How To Rescue Dried Out Watercolor Tube Paint 4 Ways Kathy Weller Art

[@deepasureshdumblekar6792]

Thanks for showing in detail how to tackle dried tube paints in different stages. Very detailed explanation. Felt good knowing there are many wonderful people out there who still want to revive items which can be used, rather than just do use and throw, wasting hard-earned money. Thanks for being like me.

[@SN-sz7kw]

So this was weirdly satisfying. 😂 Just my kind of thing. Makes me regret throwing away some tubes early on. Never again! 💗

[@spirit006theassassin]

Autopsy of paint tubes. I love it!

[@kathywellerart]

Thanks so much! I’m so glad I made this video. It’s fun to watch again and again! Slicing up paint tubes and digging paint out of them never gets old! 😆🙌

[@nyreeburt.author]

All I do is use a bulb dropper and drip water into the top of the tube, massage it until the water drops lower in the tube, then keep adding drops of water - how much depends on the size of the tube - not too much or the paint gets too thin. Place the top back onto the tube and put the tube away for a few weeks. Hey presto, rescued tubes of paint without any mess.

[@nuskisxendoza9869]

This video was a treat to watch :) not just for the useful tips, but for how relaxed your conversation was and the way you spoke about the colours. Thank you! :)

[@kathywellerart]

Thanks so much, Nuski Sally!! I'm so glad you liked it! :)

[@annehenderson9207]

I'm a lapsed watercolour painter & my tubes are in bad shape. LOVE this video which has inspired me to tackle those babies and get back to painting. Thank-you!

[@kathywellerart]

Awesome!! Not much is better than free art supplies!! 😁

[@gillianbc]

Messy job to do, but when you consider how much a tube of watercolour paint costs, it's worth getting every scrap out of a tube. Good idea to use the little cups.

[@kathywellerart]

Thank you Gillian! Yes the little cups help. I wish they were a little bigger, and easier to snap shut. I guess nothings perfect! 😆

[@henrietta9206]

Gillian is so right...my current watercolors are $1 (no kidding, $1) and im still going strong! no need to buy!

[@tonybmore4929]

Thank you for this one, didn't know I could salvage old tunes. It's one of those odd jobs that never gets mentioned in tutorials. I received dozens of watercolour paints from a friend who took classes yrs ago, that left many expensive tubes mostly full that partially dried out. This was brilliant .... so happy money saved, hundred actually.

[@mjpete27]

Hullo Kathy, thanks for sharing your thoughts and techniques for “rescuing” watercolor paints from dried tubes! Excellent instruction video and it is as relevant today as it was 5 years ago!

[@kathywellerart]

You are so welcome! THANK YOU for watching and commenting!!

[@himanartx]

Very helpful video

[@kathywellerart]

Thanks!!

[@henrietta9206]

Kathy you're awesome! I have fun and feel like im saving my own tubes (2 decades...yes, 20 years) I feel all new and alive again that I can use up whatevers in the attic... thank you! thanks for sharing!!! ❤

[@mariongowland402]

Great tips for dried tubes. Love your humour. Thanks

[@treeskiian]

Excellent demo!

[@mydogeatspuke]

This is one of the reasons watercolour was the best option for me. Nothing is ever wasted. As long as the binder hasn't stained the pigment, every drop can be salvaged. It's a lot of hard work vs just opening a tube and pouring, but worth it I feel if you've already spent a very large sum on the tube(s) to begin with.

[@rosemarywhite1]

Just what I needed today! Your excellent video saved me from spending $27.00 on a new tube of quin magenta. I can rescue what feels like a half tube of Winsor and Newton quin magenta dried almost solid. Now I'll check the rest of my "retired" dried tubes. Thank you! (glad I don't throw things away)

[@catnipcake6987]

Wow!! Lifesaver!! I am a 'lapsed' watercolorist & ready to get back in the groove...unforch, pretty much ~all~ my tubes of paint are..calcified. 😿 If they were Amber resin, I'd be finding little ancient insects and plants in there. Come to think of it, Amber is probably SOFTER than some of this paint 🤔 (I am in the southwest USA. Single-digit humidity) but NOW..!!! I HAVE HOPE!!! This actually looks like a pretty satisfying prep project in its own! Thank you so much for the tutorial!!😸🌺🌼🌸💗

[@soutrikdas6566]

Excellent video - I have a bunch of dried aquarelle tubes and this video just helped me decide not to throw them away!

