Tips on Oil Painting - Canvas Priming

When you do not want to buy any of the available pre-fabricated canvases you can always buy a roll of primed or raw canvas cloth. The first step in the process towards constructing a finished canvas is the stretching of the canvas. Once the stretching is done and you did this with raw canvas, it is still necessary to prime the canvas before you can start the actual painting.

The reason it is necessary to prime a raw canvas is that both linen and cotton cloth will eventually rot when saturated with oil paint. To prevent the occurrence of rotting the canvas cloth must be treated with a glue or gelatin solution to so-call "size" the canvas and then must be coated with an oil-based primer.

Here are the steps to be executed in the priming process:

1) After stretching the raw canvas, evenly brush the weak glue or gelatin solution onto the raw canvas using a wide nylon or bristle brush. Note, do not stretch raw canvas too tight, because the priming will shrink the canvas cloth and therefore tighten it automatically.

2) When the fabric dries, it must be coated with a mixture of white lead in oil and turpentine, again using a wide brush. The resulting brilliant white surface makes it easier to gauge the colors that you will be using while you paint.

3) Once the canvas is dry, it must be sanded lightly.

4) Then, you usually must apply a second coat of the white lead in oil and turpentine solution, and sand the canvas again.

All these materials and the accompanying instructions can be bought in any serious art supply store or in an Internet store.

Many artists also enjoy working on wood panels, which is a proven support for oil painting. The old masters worked on oak, poplar, and mahogany, but today "wood panel" can mean anything from a piece of poplar to plywood to Masonite. The latter is increasingly popular because it is inexpensive, durable, and can be cut into virtually any size. The reason artists do rarely use oak or mahogany anymore is clear if you have seen the current prices of these woods.

Wood panels are perfect for rendering intricate, detailed subjects where the weave of the canvas might be too uneven. You can buy prepared boards or you can make your own.

You must prime the panel with gesso before you begin painting. Dilute the gesso with water; apply it with a wide housepainter’s brush, let it dry, and then sand it smooth. Repeat the process two or more times. If you like a slighter rougher tooth (i.e., a rougher surface), add less water and do not sand the board after the second gesso application.

You can also paint with oil on watercolor paper or vellum. You can size the paper with an acrylic medium first so that the oil paint does not eventually rot the paper which would be the case if you do not size the paper. In general, sizing a ground means to treat it with some solution or medium so the oil paint will not cause the ground to rot in time. If you want to make your painting last longer (permanence) you need to choose heavy paper of at least 200 lbs.
This is the end of short primer on priming different grounds for the purpose of oil painting. There is much more to learn but the few tips as given above will give you enough information to go to a reputable art supply store and be able to converse intelligently on the subject of priming different grounds and the priming methods used. This will certainly start the conversation and you will learn right there about the latest techniques and inventions regarding priming and while you’re at it also about stretching canvases.

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