How To Prepare Your Canvas For Painting With Oil Paints

Before painting on a blank painting canvas, it is necessary to properly prepare it. Artists differ in their preferred method of preparation, but there are some basic steps that need to be followed.

Canvases for painting consist of fabric, usually either cotton or linen, stretched upon a frame. In their initial state, the fabric is not primed, which would cause paint to seep through the fabric. Not only would this make it difficult to paint, but over time, the oil paint would deteriorate the fabric. As such, proper priming is necessary when starting out with a blank canvas.

If the stretched canvas consists of only the raw fabric, the first step is to size it. Sizing is necessary to protect the fabric itself, as it acts as a sealant. Sizing generally consists of a thin animal glue solution. The front surface of the canvas should be primed, as well as the corners and sides.

Once the sizing has dried, the ground coat is applied. The ground coat gives the canvas surface a uniform texture, degree of absorbency, and color. It provides a good base for the oil paints that will be applied, and also adds more protection to the canvas.

Gesso is the most common material used for the ground coat when a canvas is being prepared for oil painting. Basically, gesso is a material that combines a white pigment with oil. It can either be prepared by the artist, or purchased ready to be applied to the canvas. It comes in a variety of different consistencies so that the artist can choose the one that best suits his or her needs and painting style. Although a cream style consistency is often used, some gesso has a paste-like consistency that can be used to add more texture to the blank painting canvas. It is also possible to obtain gesso in colors other than white. Water-based gesso products are also available, but these are more commonly used for acrylic painting.

If a smooth painting surface is needed, gesso is best applied to the blank painting canvas using several thinner coats. If a rougher and more textured surface is desired, one coat may suffice. Smoother surfaces work best for paintings that involve fine detail.

The gesso should be stirred before applying it to the blank painting canvas. If a smooth painting surface is desired, brush the gesso onto the canvas in a single direction. Clean the brush used to apply the gesso so that it does not harden. After the first coat is dry, sandpaper can gently be used to smooth the surface. After sanding, thoroughly remove the dust from the canvas surface with a soft, dry cloth. Apply the second coat of gesso, brushing it on in the opposite direction of the first coat. As with the sizing, the ground coat should be applied to the corners and sides of a stretched canvas, as these areas also require protection. Once the ground coat is dry, the canvas can be used for painting.

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How To Prepare Your Canvas For Painting With Acrylic Paints

The common types of canvas used for painting are cotton and linen. Painters often buy unprimed canvases and prepare them themselves as they can play around with the primers to achieve the effect they wish. However, primed canvases are also available at the stores. If you are using acrylic paint, it is always important to prime your blank painting canvas to avoid using up too much paint as the unprimed canvas is usually very absorbent. You need to know the right type of primer to use as some are only suitable for oil paint. The most common type of primer used for acrylic paint is acrylic gesso.

The steps involved

You will need water, a sponge, acrylic gesso, a stirrer which can be either metal or plastic, some paper towels, a plastic container and stretched canvas. You will also need a flat brush with 1"-2" bristles. Start by dipping the sponge in water then use it to wet the blank painting canvas. Using the stirrer, stir the acrylic gesso in the jar then pour some of it into the plastic container.

Add some water to the acrylic gesso in the plastic container to make it thinner. This makes it more viscous and it will therefore spread with more ease and penetrate the blank painting canvas more easily. You can also add acrylic paint of any color you want if you wish to achieve a different effect from the usual white. Use the paper towel to wipe any spills and clean the stirrer.

Using the brush, apply the gesso on the fabric in parallel horizontal strokes. You should then leave the gesso to dry. You can give it an hour, but the longer you let it sit, the better. If the fabric feels cold, the gesso is still wet and you need to give it more time. Depending on the level of detail you wish to achieve, you can have more than one layer of gesso. But you should always let one layer dry before laying another and lay them perpendicular to each other.

Final Thoughts

You need to be very careful when working with acrylic gesso as it dries up very fast. Therefore, keep the jar closed when you are not using it and pour just enough gesso for the job to avoid having too much leftover gesso. You should also wipe any spills as soon as they occur because when the gesso dries, it is not water-soluble and can therefore be very difficult to wipe off. Do not pour any leftover gesso down the drain as it can cause serious blockage in your pipes.You should only start painting when you are positive that the blank painting canvas is dry.

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How To Make Homemade Gesso

Painting is an enjoyable hobby whether you do it for show or personal reasons. However, the materials required to paint can become expensive, especially gesso. Gesso is used to prepare surfaces for painting, including canvases. It's considered a primer that helps to smooth out your work surface and ensure that the paint doesn't soak into your canvas. Likewise, it can be used as a glue for collages and creating thicker canvases from cardboard, etc.

The Gesso Recipe

The gesso recipe featured can be used for both acrylic and oil paints, as well as any other paint. This gesso recipe makes approximately two quarts, which can be stored for up to six weeks if not needed immediately.

The homemade gesso recipe starts with a plaster mix. You'll need one cup of hot water, one cup of glue (white or PVA), and one cup of plaster powder or Plaster of Paris.