[@kathywellerart]

Great!! Try using distilled water because I think it’s safer for this!! Good luck!!

[@denismoran670]

Thanks, Kathy for this money saver ( as well as env. friendly, with no waste) tip - looks like I'll be spending time reclaiming my dried-up paints! I ordered the pot set today - one tip I used to use when mixing/rejuvenating my small tins of enamel paint ( add turps instead of water!) was to put them in the back box of my motor bike, the slight vibration of the box mixes them up beautifully! You can use a car boot (trunk), but it may take a little bit longer ( one instance where an old banger scores over a posh car!). Diolch eto, Den, Abertawe, Cymru (Wales)

[@lydkoch9209]

Awesome! I had a brand new $19 tube of cobalt violet, it was a few years old and solid as a rock!

[@kathywellerart]

Hope you are able to fix it! Also I think you could also just use it like a solid pan of paint, if you didn’t want to go through the trouble of rehydrating it! 🙏

[@jolieroundy9007]

Such a satisfying video! Thank you. I'm not sure about watercolors, but with acrylic paints, the smell comes from adding water and then potting the left over paint.

[@kathywellerart]

Ah! Thanks for sharing!!

[@KristinNoheJuchs]

Super fun to watch you do this!

[@kathywellerart]

The hardest part of making videos is editing them to be fun to watch! Thanks a lot, Kristin! Hey, I got the coil today! Thanks!! :D

[@nancyzacks2210]

Thank you! I knew someone would’ve made a video about this.

[@pau2727]

I came across this video while trying to save some dried watercolor tubes, thank you so much! This is kinda unrelated, but what you said about burns, what we do at home is wash the burn with cool water and dry it carefully; then put some mustard on top of it and let it be for some hours. Afterwards, the burn won't sting! Not sure how much it does in terms of healing more quickly, but it's our go-to remedy when we get burned :)

[@maricristinacastel]

Hi! Interesting advise about how to heal a burn, and banana bread thing... lovely to hear it how it comes so spontaneously out of nowhere. I don't have the same problem with my watercolor tubes, my thing is that the tap got broken, and I have to find a way to keep the paint from getting dry... I will use your method for fresh paints :) Thanks. Lovely you hear you!

[@drbettyschueler3235]

I came across my first tube of dried out paint and was wondering what the best way to get the paint out would be. Thanks for the tips.

[@moniqueri160]

Great way to save old paint ! Don't forget to lable the little plastic containers right away to avoid confusion later on.

[@kathywellerart]

Seriously excellent tip!!!

[@musicmomcarrot]

What an excellent video, thanks! Your camera angle is really great too, so the viewer can actually see what you are doing. Sorry about your banana bread burn!

[@MmeT]

I spent a small fortune on colors, then stopped painting for years. So 😊I can revive those old colors!

[@kathywellerart]

That is awesome! They will still work!! And you don’t even have to reconstitute them like I’m doing here. Once you get them out of the tubes, can use them like paint pan watercolors, too!

[@pameladiegel5789]

So helpful, I bought art 40 dried up tubes of Winsor/Newton w/cs. Now I know to buy to little cups. Thanks

[@kathywellerart]

Pamela, GREAT!! If I do it again, I’ll buy BIGGER cups! Just want to share that!! A little extra room would have been better!! Good luck with it!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@lourdesfernandez3162]

LOVED THIS VIDEO!!!! I think I have a dozen little and medium tubes. I'm going to 'operate' on them this week for sure. Too bad I threw away about 10 of them a few months ago!😔 THANK YOU for this useful video. 🙂❤

[@kathywellerart]

You’re so welcome! I’m going to try this with gouache, too! We shall see!

