Panels for Painting

 Hardboard.

One eighth inch thick masonite (hardboard) panels make excellent supports to paint on and are archival if treated properly before starting your painting. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci was painted on a poplar wood panel back in the very early 1500’s. It has withstood the test of time.

To prepare an ‘untempered masonite panel’ for painting it is important to seal it. This is done by applying three coats of high quality gesso front, back and all edges. Do not use tempered masonite because it has oil within it and it will leak through to the paint. Treating both sides the same prevents warping. It’s called balancing the board.

Gesso is also available that dries with a tooth rather than smooth if desired. I use both.

Many artists use masonite, including professionals. It is more durable and archival if treated as above. It stores easier and is less susceptible to damage. A frame is needed if hanging the finished work. 

I buy old pictures at used furniture outlets or flea markets and use the frames. Frames can be painted or treated to match the artwork if desired.

Oils or acrylics work equally well on treated masonite.

I have an oil painting size approx 30 x 40 inches I painted when I was about 14 and it’s still in perfect condition today. Using one eighth inch thick masonite, no gesso was applied. That was over 70 years ago. It was never stored anywhere but in a basement or storage room. It’s proof of how long a painting on masonite can stand the test of time, even when not looked after.

Hardboard panels or masonite are available in any lumber yard and they are not expensive. They will cut it for you in sizes you need for a minimum extra charge. A standard 8 x 4 foot sheet will yield many panels, depending on the size of your paintings.

Why do we paint

There must be over a thousand reasons why we artists paint. Painting is not for the artist. It’s for the world to view, enjoy, record a moment in time, to ponder, dream, to send a message, a good feeling, relaxation or to just enhance a room’s decor. It’s more than just a pretty picture. It’s something different to every viewer and it’s a part of the artist that displays character and interests. Art for art’s sake is a window to the soul of the artist. It is the artist in a given period of time. Art comes from the soul.

There is a painting for every person and a painting for every subject. Art can heal and lift our spirits, not only for the painter but for the viewer. It can even relieve minor pain by taking our mind off ourselves. It’s great therapy as it creates a diversion from everyday life. Art, and the feeling it gives, is meant to be shared. It’s a way of communicating with the world. A picture is truly a thousand words.

Are artists born or made?

I think both are true but the artist born with a ‘gift’ has it easier than one who has to work at it. Both can be masters of the profession  in the end but like everything else we are born with certain talents unique to each individual.

As a hobby

Yes, it's good to have a hobby, something you have to think about and figure out. Puzzles do that and so does painting. These things take our minds off whatever is bothering us and make us feel good, really good if we succeed in our endeavors. Both are solitary hobbies, so they help us feel content and remove feelings of boredom or loneliness. Making art creates a diversion from everyday challenges and worries. A painting draws us in and becomes our world at each sitting.

As a business

That is a whole different and unique occupation. Paintings and artwork in general are difficult to sell. People may love the work but not enough to put out the money for it. Many artists have a second job or paint quick smaller paintings that can sell for a hundred dollars. These usually sell and are nicknamed ‘pot boilers’. They keep food on the table. There is an old saying, ‘an artist paints and starves’. So before you start a business doing art it’s wise to look down the road very carefully and talk to other artists first.

If you are good and can get commissions, there is a market for that. Portrait painting can be lucrative for the right painter. A portrait painter has to have a thick skin and expect criticism. The biggest reward is a client who becomes emotional over a portrait of a deceased loved one. I had that happen and it’s shocking. It took me two attempts to get it right before it was accepted. That’s two canvases. I used to paint posthumous portraits. Some were accepted, some were not. That’s why a portrait painter has to have a thick skin and carry on, not always 

being paid.

To tell a story

Some artists paint to tell a story. Again, a painting is a thousand words. This is especially evident in ‘genre painting’ which depicts people doing ordinary everyday things such as sitting at a table, doing laundry, washing a car, anything.