You will also require three cups of acrylic or oil paint for this gesso recipe. White is usually the most common color, but you can choose any that will complement your work. You'll also need a container to hold the gesso recipe, a cup that can be discarded, and something with which to mix the concoction. You may also want a dust mask for safety reasons.

Get all of your ingredients together for the gesso recipe and put on your dust mask. Place the hot water in your container (that can hold at least three quarts). Then, you can add the plaster (but do not add the water to the plaster because it could blow up in the face). Next, measure out and add the glue, stirring to combine.

Once the gesso recipe is mixed, you can add the white paint and mix once more.

The Results

While this homemade gesso recipe may not be an exact match to a commercial gesso recipe, it should produce similar results. Likewise, you may only require one coat with this gesso recipe, though you can add as many layers as necessary.

After applying the gesso recipe, you will wait until it dries. Then, you can sand down the dried gesso recipe, wipe it off and apply more of the gesso recipe until the canvas looks right. However, it's important to remember to let the gesso dry on the canvas before sanding and priming again. You will finish up with a slightly chalky, ready-to-paint canvas. 

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How To Get Started With Pastels Artwork

Painting with pastels provides an exceptional method of creating artwork with the same advantages of conventional paints and acrylic or watercolor pigments.  Pastels are essentially an artistic medium that is available in stick form.  They contain a binder and pure powdered pigment. 

Oil pastels and soft pastels are the two types available.  The best oil pastels are harder to clean and often require solvents; however, they do not leave powdered pigment behind.  Soft pastels are easier to clean and can be easily blended with your fingertips. However, they produce dust.  Below are some of the supplies needed to get started with pastels:

Pastels

A number of different brands of pastels are available.  If you are not certain about what to choose, going to an art supply store might be a very good idea.  This way you could get to test them out on paper.  Additionally, you will be able to get a feel for the quality of each pastel.

Surface

Either board or paper will be needed to draw on.  Paper is most commonly used with pastels; however, wooden boards are now available.  Personal taste will ultimately determine your preference for paper or board.  Therefore, it is important to try out a few different types of boards and papers to determine your preference. 

Drawing Table

If you already have a drawing board that can be angled in certain directions, your pastel board or paper can simply be placed on the table to work.  Otherwise, your paper can be attached to a well-made drawing board.

Colored Pencil

These are remarkable for laying out a composition prior to drawing.  Use colored pencils that match or are the same as the color as what is going over them when your underdrawing is being created.  For example, use a light sienna or umber pencil to outline trees or golden fields.

Tape

Get an easily-removable, acid-free tape.  The purpose of this tape is to attach your artwork paper to the drawing table.  Good artist tape has a moderate to low tack adhesive that can be removed or re-positioned without damaging paper surfaces or leaving behind a sticky residue.

Blending Tools

Your fingers can be used for blending or you can invest in some blending tools if you so desire.  One tool commonly used is a pastel shaper.  Shaped like a paint brush, many of these have a silicon tip which does not absorb the material and are easy to clean.  Of course, brushes will do the trick as well.  Fan and blender brushes can be used for feathering and scrubbing pigments.

Fixative

The best oil pastels are constantly in danger of being smudged.  As such, there are some pastel artists who use spray fixatives to keep the particles in place.  However, many artists will not use any fixatives.  Fixatives typically have a dulling or darkening effect on the vibrancy of pastels; therefore, they should be used with caution.

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Getting Started With Oil Painting On Canvas

Oil painting is a beautiful and expressive art medium that might seem intimidating at first. While it does take practice, anyone can start and improve on it with the right knowledge and some essential oil paint supplies. Oil paint is well known for its rich colors and glossy dried surfaces that can add a great amount of visual appeal to a finished painted scene. The following tips will help you achieve good results with any type of oil-painted scene.

The most common surface for oil painting is a stretched canvas that's been pulled taut over a wood frame. You can buy a variety of sizes of stretched canvases at ourartsupplies.com, or you can build and stretch your own if you have a knack for DIY projects. Once you have the canvas in the size you want, you'll need to prep the surface with a type of acrylic paint called gesso, which will ensure a smooth application of your oil paints. If you choose not to prep the canvas with gesso, keep in mind that your oil paints will soak into the weave of the canvas rather than dry on top of it. This option is not necessarily a wrong one; it all depends on the desired effect you want with your finished painting.

For a smooth and even surface prepped with gesso, it's a good idea to apply it with a paint roller you can find in hardware stores, especially when you're painting on a larger canvas. Once your prepped canvas is completely dry, you'll be ready to prep your oil paints through a technique called glazing. This process will bring out the richness and glossiness of each color. When you're first starting out with oil painting, you won't need a large number of different colors. Good quality oil paint tubes of primary colors are essential, namely red, yellow, and blue. With some practice, you'll learn how to mix accurate secondary and tertiary colors from these three primaries.

