Ah Gesso! You're going to become quite familiar with this product. Not only does it protect the board, but it also preps the surface to be painted on. It prevents the wood from drinking in all the paint, and helps stop any oils or glues from seeping through to your finished surface. It also gives a good tooth for which your paint to stick. Once the board is thoroughly dry from the previous layers of GAC-100, I give it about 3-4 coats of gesso. This product comes in black too, which can create some great effects depending on what you want to create (see Green Iguana and Dwarf Caiman in the Portfolio section for example). You can also add other acrylic colours to it, making any colour you want for a background to paint on. Just like with the GAC, make sure to alter directions with each coat to prevent warping. Also, if you're using Masonite and your board is larger, do both sides with the same amount of coats. It's important to make sure that your coats are spread evenly and that they have dried between each. Once that 3rd or 4th coat is dry, I give the board a light sanding. You can just use some handheld sandpaper, but I like to use my electric sander (just easier that way but it's up to you).
Once you're sure that your surface is nice and smooth, give your panel 1 or 2 more coats of gesso, coming up to about 5-6 in total when done. This will ensure that your board is really well protected, prolonging the life of your painting. Now we are ready to paint!
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Meet our friend GAC. It's the next stage of my process. Once the boards are cut to size and ready to go (or unwrapped if I'm using Birch panels), GAC-100 will be the next thing. Of course I make sure the board is free and clear of any remaining dust first. I just simply run a damp paper towel over the board and wait a few min for it to dry. Once I'm ready for the GAC, I squirt the bottle over the panel and smooth it out with a paintbrush. I make sure to get the whole surface. In the case of the Birch panel, I also cover the sides. For the Masonite, the sides aren't necessary, but the back might be, depending on the size of the panel. The bigger the panel, the more you will want to cover both sides to avoid warping. Small panels won't warp as much. I do 3 coats of GAC, taking time to let each coat dry in between, usually about 5-10 min. Make sure to alternate direction on the subsequent coats. Meaning, if you swiped right with the paintbrush for the first coat ;) make sure you swipe up for the next coat. This will help make it stronger and further avoid warping. The GAC looks like white glue, but has a thinner consistency. This protects your panel and also gives it longevity. The thing about using wood is that years later some of the oils (or chemicals/glue in the case of Masonite) could seep through the layers of paint and ruin your painting. The 3 layers of GAC will help prevent this from happening (combined with the next stage of the process...)
Most of my paintings use Masonite as a medium. The advantage to this is that I can cut the Masonite to the size that I want using a simple hand saw and a pair of sawhorses. I can also cut to custom sizes, which opens up creative possibilities (ex.: see Red-tailed Hawk in Portfolio). I buy the thicker Masonite 1/4th instead of 1/8th to prevent warping and it's also more solid to paint on. A handy thing to have is a T-square or if you don't have that, one of those right-angle triangles and a ruler. The old adage is certainly true: Measure twice, cut once! In my case, make sure you check your measurements 3,4 times! Especially the right angles! There's nothing more frustrating than getting a finished painting framed and discovering that it doesn't fit the frame! Another advantage to using Masonite is that you can cut a whole bunch of boards at the same time, and it cost you only what you paid for the original board. One thing you want to remember when you're sawing the boards is to wear a mask. It gets pretty dusty and you don't want to be breathing those particles into your lungs! Keep a vacuum cleaner near by, preferably a shop vac if you can swing it. You'll want to keep that dust from spreading to the rest of your house. Once you're done cutting, you'll have a nice stack of boards ready and waiting for your next painting! |
ALLEZ DANS LES COULISSES
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