Oil Painting Surfaces
With plentiful options, picking an oil painting surface to create that next masterpiece can exist tricky. Today we figure out the best surface for oil painting depending on your own creative needs and capabilities.
Perhaps you've heard an artwork described equally "oil painting on linen" or "oil on console". These phrases that ordinarily back-trail artwork as they hang on the walls of museums and galleries draw the surface the oil painting is painted upon. This surface is sometimes referred to the "back up".
Consequently at that place are tons of surfaces you can paint on. While some surfaces are more suitable than others it's upward to each creative person to determine what the proper oil painting surface is for her needs. I'll touch on a wee fleck of conservation concerns throughout and towards the terminate of this article. But as e'er, if you've read my articles before you know I'm a huge fan of non getting caught upward in the minutia and simply getting started.
Types of Oil Painting Surfaces
Out of all the many options for oil painting surfaces we tin more often than not categorize these surfaces equally either rigid or flexible. The post-obit are some of the more than common painting supports you'll encounter.
Flexible Painting Surfaces:
- Cotton fiber canvas
- Linen canvas
- Paper
Rigid Painting Surfaces:
- Woods console
- Composite Panel
- Metal
This is of course not an exhaustive list. Some of these materials can even exist combined.
Oil Painting Panels
At that place are many rigid panels on which you can paint upon with oil paints. The most pop would be the readymade woods panels that are available at your art shop.
These oil painting boards are typically a wood composite fabricated from lurid and glue. They are sometimes referred to as "hardboard" and tin be quite difficult indeed. If buying these panels from the art store they are ordinarily coated with a thin layer or acrylic gesso (acrylic dispersion footing).
This ground or provides an important barrier between the wood panel and the oil paints. Its main purpose is to prevent parts of the panel from leaching into the painting. This could exist the glues used in the fabrication of the console or materials from the forest itself.
Either manner, conservatives agree that preventing contaminants from leaching into a painting is a good practice to prevent premature damage to a painting's overall stability.
The ground also makes a overnice, consistent surface on which to lay your pigment strokes down.
Sail Boards
If y'all are looking for an inexpensive oil painting board you tin might want to try painting on a canvas board. These painting supports consist of canvas wrapped around and glued to a piece of paper-thin.
Canvass boards are quite inexpensive and don't puncture as hands as a stretched canvas. For this reason they make practiced surfaces to paint on for beginners looking to travel and paint or pigment outdoors.
Sheet boards are bailiwick to warping however, so once your gain some feel you'll want to consider working on a higher quality painting surface.
Over time a canvas lath standing upright tends to bow and sag. Don't believe me? stand up a canvas board against a wall somewhere and go out information technology lonely for a year…
For this reason I would never practice any serious oil painting on canvas board made from paper-thin.
Oil Painting on Metal Surfaces
Besides forest, artists have also been known to paint on metallic. Oil paintings created on copper were more prevalent in the mid sixteenth century in Italian republic and Northern Europe just their popularity faded with time.
This self portrait by Rembrandt was painted using oil paints on a copper panel.
Recently I've noticed a resurgence of artists turning to copper panels as their oil painting supports. Some painters are forgoing the priming altogether and using the copper color as role of their painting's composition.
Another popular oil painting console made from metal is known every bit "ACM". Aluminum Composite Material was designed for signmaking purposes. However, many fine artists have adopted information technology every bit their console of choice.
Many artists glue sheet to the ACM and create their oil paintings on this combination.
Oil Painting Sail
In the last several hundred years canvas has been the about pop oil painting surface. The main reasons being economical both in space and money. Paintings made on top of canvas are very light and can be transported very easily. They can even be rolled up for piece of cake storage and shipment.
This benefit becomes more and more credible the larger the painting.
The overwhelming majority of paintings on canvass that you'll encounter are of the stretched canvas diverseness. The canvas is stretched similar a drum around four stretcher bars that form the outer rectangular shape. Painting with oil paints on sheet on gear up fabricated surfaces is a great way to get started with oil paints.
Types of canvass
Canvas is a general term painters use to describe the flexible cloth they are painting on. As one might guess the actual material of sheet can vary.
Traditionally, artists accept used canvas that was bachelor to them in their region of the globe. Not surprisingly yous'll discover many American artists using cotton wool equally their canvass painting surface and Europeans using linen as their corresponding canvas painting surfaces.
Both of these natural fabrics (cotton fiber & linen) have been used extensively around the world and come in a variety of thicknesses and thread counts. Having stretched both fabrics for decades I can adjure to the fact that cotton canvass is much easier to stretch. It is more elastic making the stretching process easier.
For this reason forth with it's lower cost it is definitely the recommended choice for beginners looking to oil paint on sheet. Oil paintings on linen seem to have a certain cachet in certain circles merely as a beginner you are best staying abroad.
Similar most industries technology keeps moving forward and oil painting is no exception. Some manufacturers have begun to set artist's canvass from synthetic materials such equally polyester. These newer types of canvas are far less popular than the tradition cotton and linen varieties.
