How to Revive Dried-Up Watercolor Paint
Don’t toss those rock-hard tubes or the crumbly paint in that palette you haven’t used in a while. Here’s how to make it like new again.
In this short video, I’ll talk about
- how (and why) to revive dried paint back to its out-of-the-tube consistency before adding more paint to a palette well
- how to level out the color in your palette wells, so it dries into a flat cake instead of a mound or blob
- how you may be able to soften dried up paint in a tube, so you can actually squeeze some out without resorting to cutting the tube open (doesn’t always work with really old tubes, but it’s definitely worth a try before cutting!)
I’ve already made a couple a related video on how to easily remove a stuck cap (without resorting to pliers) and a video that includes instructions how to clean a palette well that’s become contaminated with another color (go to timestamp 1:35).
If the trick for softening up paint in a tube doesn’t work and you have to cut open the tube, Kathy Weller has already made a great comprehensive video about how to revive paint by cutting open the tube.
