Heather Love tests out Hahnemühle Oil Acryl board for still life.
About Hahnemühle Oil Acryl board
The Hahnemühle Oil Acryl board possesses a natural linen surface, resembling a genuine canvas and offering excellent results when using oil and acrylic paints. The 100% cellulose paper is natural white, acid free and age resistant.
Top features:
- Natural linen surface
- Acid free
- Age resistant
- Smooth surface
- Good value for money
Price: From £9.70
Where to buy: Art Supplies with Painters Online
First thoughts
This shows the painting I produced along with some colour swatches I did to test out the drying times of oils and acrylics.
My preferred choice of surface is usually a linen board or primed board of some kind, which can be primed according to how smooth a surface you want. I found that the Hahnemühle Oil Acryl paper performed well when compared to other papers I have used.
The linen surface was not as porous as a linen board and was somewhat slippery which I found made it somewhat difficult to cover. However it does have a lovely smooth surface and the pad represents good value for money and, as I said above, I felt it performed far better than other oil papers I have tried in the past.
Personally I feel it is more suited to acrylics than oils, due to its slippery nature, but I enjoyed using it once I'd got used to the feel of it and the longer drying times involved.
The test: Still Life with Honey
Preparing the paper - how Hahnemühle Oil Acryl performs when priming
I started with slightly diluted acrylic paint to prime the surface and then proceeded with oils.
I suspect this caused the slight curling of the paper.
The paper did however flatten out well as I progressed having taped the corners. A plus for Hahnemühle Oil Acryl!
Making changes - how Hahnemühle Oil Acryl performs when covering underpainting
I made several changes to the painting as I found I had some issues with the perspectives and I wasn't keen on the initail flowers.
This meant I had to cover up some of the initail work which was a good test of how the paper performed - which in this case was well!
Stage three - The finished painting and drying times for Hahnemühle Oil Acryl
I found that the drying times for both oils and acrylics was longer than on a more traditional board, even when using a very thin layer of paint, which I think is due to its less porous surface.
I waited for the paint to completely dry before varnishing. You can see the difference the varnish made to the finished work by comparing above and below. Unusually the varnish took over four days to dry, during which time the surface did, inevitably, pick up some dust which can be seen in the photo below.
About Heather Love
Heather paints mostly portraits, in both oil and acrylics, and has exhibited in our TALP Open exhibitions where she has recieved several awards.
See some of Heather's work in the gallery by