Oil paintings are painted on a variety of surfaces, including canvas, wood panels, and glass. There are pros to each surface that make them the best option for certain paintings. According to many artists, the best surface for oil painting is canvas. However, there are other surfaces that can be used for this purpose as well. Oil paint is sensitive to many factors that can change the behavior of the paint’s composition. A canvas typically dries quicker than a wood panel or a glass surface because it is thicker and made from animal fibers. Canvas is more durable than other materials, such as paper that can easily tear, and also because it doesn’t absorb too much paint which could make the painting look sloppy. It is important for an artist to know how to clean their canvas after finishing a painting session.
Each surface has its own unique properties that make it the best for certain types of paintings. Canvas boards are generally primed with gesso, which is a type of white paint. Gesso provides a smooth texture for oil paint to glide on easily. It also makes the board more durable and helps protect the board over time against scratches and other physical damage.
Choosing a surface for oil painting
It’s a good idea to think of the kind of surface you’ll be using your oil colors on before you start to put the colors on. Stretched, prepared canvas is the most popular surface for oil colors, and it has been used for decades. Wood panels and medium density fiberboard (MDF) are two alternatives that last a long time and do not flex. Canvas boards might be a good investment if you plan on living in the great outdoors.
What kind of canvas material is suitable for oil painting
In general, you want to paint on a nonporous surface. The surface of the canvas or linen was ‘primed’ with rabbit glue and then whitened with gesso to create a non porous surface that would make paint adhesion but not soak the canvas. There are Acrylic Gessos that can complete the task in only one move.
We used to slap on the cheapest white house paint we could buy as a mediocre Fine Art student. There are also brands who sell ready-to-paint canvas.
Practically speaking, with enough priming, you could paint on any cotton, linen, or canvas paper. Thick canvas has the advantage of being sturdy enough to survive folding on a stretcher while still providing a flat surface for drawing.
How to Choose a Surface for Oil Painting
When it comes to selecting an oil painting board, there are several choices. Beyond the traditional cotton canvas, there’s a whole new world to discover.
You will get high-quality painting supports for a fantastic price. You should also be imaginative and come up with a way to make your job stand out.
Many surfaces have enough protection for the painting film which can last as long as the surface is adequately prepared for proper paint adhesion.
I’ll go through the various types of surfaces available to oil painters, their durability, and the various materials available. I’ll also discuss how the surface you want will influence the painting process and the final product’s appearance.
Canvas
Canvas has been used by artists for over 300 years, so it is highly recommended. The cloth’s weave, in combination with the spring of the stretched fiber, makes it ideal for oil painting. Cotton or linen are commonly used to make canvas. Despite its difficulty in priming and stretching, linen provides the smoothest and stiffest painting surface. It lasts a long time and is still held in high esteem by classically trained musicians. Cotton, on the other hand, is less expensive and easier to spread than linen. For more detail, see our guide to the differences between cotton and linen canvas.
Check Canvas For Oil Painting: Few things and tips to know out!
Papers
About what you might have read, oil painting on paper is perfectly possible. Winsor & Newton oil paper is designed to withstand dense, layered paint applications and arrives ready to use, with no priming or planning needed. A hard watercolour paper that has been thinly primed with an acrylic gesso primer is another choice.
Canvas boards
Canvas boards have long been a common alternative for outdoor painting because they take up less space than spread canvases and are less easily broken. Winsor & Newton canvas boards are superior in quality to coated sketching boards because they are made of substantial board and high-quality fabric. Framing boards is therefore less expensive than framing canvases.
Wood
Wood is an excellent canvas substitute. It’s hard and smooth, it’s usually less expensive, and it’s a pleasure to paint on. Painting on wood has a certain natural quality to it. Wood is a wonderful choice if you want to add a lot of fine texture in your paintings.
The wood’s stiffness is a significant point. The paint coating will not crack in the same way that canvas does if the surface cannot stretch. If you believe that your painting will be vulnerable to accidental damage, a wood panel may be a better choice. That’s not to claim it’s impervious to damage. It has its own set of drawbacks, which vary depending on the type of wood used.
Solid woods and plywoods are the two alternatives here. Hardwoods hold paint better than softwoods, thus they’re better for painting. Poplar, oak, basswood, walnut, and cedar are examples of woods. Plywood is inexpensive and easy to find in any hardware or craft store. Commercially available as artist’s painting panels are ‘cradled wood panels,’ which are typically constructed of baltic birch.
Oil Painting On Wood: How You Can Do Oil Painting on Wood Surface
Medium density fiberboard (MDF) and priming
If you prefer to prepare your own supplies, MDF may be the way to go. MDF is made from wood fibers that have been packed under high pressure with adhesive. It’s inexpensive, which might encourage you to paint even more, and it’s readily available at most home improvement shops. A word of caution: if you’re cutting MDF, wear a mask because the dust can be dangerous if inhaled.
Until painting the MDF, remember to prime it. The texture, absorbency, and color of your surface are all regulated by primers. Both acrylic and oil painting primers are available from Winsor and Newton, and both can be used under oil painting. You’re well on your way to making something special if you have the surface perfect. Making a mistake will lead to irritation and delays. By monitoring shape, absorbency, and color, Winsor & Newton primers and ready-made surfaces will give you fantastic results.