[@jackieojeda6101]

I really dig the way you got all that paint out! I have some but they are watercolors so I put water in em and then I just forget about them! Oops! I guess that my next agenda to scrape them out!!😁

[@kathywellerart]

If they are pans, and you put water in them and then forgot about them, just put more water in them and leave overnight and then work on them the next day! I actually have an upcoming video where I do this with a Japanese watercolor pan set that's gotten very dried out! they look great now, like a new set of paints! I will edit and post this video soon! :)

[@ramnihorsingh4471]

Omg I love all of your videos

[@DarkMoonSanctuary]

That is so great..I reclaim my paint as well. At the end tho I take a damp brush and clain the inside of the tube out with it dripping the paint into my container.

[@kathywellerart]

Great tip!

[@catmoon2009]

Great idea thank you

[@ArtBrain]

Very interesting. I wonder if my strategy would be to slice it open and wait for the sticky ones to dry into a brick. Then peel off the tube material from the brick.... But thank you. This gives me confidence to tackle my first dried out tube (DS Hematite Genuine). Having dried out watercolor, I feel like I've truly arrived! ;-).

[@kathywellerart]

Hee hee! That’s one way to look at it!! 😂😁

[@Cobaltblueprism]

Thank you so much!

[@grahamekellermeier8280]

Great video at today's prices difently not throwing out the old dried paints.

[@louieb_4855]

I had the same idea, I'm glad I found your channel.

[@catherinecarlson6164]

I will try this. I threw out a lot of Winsor and Newton watercolors, which might have been saved.

[@markdonovan1540]

Excellent video, and I must say I've been there several times! I usually put the salvaged paint into empty pans, but those small pots look like a great alternative and will allow me to mix water and gum arabic to the dregs more easily. Yeah, gloves might be a good idea, but because it's such a fiddly task, bare hands are better - just have to be careful to stay away from the cut edges of the tube and sharp blades of tools being used on the "operating table"... What I'd like to know is how to prevent this happening in the first place. Do you think adding a drop of water to the tube each time it's opened might help? Or maybe squeezing paint to the top just before screwing top back on might prevent too much air getting in - this is what I've started to do recently, and also after closing the top maybe give it all a nice gentle squeeze and rub treatment, possibly repeating the process of pushing out any trapped air again. Maybe paint manufactures think tube paint will get used quite quickly, which would suit them as we'd have to buy replacements more often! But most of us hobby painters don't go through paint so quickly. My dried up paints have often been Daniel Smith brand, which are not cheap. So I'm a bit disappointed about that. With cheaper paints, like Van Gogh, then I'd just dispose of the old tube, but with Daniel Smithj paints they are way too expensive to let go to waste.

[@kathywellerart]

Great question about squeezing the tube before storing. I have no idea if it would help though. I bet there’s a blog post on this somewhere in the Googleverse!

[@melaniehellum1281]

Good video , I was doing this yesterday with some dried out tubes didn't know what I was going to reconstitute the paint in good tip on the little cups. Going to get some and some magnets make a little tray good to use up paint .

[@everartokelli]

I really appreciate your investigation into this, seeing all the different textures was helpful. I put the dried paint right into a half or full pan, just add enough water to get it to stick to the plastic and use it like a hardened pan. In the past I added glycerin and water and stirred it up as you did, but found the above method worked just as well for most pigments. FYI, honey works great for burns, it has the same ph as human skin and helps it heal quickly :)

[@kathywellerart]

Thanks Everart! Have you used honey in the reconstituted paint? I’ve heard of using honey as a watercolor paint additive but have never used any!

[@everartokelli]

I don't use honey in my watercolors, I just drop a tiny bit of food-grade glycerin in the pans or wells for colors that are hard to rewet. It doesn't take much. I'm not a big fan of honey because the paint stays sticky, while the glycerin added paints dry nicely (although even a drop can make the paint shinier). But I know that some artists like honey for this purpose. I do use M Graham and Sennelier paints, but am not a huge fan of honey-based texture :)

[@kathywellerart]

Great feedback on both your paint reconstitution experience AND on honey for a burn!! :)

[@silverhoney6969]

Very cool video! I discovered my good quality watercolor tubes (that I’ve had since I was a teenager) & many were hard &dried up. Still saving them because I couldn’t bear to part with them. Very happy that I thought to search for a way to rehydrate them & found your video. Suggestion/ question- with those wet & sticky tubes, would it be worth it to cut them & let them dry out the rest of the way, to make it easier to scrape out? Instead of fighting with the gooey sap. Or maybe there are tough silicone/rubber tools that could scrape it out when it’s wet like that.