Plein air painting

For the artist who loves the outdoors, plein air painting is a great way to relax in solitude, observe nature and surroundings, sketch and paint. This can be a whole day’s outing in any weather. A plein air painter paints in any weather because that’s often where the best scenes display themselves. Fog, rain and snow make beautiful work. One famous Canadian artist even painted in the arctic, in oils of course. Acrylics would freeze. Being alone in the bush can be a fulfilling pastime where one can collect thoughts, paint and be apart from the rest of the world. Nature is the best teacher for the plein air painter. Everything is there. It just needs to be copied or rearranged. It requires exercise too in finding a site and setting up. It’s all good.

Pleasure, comfort and self-esteem

Painting and drawing provide pleasure, goals and a desire to do more and do better work. This counteracts negative feelings and emotions. The result is a feeling of well being and improved self-esteem.

Communication

Art can communicate thoughts and ideas, record history, spread religious beliefs and educate. It opens minds and encourages people to think beyond the norm. It can show pity and need for change in a beautiful way. It helps people see what they normally would overlook. Simple objects become powerful and are seen in a different light.

Drawing and painting

Paintings are for people to enjoy, like music and theater. They are not for the artist who is only the mediator between subject matter and viewers. That’s what painting is all about and a main reason to paint and display your work.

Materials needed for Oils and Acrylics

Materials needed for Oil Painting

• Palette
• Palette knife
• Small, medium and large artists' bristle brushes from art supply stores
• A two inch wide brush from the hardware store
• A one inch round brush from the hardware store
• Two tin cans, one large for cleaning brushes and one small for medium
• Artists' linseed oil and pure turpentine. Turpenoid in place of turpentine is better and is non toxic.
• Paper towels
• Easel or equal facility such as the wall 
• Charcoal and soft lead pencils
• Soft eraser 
• Mahl stick 
• Canvas or panel 
• At least four colors. Large tube of white and smaller tubes of yellow, red and blue. Get more if you like. Purple and burnt sciena are good to have on board also.
• Painting in oils with canvas resting on the wall under a 40 watt daylight fluorescent tube together with halogen lighting is ideal if painting at night. I don't use incandescent lamps as they produce glare and I cannot see the true color of my work. A simple wooden ledge screwed to the wall is all I use to support my canvas.
• Mahl sticks are used for the fine detailed work to keep your hand steady. They need not be elaborate. All you need is a pole such as a half inch tent pole with the rubber end on it. Perfect. Or you can make one from a 36 inch long half inch diameter hardwood dowel and put a rubber end on it.
• Stretched canvas is the generally accepted material for a painting if it is to be sold through agents or the galleries. However hardboard, or Masonite as it is called in the lumber trade, is also very suitable and better withstands bumping, wear and tear. Hardboards should be treated with at least three coats of non gloss paint or artists' Gesso and allowed to dry thoroughly before starting your picture. I have done many paintings using hardboard and gesso and sometimes just paint as a preparation for the surface. If you use the back or rough side of Masonite the finished painting will look like high grade canvas. Hardboard or Masonite can be used behind canvas for larger paintings. The stretcher frame under the canvas on larger paintings tends to telegraph through to the painting surface. Using a panel between the stretcher frame and the canvas will solve the problem. Remove the canvas, install the panel using carpenter’s glue, then re-install the canvas.
• The primary colors which are yellow, red and blue are all you need to paint a picture. Due to the impurities of the pigment in paint you will also need white. Mix them and see the colors, any color from these four. Using a smaller number of colors makes your work easier because it is easier to blend all your colors in harmony as you do the painting.

The same materials are needed if you paint in acrylics except use water instead of oil and turpentine.

Importance of drawing

If you have three hours to do a painting, spend two hours drawing it.

Before you paint, learn how to draw. Start by sketching everything in sight and practise every day. Use a soft lead pencil sharpened to a chisel point on sketching paper. The same applies to charcoal. Use a soft eraser and don't worry about mistakes. You learn by making mistakes.

If you want to draw people, study anatomy. Get a friend to pose for you. Visualize the bones under the skin. Get a book on anatomy. Draw the human figure in the nude, then the clothing over top. The figure is drawn from the inside out.

Learn how to draw first if your aim is to do classical fine art, the kind the old masters did. We will never reach their level, but we can learn a lot by studying them, even copying their work. Never sell copied work and it's best not to sign it. In short, never copy and call it your own unless it's from your own photographs. 

