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Supports for oil painting - of the wooden variety
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Message
Posted
I've painted on bog standard, cheap canvas, and expensive cotton canvas.
I've recently moved onto linen, courtesy of Jackson handmade linen boards and their ultralite range.
However, I'd love people's thoughts on wooden supports. I want to paint big, but funds are not in favourable supply.
And can ply or MDF from places like B&Q have their place in artistic material?
Thanks in advance,
Mark
Posted
Hi, I'm not sure if this is any help to you, but I have been experimenting using old pallet wood. It is working well, using watered down acrylic paint. I haven't got round to trying oils as yet. But I feel sure that they will work just as well or even better. The secret is to use a prima layer, I watched a video on YouTube were the chap used a normal household Matt paint for this. On MDF board. As for using old pallet wood, it's is a good inexpensive support for the larger paintings. This is one of my latest measures 80x60cm. Just to give you an idea.
Posted
For a lot of my smaller paintings and plein air efforts I use 3mm MDF sourced from Wicks in large sheets which I cut up to size. The rigidity of these panels, at only 3mm is not good and does not really lend itself for larger paintings. For more rigid supports I use pre-cut 6mm MDF panels sourced from artistsmaterialsonline.co.uk in Cornwall. Needless to say you will have to prepare any of these panels with a primer of your choise. A couple of coats of gesso does it forme. Hope this helps.
Alan
Posted
Painting on a big scale in oil always presents problems of one sort or another. Wood can and does warp - finding properly seasoned timber these days is hard, and the cost is huge. MDF - the problems there are that the thin stuff needs battening over a certain size, or at least being firmly knocked into a frame, and the thicker stuff is, of course heavy (as is wood). I used one of the Jackson's linen covered boards for a relatively large painting (for me: probably nowhere near the size you have in mind) and it warped like the devil, though I think it'd be all right if I ever get around to framing it.
I don't paint very large pictures, partly because of the difficulty of obtaining a stable, non-warping support. Canvas has its problems - ie, the flexibility - but is at least light in weight (and correspondingly fragile). Ampersand boards are a great surface for oil paint, not in my opinion for acrylic, but they're expensive, and limited in size. Aluminium composition panels are becoming popular in the USA -I suggest you take a Google of the Natural Pigments website, and the University of Delaware MITRA website, both of which have vast amounts of information on all sorts of arty things: there's more research going on the US into these things than there is over here just now, I think.
As for B&Q MDF - or hardboard, come to that: I've used both: yes, I think they have their place, with the caveats offered above about warping, battening and so on. Perhaps particularly for acrylic - if using oil, take Marjorie's advice (in fact take it whatever you're using). Prime on both sides, not neglecting the edges, with (say) Daler Rowney's acrylic gesso. I would say prime them with a white lead, but just try laying your hands on it in this country: not really feasible. Whatever you do, you're likely to be having to balance rigidity against weight - which is why a prepared aluminium p panel, if you can find one, might be worth thinking about because it would be rigid, and wouldn't be heavy.
Posted
Diesel74 (1/23/2018)I don[t know what half of the stuff you mention above even is, so I can't comment on that. Personally, I paint on hardboard, a.k.a. Masonite. I just prime them with a layer of acrylic. Since I paint small, warping isn't a problem. I'm not sure how well large boards would hold up, though I have seen very large pictures painted on the same material.
I've painted on bog standard, cheap canvas, and expensive cotton canvas. I've recently moved onto linen, courtesy of Jackson handmade linen boards and their ultralite range. However, I'd love people's thoughts on wooden supports. I want to paint big, but funds are not in favourable supply. And can ply or MDF from places like B&Q have their place in artistic material? Thanks in advance, Mark
Posted
Thanks all, for the comments.
My wife reminds me I used to use ply for oil paintings 20 years ago, but I'd thrown most of my paintings away in house moves/frustration, the idea that I never finished one...such was the time.
I guess I'm itching to do something big and wanted opinions.
Lesley, I like the painting on the pallet wood. And I like the idea.