Another must for oil paint supplies is a good quality set of brushes specially designed for oil painting. As with tubes of oil paints, you'll only need a few basic ones to start and can add more at a later time. Be sure to keep your oil paint brushes separate from any other brushes you use to paint with acrylics or other types of paint. Any of these oil paint supplies are available from local or online art supply sellers such as ourartsupplies.com.

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Getting Started With Charcoal Artwork

As one grows as an artist, the connection between their artwork and charcoal painting materials they choose becomes noticeable. Charcoal artwork is a lot of fun because it gives you the freedom to make big, sweeping movements across the sketching sheet while getting messy. If you're interested in learning how to draw with charcoal, you want to invest in some quality charcoal painting materials to accelerate your artistic development.

 

Hard or Soft Charcoal?

Just like ordinary pencils, charcoal comes in different varieties of hardness. The hardness rating is denoted using a number and a letter (H for hard, B for soft). 6B is often the softest, while HB is the hardest.

The harder the charcoal one uses, the lighter the line it produces on the drawing sheet. It's worth noting that softer charcoals produce dark lines that smudge easily, while their harder counterparts make cleaner, sharper edges.

 

Vine Charcoal

You can also opt for uncompressed charcoal, which comes in the form of vines. Like the name suggests, vine charcoal comes in the form of a burnt vine/willow branch. Unlike compressed charcoal, you'll find it in the form of long sticks that are harder and more delicate than the former. It also comes in varying thicknesses, from thin to jumbo size. Vines are ideal for creating very fine, light lines and shading throughout a sketch.

 

Drawing Paper

For most new artists, newsprint works as an economical drawing material where they can practice as much as they want to perfect their technique. While newsprint allows charcoal to produce a variety of marks, it tends to smudge easily due to the smooth paper. You could therefore opt for charcoal paper which as a fine-ribbed texture that highlights the charcoal's color. While you might make the occasional smudge, it creates a harder line drawing than a smoother sheet would. Experimenting by mixing and matching different charcoal and paper varieties will help you find the right combination for your style.

 

Work Area

When familiarizing yourself with a new drawing medium like charcoal, you want to work on a vertical surface. This reduces the likelihood of dragging your arm through the drawing. Besides, charcoal drawings are quite dark, which means highlights and details can be hard to see in shadow. Your best option would be to place an easel in a well-lit area so that you can make out all the details while getting the practice you need.

 

Eraser

Your best choice of eraser when working with charcoal is the kneaded eraser. Being quite soft, it can be molded easily by kneading it like clay. You can use it to remove a section of the drawing to create a highlight or as a blending tool when smudging charcoal into the finer parts of a drawing.

 Charcoal artwork is an easy technique to pick up, mainly due to the medium's forgiving nature. And you can try other charcoal painting materials as you please -- exploration is an integral part of the creative process. So start drawing with charcoal today and see what world you can open-up.

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All You Need To Know To Get Started With Colored Pencils Art Work

To get started in any kind of art, be it painting, drawing, crafts, or any other type, it is important that you have two main components. These two components are technical know-how (this is how you develop artistic skill) and the right tools. It is these two components that will determine how well you do as an artist, even if art is a mere hobbyist pursuit for you. We look at each component individually below and how they affect pencil color art.

1. Technical Know-How

Despite what the popular saying may suggest, ignorance is never bliss. The knowledge you lack can put you at a significant disadvantage while growing in knowledge can arm you with all you need to succeed. This is true in life and true in art. As such, it is important that (if you haven't already) you join a class somewhere or even start using self-teaching resources that are often available for free. Whatever you opt for, start learning. The more you know, the more you'll be able to do.

2. Getting appropriate tools

Tools are what you use to get the job done.   High-quality tools can allow you to do a better job, while low-quality ones can, at best, make the job at hand that much more difficult. As far as it relates to pencil color art, getting the right colouring pencil sets is imperative. Doing so can significantly improve the quality of your pencil color art.

Here is what to look for in colouring pencil sets

Sometimes, when you are a beginner, it is hard to know which colouring pencil sets may be best for you. However, with the following tips, sifting through the noise just got a whole lot easier. The three main characteristics to use to differentiate the quality between sets are:

A. Types

There is more than one type of colouring pencil sets available on the market. They include wax, oil, and water-soluble. Your artistic needs will determine which is more appropriate for you. Wax colouring pencil sets are great for providing coverage when you color. However, they break easily and are likely to wear quickly. Oil colouring pencil sets on the other hand use a vegetable oil based binder and are generally harder than wax options. Water-Soluble colouring pencil sets are either wax or oil-based, can be hard or soft depending on the make, and the pigment can be liquefied in water.

B. Surfaces

Knowing how surfaces or material you will be creating your art on, and how these surfaces respond to different types of colouring pencil sets, is very important to knowing what will work for you. Generally, porous surfaces can handle any type of coloring pencil crayon set. A toothy surface is needed to anchor the colored pencil's pigment if a heavy application of the same will be used. Rough or textured watercolor paper or cold pressed paper is a good fit for water-soluble colouring pencil sets.

Once you decide on your surface, you can opt to use the appropriately suited colouring pencil set.

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