Go into nature and make sketches there. All you need is a board to put your paper on and away you go. Nature is the best teacher regardless of subject matter.

Or you can easily find any subject online too. Careful what you copy. Some are protected by copyright. So don't copy. Just use them for inspiration and change to suit what you like. 

Pinterest is a great source of inspiration for artists. They will send you emails of your favorite subjects if you opt in.

Once you have done enough sketches and are pleased, it's time to start painting. But roughly draw it first either on the canvas or paper to be traced onto the canvas. Blacken one side of the paper with a soft pencil and trace it. That way you don’t have to draw it twice.

Paintings that sell

Some paintings are more likely to sell than others....Here are some of the subjects most likely to sell:

• landscapes
• paintings of houses
• paintings with red in them or red underpainting
• snow scenes
• subjects familiar with viewer
• smaller paintings known as 'pot boilers' approx. 8x10
• large paintings sell but have a much more limited market due to wall space

Brushes

Brushes used in oil and acrylic painting are long. There is a reason for this. It enables the painter to stand back and view the work while applying paint. It also enables one to work around the canvas instead of just one spot, thus providing a balance of tone and color throughout the work.

Never hold a brush close to the bristles, but always near the end of the handle. Always see what you are doing in relation to the entire work for best results. If you are too close you can't see it all. Get up if sitting, or step back about six feet if standing and take a good look and you will do much finer work. I usually stand up when painting.

Values in painting

Values in drawing or painting are more important than colors. Objects get lighter as they go into the background. An object in the foreground is always stronger than an object in the background. A good way to learn values is to paint in two colors, raw umber and white for example or grey and white. Add white as you go deeper into the background. This produces a value change. Values create depth and give the work a more three dimensional look.

Second time around

Very often I come across something, such as an old grey broken rundown house on a dirt road, to give an example, that really turns me on and is just waiting to be painted. I am not always prepared to capture it at the time and so I go back for it another day. Almost always I never get the same feeling that I had before. It's even worse when I finally photograph it and return to start the painting. Some paintings never get started because of it.

A photo can be drab and unexciting and I have to try and imagine what it was that turned me on in the first place. I'm told that this is common. You never see the same charm that second time around as you did the first time you saw it. However, using artistic license you can bring back the charm and mysticism by changing it just a bit and adding your own thoughts to the work as you paint. Done properly, and with your original reflection on the subject, it can again become alive.

Professional and seasoned amateur photographers know how to capture the charm but most of us who paint only use the camera as a tool for painting, and we don't always get the best photos. I use the camera mainly for detail.

Tweaking and working on more than one at a time

Sometimes I get lazy and don't paint. I found the reason I do that at times is because I don't always have in mind what I want to paint. The problem solves itself when I have several canvases on the go at the same time. This may work for you too. At present I have about five in the works.

Do you ever tweak old paintings that you have had lying around for years that are not quite up to snuff? I do. As the years go by I learn more and when I look back at some older paintings I have to either burn them or tweak them. Mostly I tweak them. Sometimes they change completely.

If you keep your paintings smooth, tweaking them later is no problem. Remember though, you can't paint acrylics over oil but you can paint oil over acrylics. So you have to know which is which. It's hard to tell the difference.

Some tips

Values are more important than colors in painting. Values create depth and are absolutely critical.

Color is important too but a painting can be of any color scheme. I use the color wheel from time to time to improve my work. For example red and green go together.

Never leave a hard edge on anything you draw or paint. The subject must emerge into view and not look as though it were pasted to the canvas. I used to leave hard edges on some of my work and I blame the problem on my drafting background where hard edges are necessary.

Lay the paint on with quick strokes. Don't mess around with it. The more you play around the more trouble you get into. 

Covering the canvas with linseed oil

You can paint smoothly either by covering the canvas with linseed oil and applying the paint without using medium, or by making sure the paint goes on smoothly by brushing out the texture as you go. I prefer to cover the canvas with oil first. That's how some portrait artists work and it's how I paint portraits. It's amazing what happens using this technique. If you paint in oils the work takes ages to dry and this can be an advantage because you can come back the next day or so and make corrections, or even start all over again.