[@kathywellerart]

That is an excellent idea!

[@briarbat]

Thank you so much!! I was so disappointed to see my expensive gouache tubes were either bone dry or a clay consistency. They are still soaking but most have already fully incorporated and are ready to paint with again!!

[@sesanger712]

For burns, put Lavender essential oil on it as soon as possible! It is miracle stuff.

[@rosm6621]

And don't forget to label the containers BEFORE you throw away those empty cut up tubes.

[@kathywellerart]

Great tip!!

[@catnipcake6987]

!! I was just wondering about that! Maybe with a sharpie & white medical tape, or just writing directly on the lid, I guess?

[@Chemistchannel22444]

@@catnipcake6987 Maybe look to get a glass marker? We use those in the chemical lab and they will stay clear on the glass even after extensive abuse from heat, cold and nasty-ness, but you can scrape m off with your nails or some acetone real easy after use :)

[@pimaseyer6649]

Thank you for this vid! I have a few DS watercolor tubes and though they're almost empty and dried, it would be a waste to just throw them away.

[@suryasreejith5866]

Useful 👍

[@adrianaascenti5829]

Grazie. È stato molto utile. Una domanda ho parecchi tubetti di tempere completamente secchi. Posso recuperare? Come?

[@mangomariel]

This is great! Gonna do this for sure! ^ Another thing you can do is just mix all the small dried pieces you have and it will become a grey or a brown. For example you might have lots of small areas on your mix board or plate.

[@mangomariel]

Also if you know you are gonna paint a scene with a lot of that color, a forest for examlple, you can just crack open a tube like in the video here. And just put water directly on us that paint right from the tube.

[@nicoleperron3315]

I threw out about 5 because there wasn't much left but I did this for about 10 tubes. Most of mine were rock hard but some videos said you can use them as pan paints. I did add a tiny bit of water to a few but I'm leaving it open so they evaporate, several videos recommended this because there's aparently problems with mold within a few days if you add water? They said to add glycerin to the paint but I don't have any. I have windsor and Newton, Holbein and Rembrandt. Also do you do this with cadium paint that carry the warning labels for cancer? A few of mine have these labels.

[@kathywellerart]

I have heard of paints getting moldy too when you don’t use distilled water. I HAVE had the mold experience with acrylic paints, but not with watercolor. Tbh I may have used distilled water in my second paint video but I don’t think I used distilled water here. As for the pigments like cadmium, you are so right. You do not want to be touching it! 🤪

[@mochiyhx]

Can i still save my paints if the caps have been dunked in water, closed back up and put to the side for 5+ years? A few of them are still usable so im not sure if i should go through the trouble of cutting them to see

[@kathywellerart]

I don’t know. 🤔 That’s a trial and error experiment!

[@Tonk5430]

Hi Kathy, I'm doing this myself but my question is, would you also ever add gum arabic, if so how much? My hard paint was like rubber so I've done the same as you before seeing this vid. I cut the end off the tube then cut up the side. At the end I wash the foils into all blues together to make a unique blue wash, then the same for all the other colours. Thanks for your info.

[@kathywellerart]

Cool idea to mix them all up! I know what you mean about the rubbery texture of some of your dried paints. In my experience with this, there’s two factors- (1) different companies use varying types and amounts of binders and (2) the amount of binder varies depending on the specific pigment. From there, it’s all case by case basis on the texture of the dried paint and how much reconstitution is needed. But in all of my paint reconstituting I have not had to add any additional binder to the dried paint. I believe it would have diluted the pigment and any binder existing in the dried paint was adequate amount and also seemed to still be doing it’s job upon reactivation with water. Hope this helps!

[@Tonk5430]

P.s I guess you answered the question about the gum arabic with the caption before i saw it. Thanks.