Hedgehog, thanks the link - as I'm in Cornwall, it might be worth a trip - and Marjorie, thanks for the tip.
Like the painting, Sylvia, and it shows what can be achieved.
Thanks, as always Robert, for the detailed answer.
I just have an idea for a project with sportsmen playing still on former grounds. And I'm dreaming big.
During the night, I dreamed about using Dulux paint, or equivalent, on a door frame...
So many ideas...
Posted
Thanks Sylvia,
I guess it all comes down to confidence.
How many of us dream big, but don't/can't follow them through?
I'm still getting to grips with painting and, while I can see and feel the progress, realise that I have ambition to host an exhibition - except I wouldn't want to be seen anywhere near it :)
I've been enjoying painting on Jackson's handmade linen boards, 30x20cm, and I've been experimenting, but wish to give more of 'myself' into my efforts.
And therein lies the fear.
Mark
I've been enjoying painting on Jackson's handmade linen boards, 30x20cm, and I've been experimenting, but wish to give more of 'myself' into my efforts.
And therein lies the fear.
Mark
Posted
Well, thank you, Robert and Lesley.
I know I'm progressing, this time around, but massive amounts of room for improvement and I still see mistakes and elements I can't quite seem to grasp.
But I'm loving the process and creation.
And, as I say, I'm learning. Three more books out of Penzance Library this morning, more Youtube videos watched and more threads read here, plus this question posed.
Thanks all.
Mark
Posted
I done me sums.
Fascinating playing online. And no guarantee of quality.
But for comparison, an 8ft by 4ft 5mm plywood board from B&Q costs £21. I don't know what the in-store cost for cuts is, but by my reckoning I could get eight 24x18in boards, and six 16x12 boards from it. That would be an average of £1.50 per board, not withstanding the cost of cutting.
On top of that would be the sanding to smooth the surface.
Hedgehog mentiined http://www.<wbr>artistsmaterialsonline.co.uk/<wbr>product.php?cat_id=1&sub_id=7&<wbr>pro_id=88 and their 24x18s can cost as little as £2.40, ready for priming (when you opt for the 24 pack). Presumably the wood would be a better quality, too. The 16x12 can cost as little as £1.47 (again in the bulk 24 pack). Jackson's sell 5mm ply 16x12 in packs of five at £22, working out at £4.,40 per board.
So there can be some saving. And especially so in odd sizes.
Posted
Hi, I have been using 6mm MDF (Masonite in the US) for a while now, I buy large sheets and get B&Q to cut it for me to 24 x 20 inch (61 x 51 cm) and 21 x 16 inch (53x40cm) and this provides me with a good number of boards at very reasonable cost. To make them usable does involve a bit of work, I size front back and sides with PVA glue mix, and then double or triple gesso the front.
At these sizes the weight factor is not a problem even when framed, and only time will see if any warping occurs.
I love the rigid board for painting and oils flow beautifully on them.
I have recently completed a painting on a 4 x 2 foot mdf board with 1x1" support batons and although it was a joy to paint on, the weight factor is really kicking in here. In future, I think anything above 24 x 20 inches I would resort to canvas or something lighter.
But give the boards a go, I love them.
Posted
Terms get confusing - I understood Masonite to be a trade name for hardboard, which isn't MDF.
MDF and hardboard both warp, but are less inclined to if securely framed and protected from extremes of temperature and humidity. Your practice of sealing the boards, whatever they actually are, and then applying several coats of acrylic primer, 'gesso' as the trade would have it, is probably the soundest way to ensure longevity. Stretched canvas, for all its advantages in terms of weight and handling, is one of the most problematic surfaces, however pleasant it is to paint on (for oil, anyway).
There used to be a commercially available hardboard, thickly primed with what I expect was a lead paint at the time: it was wonderful to paint on - but over time, the fact that they'd used the textured side of the hardboard became rather obvious, despite the thickness of the priming. This is of no conceivable practical interest today, but being fairly historic, I thought I'd introduce an historical note...