diy oil canvas boards

lucylu

I am looking for info on how to create oil canvas boards. Do many of you oil painters make your own oil boards.
Can anyone recommend a cloth for a fine surface finish and glue and where I should start to look?

thanks.

dlart

Hi lucylu,

I've been making my own boards for years, although i usally don't make them with canvas. But have stuck canvas to boards for ppl for mounting and framing.
I use mdf board cut to whatever size i need and then apply 4 coats of gesso to one side. Making sure that each layer is dry before putting on the next, also alternating the brush direction from vertical to horizontal on each layer. Depending on how warm your studio is should'nt take more than 3 or 4 hours, but you can do alot of boards at the same time.

What kind of cloth to use will depend on your budget, you can get rolls of cotton canvas primed and unprimed in most good art supply shops or online and the same with linnen canvas. Mdf Board can be got in most hardware shops.

As for sticking canvas to board you can use a pva glue or Acrylic Medium or Acylic Gel which are more expensive. Whatever you use just be sure not to put it on to thick, a thin even layer is what your looking for, too much and it will start to seep through the canvas, not really a big deal as a few coats of gesso and you can paint over it.

lucylu

thanks dart that is great info