[@kathywellerart]

Welcome!

[@lifeismusicparnadonkers]

Wow thats allot of paint. How long does tubed watercolour paint stay liquid ? I just opend my Pebeo watercolour tubes to swatch them. 😊i love this video. Its super helpfull. Thank you for this video😊👍🏾🖐🏾

[@kathywellerart]

Thanks so much for letting me know it’s helpful! The length of time they take to dry out depends on so many things like storage and how much of the liquid carrier the company uses in the formulation of the paint - this is evident when you start cutting open tubes from different manufacturers because some of the paints might dry really gummy and stringy and others might dry out more crumbly! And then others might not have dried out much at all! It’s interesting! But I’d say on average and depending on the tube, these tubes were about 4-8 years old when I cut them open!

[@lifeismusicparnadonkers]

Thank you Kathy Weller

[@zhinekelsang3768]

Very satisfying to watch, and a great tip. How do you know how much water to you put in?

[@kathywellerart]

You just eyeball it, really. Use your best judgment! 👍

[@RebeccaCollinsartpaw]

This is great!

[@kathywellerart]

Thank you, Rebecca!!

[@laura4562]

Dotting tool is actually called a stylus in decorative painting.

[@BeachMum]

Have you thought about taking a wet brush to the remainder of the tube, sop up as much paint as possible from the tube and then wiping the brush into the pot to get as much as you possibly can before you add any water to the pots?

[@kathywellerart]

That is an option to try! If you try it, let us know how it goes! :)

[@juliekraut7218]

Why not let the sticky, semi hard tubes dry out after opening? Looks easier and less messy to take out.

[@kathywellerart]

I guess you could do that! I just figure do them all at once instead of set aside a few tunes for next year.

[@polii8845]

Greet video, very educational! If I may ask, how long can you keep a brand new watercolor tube? Brand new, unopened and all. I'm considering buying a bunch of them and my biggest concern is them drying out before I can even use them (I tend to store them for a long time)

[@loati94]

I can't really know for sure because it depends on a lot of factors like temperature and storage method but that being said. I have opened watercolor tubes from 18years ago that are hard as rocks, others are gummy and others that are still wet. And I also have some unopened that by the touch are either good as new or just slightly more thick but they'd still pour. Do have in mind that sometimes in art stores, people open tubes to see the colors in person so what you think is an unopened tube might not be. Also something great about watercolors is that even if they are hard as rocks you don't necessarily need to reconstitute them. You can use them as if they were pans. Just wet the hard paint a couple minutes before painting and they are good to use.

[@kathywellerart]

Hi Poli! I think the two biggest factors are 1) ingredients used in the tube watercolor (pigments and binders and if/how they tend to separate over time or how quickly they dry out) and 2) how you store them (temperature, heat, humidity, airtightness) so it’s really an individual thing. I’d say store them in a cool dry place and we’ll-capped, but there’s really no way to say how quickly they will dry out. I keep my tubes forever! Then when I find them to be dried out (can take 5 years for me) I’m going to go in and rescue them!

[@kathywellerart]

Totally agree!! Use the dried out tubes as pans!!! Yes yes yes!!

[@polii8845]

Thank you all for the advice!!! I'll be sure to store them properly

[@Nazmiziri]

So can this work with completly died out watercolor? I bought some watercolor paints the other day and was disapointed to find out that some of them were dried out. btw love the vid

[@everartokelli]

In my experience, most dried watercolor can be used just like pans. The only exception would be if they have a weird odor, which only happened to me once.

[@muskndusk]

If you can get the tops off, I wonder if injecting the tubes with water would rehydrate them; using a blunt syringe, of course. I have some old dried up gouache which needs using up.

[@kathywellerart]

Great thought! My only worry is that my tubes have all the space squeezed out of them, so since the water wouldn’t be absorbed immediately by the dried out paint, the water would not be able to be pushed into the tube. Might work with a soft plastic tube, though- although I’ve only seen acrylic or acrylic-gouache paint in tubes like that, but it could happen!

