Monday 26 November 2012

Priming

The primary reason for priming is to protect your canvas, board or other support from the destructive qualities of oil paint.

 
Acrylic paint can be used straight on to the surface or support (the support is your canvas, board or paper) but you may want to prime or use a transparent glue size (thinned PVA or rabbit skin glue) to give you a non absorbent surface so your paint doesn’t get soaked up into the canvas or board.

 

You will need:

  • a canvas or board
  • a priming brush
  • water and Acrylic primer
  • a spare jar or tub

If you dont have (or can't get) an acrylic primer you can make a cheap version using 2 parts emulsion and 1 part PVA Glue.

 
 

 

First you need to mix up a weak solution of primer about half water half primer. This will be your first coat (or size) this is to seal in all the little gaps between the weave of the canvas. 

 

Next, very simply apply enough coats of pure primer until you have the surface you require probably 2 or 3.

 
Be careful to apply each coat in different directions to ensure an even coverage and allow each coat to fully dry before applying the next.

If you have any lumps or imperfections in the surface use fine sandpaper to carefully sand then out.
  

If you are priming a smooth board (mdf or hard board) you may wish to give each coat a light sanding to remove brush marks. Also, if you thin the primer down a little the brush marks will be less distinct. Be aware this also means that more layers will be needed to cover the surface.

More complicated/old fashioned priming coming soon...

Monday 5 November 2012

Paper Stretching

How exciting the first 'proper post' to The Brushroll. I thought I would begin with a simple bit of paper stretching. Very useful if you paint with watercolour but can also be used for painting with acrylic and oil.

The reason for stretching paper is to avoid buckling or ‘cockling’, which will occur if the paper has not been pre stretched and cause the paper to warp when you apply wet paint. Thick watercolour paper or cartridge paper can be stretched but be aware the more heavyweight the paper the longer you will need to soak it.

Once stretched you can either wait for the paper to fully dry or start painting straight away depending on the effect you wish to create..


 You will need: 

  • Gummed paper
  • Paper
  • a board, a bit larger than your intended paper
  • a sponge or large brush
  • Water
  • Drawing pins or a staple gun
 

First soak your paper, a bath or large clean sink is ideal for this, or you can load up the paper with water on your board using a sponge (making sure to wet both sides if you are using a sponge). Cartridge paper only needs to be soaked for 5 minutes or so, larger watercolour paper could need up to half an hour.
 

a
b
Then, smoothing out any air bubbles, tape down one side of your paper then smooth the paper, using the palm of your hand, towards the opposite side and tape it with the wet gum paper (b).

 
c

Repeat this process with the other two edges before pinning or stapling the corners through the paper and gum tape (d). This will hold the paper down as it dries and stretches it. Always dry the paper horizontally, if you dry it vertically all the moisture will sink to the bottom and stretch unevenly.

d


You can apply wet into wet washes straightaway, but you should wait for the paper to dry before applying any detail because it will act like blotting paper at this stage.
 
e
 
 You could also prime the paper to prepare it for oil painting. (more about priming in a future posts)

Thursday 1 November 2012

Welcome to The Brushroll

Hello, Welcome, and Hi. ‘The Brushroll’ is my new painting blog, the plan is to write about painting. I will be focusing on painting & drawing techniques, materials and other related issues although I suspect the odd unrelated post may creep in.


My Brushroll
I will be Delving into my 12 years of experience working as the painting technician on the Fine Art course at the University of Gloucestershire, my thirty or so years as an artist as well as my evergrowing collection of painting books. I hope to organise some of my thoughts, ideas and recipes about painting in all its various forms. I may also invite the odd guest blogger to give different insight in to the world of picture construction. I am happy to take suggestions of articles to include so, please comment often!

Inside my Brushroll