help with brakes

[ESR250R]

i just took my resivior off to paint it and when i put it back on i had no front brakes. so i bleed the line and had a little front brake. someone told me to put a cup on the ground with a hose coming from the bleeding screw and bleed it that way. so i hooked it up (i did one side at a time)pumped the brakes a couple of times. then i would open the screw and pull the brake in hold it in. then i would tighten the screw back up and release the brake. i did this to each side about 15 times a piece and my brakes are still spongy and wont work for crap. i made sure to use the right fluid and kept the resivior full the whole time. when i cap the resivior i fill it as close to the top as i can (could this be the problem) without spilling all over the sides of it. y wont my brakes work?

[QuadRacer041]

for some reason they front brakes are a pain to bleed but what i usually do is let them gravity bleed for like an hour.just fill the ressy and open the bleeder screws on both calipers for a while.then close the bleeders,instead of pumping the lever i found that just sqeezing it once works better, the reason being if theres air in the lines pumping a bunch of times just moves the air around with in the line, buy pumping once it forces air out towards the bleeder.first sqeeze the lever and hold it, then open and close the bleeder and repeat. it takes some patience but it will work.