Someone recently asked how I go about preparing my support for a painting - so herewith, I’m inflicting this on all of you…
If I want to paint on a canvas panel:
- Cut a piece of MDF (from Home Depot) to size
- Glue army duck (a smoother, tighter weave of cotton duck) to the MDF with Lineco Archival adhesive (pour on glue, spread it out evenly with a wall scraper, lay panel on sticky canvas, turn it over, run a brayer over the whole canvas surface several times)
- Weight glued panel under boards and heavy boxes overnight
- Apply first coat of Daniel Smith white gesso, let dry
- Sand lightly with one of those handy sanding pads from Home Depot
- Apply second coat of gesso, dry, and sand
If I’m painting on a stretched canvas, then I just do steps 4 - 6. After all that, it’s time to draw the composition on with vine charcoal; this step can take a while to get right. Once the charcoal outline is done, I spray fix it.
Recently, I’ve started texturing the prepared panel with acrylic modeling paste, if I want a surface that already has some movement to it. It’s loads of fun to paint on, and makes me lather on oils more freely for some reason.
After all the acrylic steps are finished, I then do an underwash of very thin oils to tone the whole shebang.
So why a panel vs stretched canvas? I much prefer the harder surface of a panel for palette-knife paint application, but the MDF-based panels get really heavy over a certain size…plus, they’re only readily available in 2′x4′ sheets. Thus, if I’m considering a 30×40 or similar, it’s gotta be a stretched canvas.
Tags: methods & materials
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June 6th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Julie,
Thanks so much for the info!!!
Sandi
June 6th, 2008 at 11:27 am
some Home Depots sell 4 x 8 fiberboard panels. Home depot will even cut them for you.
perhaps it’s unorthodox*, but I paint right on the panel.
and for those who don’t like painting on a smooth surface, most panels that i have seen actually have one rough side that has an imprint that’s a lot like canvas weave. not exactly the same, of course.
*PS I realize a lot of what i do is probably unorthodox. That’s what happens when you learn to paint largely by trial and error — except for Julie’s workshop, of course. Mostly just errors in that case ( just kidding, of course
June 16th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I got in on the blog after I looked on the web then wrote to Julie about this very subject. Where do you get the adhesive? I guess that brand of gesso can be ordered online or via one of the art catalogs. Is there something special about Daniel Smith’s product?
June 17th, 2008 at 6:59 am
I’ve found Lineco archival glue at Jerry’s Artarama, and I think also Daniel Smith. I like the Daniel Smith gesso because it’s fairly thick (for gesso) and covers well; as the can says, it only takes 2 coats to prime a surface where other gessos require 3 coats.
Wolftrek (Deborah) I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to reply to your email yet! I will - it’s just crazy busy right now, coming home from two weekends of agility and preparing for the summer workshop next week AND trying to paint. Oh, and I’m about to run into town and meet Janice and Sandra for coffee as they come through Missoula on their way to the Bison Range!
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