and that is how to deal with smudges.

In painting jobs where you need to finish intricate parts, it is seldom where there won't be accidental smudges. This is especially so if you mistakenly used a bigger paintbrush for the job.

When to Wipe Paint Smudges

The best time to wipe clean these paint smudges or smears is as soon as they happen. It is so easy to miss several spots if cleaning up is done after a long painting job. The longer the paint smudge is left uncleaned, the harder it will be to remove. Left long enough, the paint dries thoroughly and may be impossible to remove.

A spot here, a spot there, the paint job isn't really finished if you, as the painter, missed a spot. You may have unnoticed it, when cleaning up, but these smudges are hardly invisible to a casual observer.

In the example below, sets of windows were being painted with quick-dry enamel paint.


To do the clean-as-you-paint tip:

1. Dip a small rag into the suitable paint thinner.
   
2. Always carry the wet rag as you paint.
   
3. When a smudge happens, cover a finger with the rag and wipe clean as shown below.

After finishing a window pane or two, briefly scan the painted area before moving to the next.


The key is to wipe-clean the smudge as it happens. By doing so, you'll be sure there won't be any missed spots.