Prepping Canvases
©Jacqui Beck 2008
There are many ways to prepare a canvas (or other support) prior to painting. You may want to add texture, color, pattern, or a combination of these to the surface prior to starting your painting. Here are some ways to do that:
Types of Supports/ Painting Surfaces
Stretched Canvas: If you are painting on pre-stretched canvas (prestretched canvases are pre-gessoed). Get canvases with the staples on the back, not the sides. If you stretch your own canvases, gesso them well before using the techniques outlined below.
Board: There are many pre-gessoed boards available. You might want to consider painting on a cradled board so that you don’t have to frame. You can buy board (masonite/ hardboard or plywood) from a hardware store. They will usually cut it to size for you for a nominal fee. Because there are chemicals in hardboard/masonite, prepare your painting surface with 1 to 3 coats of Golden GAC 100 to keep chemicals from seeping into paint. GAC 100 dries clear. Next, apply 1 to 3 coats of gesso.
Watercolor Paper: You can paint with acrylics on watercolor paper. Any weight is fine. You may want to gesso the paper, but you do not have to. Paper isn’t as good as canvas or board if you use many thick layers of acrylic mediums or paint.
Different Ways to Prepare the Surface of Your Canvas
Texture with molding paste or Utrecht gesso: spread gesso or molding paste on with a brush or palette knife. Use short, varied strokes.
Collaging paper or fabric onto the canvas or board: Use acrylic medium or gel as adhesive. This is done to add design, color, or texture. If you are adding collaged materials for design or color, do not completely obscure them with paint. If they are being used just for texture, cover them with paint.
Tone the canvas with one color: try red, orange
Underpaint with many colors: try many wild colors; limited warm colors; limited cool colors, etc.
Any combination of the above.
Supplies & Application:
Texturing: To create texture on your canvas: use Utrecht gesso (this is very thick gesso and quite economical) or molding paste (comes in a variety of viscosities, light to heavy). Gesso and molding paste dry white. Application: apply with a brush, a palette knife, a stiff piece of cardboard, or any other tool. Unless you have a specific pattern in mind, it is best to keep your application strokes short. You may also want to scratch into the paste with a tool (stick, fork, comb, etc.) or you may imbed objects (wire mesh, stones, buttons, etc.) into the wet paste.
Collaging: Glue papers, fabrics, or objects to your canvas or board using acrylic medium or gel (these dry clear or almost clear). Gloss mediums and gels dry clear. Matte mediums and gels have a “matting” agent in them, so when they dry, they are a little cloudy. Use heavier bodied gels for adhesion of heavier objects. When gluing fabrics, you may want to dampen them slightly prior to gluing. Make sure you use plenty of gel under and over the object you are gluing. Note: Once the gel has dried, you may want to integrate the fabric, paper, etc. by partially or completely covering it with paint.
Toning the Canvas: Cover the canvas with a color. This can be any color. I tend to prefer warm colors for this: red, orange, yellow. I may also use colored gesso: ochre, venetian red, black, gold.
Underpaint with Many Colors: Using short brush strokes, paint any combination of colors. You may also want to try: limited palette (e.g. warm colors only; cool colors only); applying paint with a scrunched up paper towel (dab it on). Often I use this technique for covering a painting that I want to paint over.
Combining these techniques: You can combine any of the above techniques. For example, I often tone a canvas (e.g. with orange paint) and when that is dry I dab on lots of bright colors as an underpainting. I also like to combine texturing with molding paste with collaging. After that I may apply some random colors and let that dry before I start my painting.
©Jacqui Beck 2008