The intention of these synthetic canvases being that canvas made from polyester is not equally affected by atmospheric conditions such as moisture and temperature changes. Both of which contribute to the longterm damage of paintings painted on flexible supports.
Canvas Selection
Canvass fabric for painting can vary greatly in its texture. Depending on the weave and thread count the sheet you cull to paint on tin be very rough and bumpy or quite shine.
If you are painting minor paintings that are especially detailed y'all are going to want to paint on a shine canvas. Many manufacturers call their finest canvass textile "portrait form". Don't be fooled, you don't take to exist painting a portrait for this canvas to work!
Most smooth canvases are thinner cloth. For this reason they cannot be stretched for large paintings very well.
As you stretch larger and larger canvass fabrics for painting you'll accept to resort to tougher, thicker canvass. This is one of the tradeoffs of working with stretched sheet.
If buying raw canvas to prime yourself make sure you go your canvass from a roll and not a blanket.
It can be really difficult if not impossible to remove the folds from a sail coating. I've tried everything to remove some of the folds and wrinkles from some of my one-time canvas blankets. I've tried washing and drying it, ironing, steaming… nothing worked for either cotton wool or linen canvass.
Lesson learned… never buy canvass by the "coating". Only get information technology on a roll and e'er store it rolled besides!
Can Oil painting Be Done on Paper?
Oil painting tin can be accomplished on paper, but you should be aware of its shortcomings before investing a bully amount of time.
Oil paint has the tendency to soak into information technology's surface and this can crusade some problems afterwards on. Without creating a proper barrier between the paper and the oil pigment your painting volition surely deteriorate prematurely. This may accept decades but is worth noting.
Paper is one of the least stable surfaces you'll come across as a painter.
If you lot must used it you can prepare the paper for oil painting by applying several coats of acrylic polymer such as GAC 200. This volition provide some protection and prolong the life of your oil painting on newspaper.
If y'all are serious well-nigh the painting and would like to run across it concluding past your lifetime y'all ought to paint on something other than paper. Information technology'south the to the lowest degree suitable painting surface for oil painting conservation!
Due to the efforts you'd accept to become through to prepare newspaper you're better off working on another surface. If you are going to spend whatever significant amount of time on an oil painting you probably want to make sure it stays intact for a while. It's as well more complicated to frame a painting on newspaper. All of which are considerations when making a final painting you are proud to showcase!
Canvas Paper for Oil Painting
Yous can buy a pad of canvas paper and apply the convenient sheets for oil painting studies. Actually, most of these pads are not newspaper at all but existent cotton canvas. Read the labels closely and stick to the canvas pads that are fabricated from real canvas… not "canvas like texture".
They are pressed flat and primed with acrylic gesso. These cheap pads of canvas are great for practicing and experimenting on.
This is the canvas pad I apply for all my quick painting demonstrations.
The Best Surface for Oil Paints
Determining the all-time surface on which to oil paint is based on many factors:
- Budget
- Painting Experience
- Scope of Project
- Size
Rigid surfaces when properly prepared accept the potential to make your paintings last the longest. Oil pigment has some trouble when it gets on in age. Most notably it tends to harden and become breakable. For this reason, extremely flexible supports commonly atomic number 82 to a premature breakup of 1's painting. While these are very important concerns of the professional artist this is non something I recommend you worry too much about if you are only starting out.
If you are new to oil painting you should stick to using pre-fabricated canvases or oil painting panels that you buy right from your fine art supplier. Try each one and see which one tickles your fancy. Use that painting surface for a few years and so after a couple dozen paintings effort a different painting surface.
As a beginner delight don't waste material yous fourth dimension in long winded discussions well-nigh the merits of painting on expensive, complicated painting supports. It'due south a waste product of your precious time which is amend spent actually getting better at painting.
If I have to hear i more amateur or intermediate oil painter talk in great depth about using lead-primed, Belgian linen mounted to ACM using a heat printing I recollect my head is going to explode.
When starting out worry most most making better paintings. Don't become paralyzed past the online, best-practices rhetoric.
If y'all desire to paint extremely detailed paintings, you will similar painting on a smooth surface such as a panel or lightweight, tightly woven canvas.
If you are interested in plein air painting outdoors panels will be easier to transport because they don't dent and puncture easily. These rigid surfaces also block the sun from coming through your painting which can prevent a plein air painter from judging their colors accurately.
If the pre-primed canvases you buy are as well absorptive for comfortable oil paint blending you can always re-prime them with oil paint. This makes them slightly less absorbent which is commonly desired past oil painters looking to push the paint around into complex gradations.
The optimal surface for oil paints is the one that allows you lot to become the results you are after.
If you are a beginner at oil painting my advice is always the same. Don't worry so much about fancy paint recipes, techniques and online discussions… worry more most staying in your studio and putting in the hours to really become a amend painter.
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