[@StephanieBourbon]

OMG awesome. I had no idea that you had a channel!!! w00t! watching now, subscribed. This is amazing. I miss real painting. ;)

[@kathywellerart]

I am with you! I’ve been working on my iPad Pro for months and I LOVE IT but I should pick up a paintbrush !!! 😂❤️

[@catmoon2009]

Kathy do you happened to know how to store new tubes to keep them fresh longer ? Thank you

[@kathywellerart]

Hi Juliane! Thanks for asking! I don’t know off the top of my head, but I am sure there is a video on that here on you tube somewhere! I’m gonna look that up now, too! ✅

[@catmoon2009]

@@kathywellerart thank you dear I will look into this

[@pialehmann9806]

I heard gum arabica to liquify?

[@kathywellerart]

Hi Pia! Yes! You can use tht however you usually do not have to because it's a binder often used in watercolor paints. When wetter, it does reconstitute though.So, if there's already gum arabic in your paints that are dried out, the gum arabic itself will also reconstitute when you wet it.

[@Maria-vo7pw]

The water and paints keep separating. Is there a fix?

[@kathywellerart]

I'd try a little binder such as gum arabic, let it set, and see if that does the trick!

[@Maria-vo7pw]

@@kathywellerart thanks!

[@emilialechuga9341]

is there any way to fix them without cutting open the tubes?

[@kathywellerart]

Hi Emi! I have not tried any other method. You could try putting a tube in a bowl of hot water. If you try this, I’d make sure the cap is closed tightly. I don’t know if it will work at all but it’s worth a try on a tube with a little squish left in it, but I don’t think it will do anything to budge really dried out paint. Good luck and if you try it, please come back and share your findings.

[@FerielBG3112]

if i put the tubes in some hot water without cuting ; Will it work ?

[@kathywellerart]

Not sure! If you try it, please do report back! 👍

[@FerielBG3112]

@@kathywellerart i tried the hot water ; i think i did something wrong it didn't really worked ; but it's more moist/loose ; i will try again

[@arvindshukla8040]

@@FerielBG3112 did it work the second time?

[@blxvkpxndx]

i used Gum Arabic and water. thank you

[@kathywellerart]

B l a c k P a n d a Great! :)

[@melaniehellum1281]

Record the info on the tube and swatch as you go . Cause I didn't at first then I'm digging around the tubes looking for info I destroyed. Gack !

[@beckywebb1916]

I need to do this for all of my dried up watercolor and gouache. I’d have to remember to label all of the jars, too. Do you know if Blick has slightly larger jars to hold the bigger tubes of paint? I try not to spend too much time in there; I get all swirly-eyed if I stay too long!

[@kathywellerart]

I don’t know if they have larger jars, but it’s a good question! the extra room would be welcome. if they do, I’m getting bigger ones next time. 👍

[@PaulaBean]

Paint tube surgery saves a ton of money!

[@kathywellerart]

It really does!! 😄👍

[@53dumane]

Could you please make another video for tube of dried-out acyrilic paint? I want to explain it to my mother

[@kathywellerart]

Hi Elif! Thanks for asking! Unfortunately acrylic paint has binders in it that don’t allow for reconstitution once it is all dried out. Once it’s dried out, it’s dried out for good.

[@sideways586]

I just cut the tubes open and use the paint that's there, It performs no different than squeezing it out into a pan to dry.

[@kathywellerart]

Sounds perfect!

[@shreegupta1355]

Can I use this method on acrylic paint

[@kathywellerart]

Nope. Once acrylic paint is dry, it’s not reconstitutable.

[@murcielagofeliz]

There were not soo soo dry....

[@kathywellerart]

There was one that was totally dried out and I had to crack the paint off the tube!

[@Becca-UK]

Does adding all that water mute the colours?

[@kathywellerart]

Hi Becca! I have not had a problem with watered down colors at all! The paint is dehydrated in the tube and the pigment is concentrated. When I rehydrate it, it just becomes usable in a non-dry state again. I think the amount of water you would add would affect the concentration of the colors but the amount I put in did not! Hope this helps! :)

[@Becca-UK]

Kathy Weller thanks so much 🙏 very helpful 😃 xx