Up | Tips & Techniques | Teachers
For professionals, amateurs and students, this section is full of helpful advice, hints and tips on the use of artist materials.
#1000 Making your own stretched canvas. To stretch a canvas you will need - stretcher bars in the appropriate size (ie for a 24x36 canvas you will need 2 24” and 2 36” stretcher bars), enough canvas to allow for 2” over hand on all 4 sides, a heavy duty staple gun, canvas pliers and stretcher keys. Start in the middle of one side between the two ends and lay in one staple as straight as possible. Punch in another staple on the opposite side using the canvas pliers to pull the canvas as tightly as possible. Lay in your 3rd and 4th staple in a similar fashion until you have all 4 sides represented with one staple. Continue in this manner placing staples across from each other while pulling your canvas tightly all around. Fold your corners and edges neatly in and staple. For cleaner edges pound stretcher keys into the inside corners with a hammer to tighten up your canvas. Prime a stretched canvas with 2-3 coats of acrylic gesso. #1005 Canvas surfaces If your stretched canvas has a crease or dent in the surface, it can easily ironed out by spritzing water with a spritzer on either side and leaving it to sit for 10-15 minutes. To achieve a finer, smoother surface on canvas, prime with one coat of acrylic matte medium on top of your gessoed surface. If you want a more absorbent surface on your canvas, prime first with gesso and then with Golden Absorbent Ground medium. This will give your canvas a surface that will behave like watercolour paper. #1010 Stretching Watercolour Paper To stretch watercolour paper, first soak a piece of 90 or 140 lb paper in a tub or basin for 5-10 minutes . You will need a piece of masonite, plywood or similar surface previously sealed with two coats of varnish (both sides). Make sure your board is big enough to allow at least an inch around the size of your paper. Remove your paper from the water and lay flat on your stretching board. Smooth out any air bubbles and remove excess water with a soft sponge. Wet cut pieces of white or brown butcher’s tape and apply around the edges of the paper affixing it to the stretching board. Use your sponge to flatten the tape and squeeze out the excess water. Leave to dry or paint on immediately for ‘wet on wet’ effects. #1015 Masking Fluid Using masking fluid or liquid frisket improperly can ruin your brush or paper. Before you use this product, dip your brush in liquid dish or hand soap - do not rinse - then dip into the masking fluid. This will keep the brush from getting gummed up and makes for easier clean up. Make sure you apply the mask to dry, unpainted paper and wait until the mask is completely dry before painting over it. It is also important to wait until your watercolour washes are dry before removing the masking fluid. A special eraser called a ‘pick -up’ makes mask removal much easier. #1020 Watercolour mediums Using gum arabic with watercolour results in tighter more controlled washes and added gloss but adding too much will cause cracking. Oxgall medium will take the streakiness out of gouache paintings and will improve the acceptance of watermedia on non-absorbent surfaces like glass or acetate. #1025 Using overlays with paintings You can use clear inking film to test colour before you paint. Acetate will work as well but the inking film has a specially treated surface for wet media. Simply lay the film over your painting and test any colours you are unsure about. This will allow you to see how it looks before committing paint to paper. #1030 Using Acrylics like Watercolours The easiest way to achieve watercolour effects with acrylics is to purchase fluid or medium viscosity acrylics. If you have tube acrylics you will need to use Golden Flow Release or Liquitex Flo-Aid to thin them enough without breaking the binding of the paint. Follow the directions on these products carefully, under diluting them can cause stickiness in you painting. #1035 Using Acrylics like Watercolours Impasto Painting #1040 Impasto Painting To add texture for an impasto painting effect without adding too much transparency, add equal parts of modeling paste and regular gel medium. This mixture will also allow you to adhere 3 dimensional objects to your canvas.