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Paper and cardboard
Richard Whadcock photographed Coastal Break, an oil on paper painting. If you prime these surfaces first, paper and cardboard perform even easier for oil painting than you would think.
For short and simple sketches, you’ll probably use paper and cardboard, taking advantage of the slightly absorbent properties of the paper that enable the paint to dry quickly.
However, given how quickly thin paper will buckle when prepared, you shouldn’t use just any old paper for the job. As a result, I recommend purchasing a good-quality, heavy watercolour paper, or even dedicated oil sketching paper that has already been specially prepared and is normally sold in pads.
This is a good example.
This latter form of paper isn’t for everybody, as it can be almost as unpleasant to deal with as the less expensive canvas boards I described earlier. Others, on the other hand, are freed by a surface that does not make them feel obligated to preserve it in the highest possible state.
Metal
Working on metal provides a number of advantages than working on a wood panel or canvas. It gives a more permanent painting substrate that does not warp, as well as a luminosity that cannot be attained when painting on other surfaces. Metal is a wonderful alternative if you prefer to paint on a completely smooth, non-absorbent surface. The weave of the canvas will not impede the paint from flowing.
Glass
Glass, unlike other surfaces, is incapable of absorbing liquid paints in any form. It’s silky smooth and oil-resistant. Except for oil and acrylic paints, other types of paints do not function well on a glass surface. If done correctly, oil paints adhere very well on glass surfaces, though preparation takes longer than on other surfaces.
Thin layers of oil paint on glass are far more durable. Even with so many preparations, thick layers have the ability to break and peel off with time. Thin coats of oil paints also look nicer because they don’t obscure the glass surface. It gives the painting a completely unique appearance.
Canvases and Panels I’ve Painted On
To explain my thinking and see how you can recognize, let’s begin with a brief history of my painting surfaces and some of their benefits and drawbacks. I worked on canvas both cotton and linen.
Lead Primed Linen Canvas
My father is the most professional stretcher and preparer of lead primed linen I’ve ever seen. I have two canvases from the 1980s that I have yet to see. They traveled from Montana to Idaho, Utah, California, Colorado, and finally Indiana. They’ve never sagged or wrinkled in the corners for any reason. They’re still as strong as before. He stretched this canvas in 1989. With rabbit skin scaling, he followed the Ralph Meyer method. Once the lead primer had dried out, he painted a wash of color over the ground to prepare the canvas for painting.
There are linen canvas primed with lead. Preparing canvases was something I hated because it took time away from drawing. I was miserable stretching the canvas, packing rabbit skin glue and lead primer, and then waiting for it to dry. Experts often recommend waiting 6 months to a year to let a lead primed canvas dry. Then I double-checked that nothing was leaning against the canvas that could cause dents or tears.
Oil Primed Linen Canvas
I used an oil primer to get around the long drying time. Rabbit skin glue was also used to cover the canvas, but it dried in about a week. The gases were the real issue here. During a session to prime some months’ worth of canvases, I had to wear a respirator for two or three days. You know how much we all despise having to deal with poisonous gases!
It was possible to buy the canvases ready-made, but I never saw any that were as well-made as my father’s or my own. You’ll need wooden pegs or keys to get the corners of commercial canvases close.
Gesso Primed canvas
First, I read an article in which a museum conservator said that acrylic emulsion ‘gesso’ is superior to oil primer for oil paints because it is lightweight and does not require moisture-absorbing rabbit skin glue. It’s also non-toxic, since there are no fumes.
Second, for smaller plein air experiments, I experimented with several wooden panels. As compared to stretched canvas, I fell in love with the ease and feel.
Baltic birch plywood
12 inch Baltic birch plywood appeared to be the perfect option after reading books and speaking with other artists. Because of the oils used early in Masonite’s development, many artists were hesitant to use it. It was also so smooth that the gesso didn’t really stick well. I do have a few sketches drawn on plywood. They’re all in excellent condition.
The Baltic birch plywood had one significant flaw. When I used a table saw to cut it, the edges would always crack. I tried everything my carpenter friends suggested, including putting masking tape on the place I wanted to carve. Nothing seemed to help. Painting on 12 inch Baltic birch plywood chipped after the cutting.
I’m sure there are simple solutions for the chipping dilemma that can be found on YouTube now, but it was a massive failure at the moment.
Then, later they began importing Baltic birch plywood from China instead of Russia. The plywood’s resins had degraded to the point that the panels were warping wildly. Painting panels made of Baltic birch were no longer available. Someone suggested MDF at that stage.
And what about brushes? check The Best Brushes for Oil Painting
Which surfaces have given you the best results, or that you would like to try?
Whatever your preferences are when looking over the help solutions above, there’s only one way to find out which one is better for you: consider them all, or at least a decent percentage of them.
Even then, multiple oil paintings will almost certainly need different supports, so there is unlikely to be a single surface that will always be the best option in any case.
What are your opinions on the right oil painting surfaces? Do you have any personal favorites or ones that you are really excited to try? If that’s the case, please tell me more about it in the comments section below.
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