Paint smoothly

Sometimes we are scared of our painting. By that I mean we are afraid to make a mistake and ruin our work. The secret is to forget about trying to create a masterpiece and paint smoothly. If you paint smoothly you can always correct your work even to the point of using the canvas, or panel, to paint an entirely different painting. I've done it several times. We all have successes and failures, even at the professional level. Don't worry about it. Let your soul paint what it likes and eventually you'll get there. Remember though, most artists are never satisfied with their painting. That's one of the things that keeps us painting. We are always trying to do better.

No need to use turpentine

You don't need to use toxic turpentine to paint in oils. Linseed oil is non toxic so why use turpentine if you are watching your health. I use only linseed oil when painting in oils and I clean my brushes with non toxic Turpenoid. No fumes. I also use warm soap and water when I want to get them really clean.

The downside with oils is that the painting can take a week or more to dry but I don't have a problem with that.

Negative space

What is negative space?

It's very important in drawing and in simple terms it's the space between objects. It contributes to good composition.

Examples would be the space between the limbs of a tree, the area between the legs or ears of an animal or the space between an arm and the body. It is the space or spaces between things and it can be an aid in getting your drawing right.

Try drawing something with limbs or legs or anything that protrudes from its basic form. Now compare the space between the limbs with the space between the limbs of the subject you are copying. It should be the same. If not, correct it and you'll have your drawing.

Pliers

What have pliers got to do with painting?

I always carry a pair of pliers with me when I paint. Often I will come across a tube that just won't open. I use the pliers. The caps on older tubes tend to stick at times. I still have paint in tubes that are many years old.

Red

I was trained to start landscapes using red. Just a wash, paint all your trees, rocks, everything in different shades of red.

Having done that I would paint in the shadows and the shadow side of trees, etc. by mixing a little blue or purple with the red. From there I would start painting in the true colors.

Some parts of the canvas would be left unpainted at first. For example snow would not necessarily be started in red, but the shadows might.

By painting in this way, the colors all blend and the reds and purples show through giving the finished work more vibrant color.

Big brush

I use a big brush whenever I can. If you haven't already, give it a try. A two inch brush of good quality so the bristles don't fall out, bought from your local hardware store, is all you need. I use it for softening outlines, blending colors already painted on the canvas and much more. The old masters used big brushes.

With a big brush you can lay on a slab of color or different colors and with a dry two inch brush you can do magic. I like to have a little linseed oil on the canvas first, then the paint, then the big brush. The effects you can make are endless.

Outline

In oils it is difficult to draw over a painted surface in pencil. Let's say you want to draw in a figure or a dog or some object that takes a little discipline to create. To do this I was taught to use a script brush, or very thin brush, and with the maul stick and very runny white paint sketch in the object as though you were using a pencil. This works very well and you can easily erase the lines simply by running your finger over them. Paint over the lines for the finished product.

The ground

The 'ground' in painting is the color used to cover the entire canvas or panel before starting the picture. Often white is used but any color that suits the work to be done is suitable. The ground should be of a paste texture, smooth and workable, but not too thick. I apply it with a large, two inch brush. It's the first thing to do when starting a painting in oils or acrylics.

Where to paint

You can paint anywhere you like. You don't need a studio, although it's nice to have one. Painting outdoors is fun and healthy and all you need is an easel or something to rest your canvas or panel on. Panels are more suitable when painting outdoors. Never use a large canvas outdoors as they are too difficult to carry around especially when they are wet. You are after a feeling, colours and a sketch when outdoors and not a finished painting. Finish it at home later.

Always paint in a well ventilated area when using traditional oil paints.

A small room or just enough space to put your work on the wall and stand back about four feet is all you really need.

I use a combination of fluorescent and halogen lighting when painting at night and north light if you are lucky when painting during the day. You don't want shadows and you don't want glare or you can't see what you are doing. Fast forward to 2020 and LED lights work best. Use daylight equal to 100 watts. I use Sylvania.