How to Reuse Old Tubes of Watercolor Paint

On behalf of Tvlessson.com, I'm Sherie Tengbergen. In this clip, I'm going to show you how to make use of those old tubes of paint that you either kick at the lids of them or you just have had them all dried up and you just take to throw them away.

Now, the first thing I want to recommend when you go to a store and you buy a tube of watercolor paint, make sure that you open it and close it to make sure that it’s going to come off and come on the lid, in other words, in a very gentle, easy manner. Sometimes, I get tubes and I take them off and if I try to put the lid back on and it just won't go. That’s a first sign that you're going to have problems.

But, if you’ve had a tube of paint that’s old and all dried up like this one is, most people throw them out. I don’t. I put them in a little plastic container with rubbing alcohol and close the lid and shake it and all that lovely color comes out and you can use that as a wash in your water color or you can take a container of distilled water and you can actually put distilled water in here and do the same thing.

Distilled water takes a little bit longer to leach the color out of your paint but that’s another great way to save the tube. You just have to kind of shake it a little bit and let it set there for a while. All right, so that’s a great tip to save your watercolor paint.

On behalf of Tvlesson.com, this is Sherie Tengbergen and thanks for watching.