Art School 2
Grounds and supports:
There are rigid supports which are things like masonite (sometimes called pressboard), cardboard, chip board, and sometimes even papers, especially rag papers.
Flexible supports are materials such as canvass.
Try as many surfaces and supports as you can find. But you may want to do your masterpieces on more traditional, time-honored surfaces for the peace of mind of your customers who may be sinking a couple of hundred dollars a pop into paintings by an unknown artist. A properly primed canvas oil painting that has been done with appropriate craftsmanship can last over a thousand years.
The basic objective of grounds is this: to provide a surface off of which light can reflect. The tone of the ground can effect the depth of space in the work. At one time, the ground was an effort to duplicate the surface of fresco.
Raphael tinted the support and the ground in various places. You can also dye grounds or the canvas under the size. You know, if you you're using a clear sizing to protect the cloth from contacting the oil with rots the canvas. For example, a favorite over the years has been rabbit skin glue. Dye won't hurt the cloth but oil will. Also watch out for those pre-primed canvasses. If you use them, take the precaution of applying another coat of primer such as "gesso" (developed by the Craola company).
Gesso has a lot of binder. Cheap house paint can absorb binders of pigments. A heavy binder is perhaps better on a rigid ground.
I've done paintings on cardboard, because of little or no income, there's one hanging on the wall outside, done over thirty years ago. I've had a couple of them get wet and the cardboard mush fell off. But since I primed them at least twice because of the acids in cardboard, the gesso film and the oil paint stood up all by themselves like a sheet of paper. This is one technique in restoration: the entire picture is removed from a damaged support and re-applied onto a new one.
Here's a term for you: "tooth". That's the rough elements in a support that the sizing and the painting can get a grip on and also on the ground that the paint can get a grip on. By now I'm getting a little long in the tooth so I can get a grip. There has to be a way for the film that is the painting to remain on the surface of the support. Masonite, for example, should be sanded to some degree if the smooth side is used, to produce the tooth necessary to hold the priming. If gesso is used it should also be sanded lightly to provide a tooth for the paint itself.
When considering glass or metal as a support, remember they usually have no tooth.
We may as well start out by assuming that ANYTHING CAN BE PAINTED ON. --And you can even use a substance such as starch as a binder.
THE PROCESS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE OBJECT.
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Paul A. L. Hall
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2003 [Paul Hall]. All rights reserved.
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