This one is on a true gesso panel. I’m finding it to be the superior surface right off the bat. I’m a sucker for the smooth surface and it’s absorbency is just about perfect after a coat of damar retouch varnish.
I’m thinking this surface will be what I’m using from now on when size permits and the piece doesn’t need a variable surface. For that linen is still the winner.
First the tubes used to store most all oil paints today
Next up the oil paints themselves (Winsor and Newton brand)
part 1 (Starts at 5:39)
part 2
My canvas panel warped and bowed quite badly, I’m going to attempt to correct it. I think I didn’t wait long enough to glue the salvage canvas onto the back of the board. As such, the canvas front shrank and pulled the corners up.
So, I”ll unglue the back, attempt to strengthen it by adding another coat of rabbit skin glue and then let that dry before attempting to redo the entire board..
I’ve gotten around to making up another batch of rabbit skin glue. I decided to attempt a double batch last night so that I could seal off the remainder of my panels and perhaps have enough to make a few canvas covered panels. That would mean a suggest starting point of 2Tbs RSG to 22Tbs H2O. As the last batch I made was a bit too thin at the first attempt I went with a 1:10 ration rather than 1:11.
Well, after letting it sit for about six hours (the bare minimum) and applying a fracture/cleavage test the glue was MUCH too strong. so I diluted to about 1:12. Another six hours and it’s still just as strong… So I went ahead and upped it to nearly a quart of water now it’s now resting away in a nice warm tap water bath. If it’s still to strong I’ll up to the full quart of water and after that I’m out of space in my bowl!
and FYI, rabbit skin glue is actually a common name for a very high grade hide glue. It’s normally made from cow hides, not rabbits. Although rabbits do from what I’ve been told make a very nice glue. Not to mention they taste quite nice in a stew. It’s quite similar in looks to plain jello, (collagen is what makes up jello and RSG!)
I’ll be honest that I’m not really sure why I joined twitter, but ah well. Maybe I’ll come to love it. here’s my page or whatever they call them: http://twitter.com/matthewDstiles
I’ve also finally gotten some more panels made. Most of them are just cut up for now, but I’ve done some true gesso ones I’ve made myself. Should be an interesting surface. Wasn’t as hard to make them as I thought it would be. Although when my son stuck his hand into one I was somewhat upset. I did manage to save it but I”ll have to see what happens to them in two days when they’re dry enough to finish up. (They need some sanding and a size to be ready to accept oil paint optimally for those not in the know.)
The rest are waiting to be squared up, as I don’t have a table saw. Some are pretty wonky shaped, parallelograms more so that rectangles. They all also need to be sealed and primed. Mostly 5×7’s this time around, but also a few 8×10’s and three 8×8’s as well.
I’m going to do a few canvas panels and some just primed along with the gesso ones. I Need to figure out my true preference for panels and finally have the time and materials to take a good stab at it. I do wish I had linen but the cotton canvas will workout great, I’ve used it many times previously for stretched works and it’s just sat in an unused pile ever since I switched over to panel.
