How To Use A Light Board For Drawing
If you lot're new to sheet panels, you may have a number of questions well-nigh what they are and how to use them. In this postal service, I'chiliad going to explain all of the various aspects of painting on canvas panels.
What Is a Sail Panel?
Canvas panels are rigid boards with a layer of sail glued to them, they're a good culling to stretched sail. These boards are thinner than stretched sheet which makes them user-friendly for painting outdoors. They're also popular among painters who like to work small.
The phrases "canvas panels" and "sail boards" are interchangeable. This is true regardless if the lath is fabricated from wood or cardboard. Yous'll accept to cheque the packaging to run across if the manufacturer discloses what the board is made from.
You can buy canvass panels from fine art supply stores and craft stores. These stores carry a multifariousness of canvas textures and sizes to choose from.
Additionally, if you're the DIY type, information technology'south possible to make your own canvass panels. This allows you to make them with the canvas and gesso that yous prefer.
What Canvas Panels Are Fabricated From
Canvas panels are fabricated from a rigid lath, adhesive, canvass, and gesso. You tin read more about each component in the sections below.
Boards
There are a diverseness of boards that are used to make canvas panels but they're by and large made from cardboard or wood.
Cardboard Sheet Panels
Every bit I mentioned higher up, the more affordable canvas panels are usually made from cardboard. It's the thicker chipboard variety of cardboard, and not the corrugated paper-thin that boxes are fabricated from.
These panels are okay for students who are learning to pigment. They're less expensive than stretched canvas and yet provide the same sheet texture.
The reward of the cardboard canvas panels is they're affordable, lightweight, and widely available in craft stores.
The disadvantage is that paper-thin is obviously less durable than wood, they're prone to warping and the corners are piece of cake to ding.
Water harm may make the cardboard soggy, and an extensive soaking in water will destroy the cardboard interior. Besides, moisture cardboard may somewhen get moldy, and some insects are attracted to the cellulose in cardboard.
Wood Canvas Panels
There are a variety of wood boards that artists utilise to brand canvas panels from.
The most common type of lath is a canvass of MDF, also known equally hardboard. At that place are dissimilar types of hardboard which tin can make things a piddling confusing.
The following article from Ampersand explains the history of hardboard that are available for making canvas panels. To paraphrase, Ampersand recommends using a tempered hardboard because it will resist warping, the edges won't fray, and it creates a better seal with both oil and acrylic primers.
Near other manufacturers don't disclose the verbal type of wood production that they employ for making canvas panels.
In add-on, y'all can paint on wood without the canvas. Ampersand's gessobord is a skilful example of this blazon of console.
Agglutinative
The adhesive that's used to glue the sheet to the board should be pH neutral.
For example, Rapheal's markets their PVA glue as "Phenomenon Muck," and Ramar uses EVA mucilage which is a derivative of PVA glue.
Creative person quality supports are generally pH neutral or acid gratuitous so that they don't deteriorate with age. Any acidity in art papers and adhesives volition crusade them to yellow and become brittle.
In addition to PVA glue, artists who brand their own canvas panels commonly resort to using acrylic gel every bit an adhesive. It's acid costless, archival, and is low odor.
Canvas
Canvas panels are available in a broad range of different types of canvases. At that place are also panels that use linen instead of canvas.
Linen is made from the flax institute and it has a unlike texture than canvas which is made from cotton.
Each type of sail has a slightly different texture and you will have to experiment with them to notice one that works well with your painting techniques.
Gesso
Gesso is an acrylic primer that you can use to prime sheet for painting with oils or acrylics. All of the canvas boards that I have came with the gesso already applied to the canvas.
I believe this is considering the canvas shrinks after you utilise the gesso. For this reason, the board would warp if you utilize the gesso afterwards y'all glue it to the board. This is something to go on this in mind if you effort making canvas panels for yourself.
Yous tin buy primed canvas if you want to make your own DIY canvas panels. It should salvage you the trouble of having to prime number the canvas yourself. I never tried it, but I think priming unstretched canvas wouldn't work very well.
The quality of the gesso that manufacturers use on their sail boards varies. Inexpensive panels frequently have gesso that seems rather smooth, while higher quality panels use artist grade gesso that has more molar.
You can apply an additional coat of gesso to your sheet panels if y'all don't like the gesso they came with.
Backing
The paper-thin canvas boards usually accept the canvas wrapped effectually to the back, which may accept a white layer of thick paper glued to it. It ordinarily includes some room for signing your name.
Y'all can apply this area to sign and date it, and to include more information most the painting.
The backs of wood canvass panels sometimes have a layer of melamine or other material glued to information technology. This extra layer helps prevent warping and makes the board more durable.
Other panels accept a thin layer of clear sealant applied to the woods back. The sealant helps prevent the lath from absorbing moisture and prevents warping.
Uses for Canvas Panels
Plein Air Painting
Plein air painters often use canvas panels for painting outdoors for the reasons below.
Since canvas panels are much thinner than regular canvases, yous can fit many more of them in a backpack or whatsoever you use to carry your supplies while traveling.
A canvas console is unremarkably ⅛" thick so they're roughly half dozen times thinner than a stretched canvas.
Most of the equipment for painting outdoors accept clips that will hold the board in place while you paint on information technology. Pochade boxes usually have these clips built into the lid. You simply open the lid and slide a canvas lath into the clips and begin painting.
A traditional canvas is at least 3/4" thick so they're much also thick for these clips. If you lot plan on painting with a regular sail outdoors, you'll have to use a more than traditional easel that has clamps that will hold the sail in place.
In example you're wondering, "plein air painting" ways to paint outdoors.
Canvas Panels Block Out Sunlight
In the photo above, you can run across the shadows from the stretcher confined along the outside edges of the painting. The sunlight is shining through the center part of the painting which makes information technology difficult to gauge colors. Sail boards don't accept this problem considering they entirely cake out the low-cal.
This is a real distraction because it will brand the colors look lighter where the light is shining through. The areas where the stretcher bars are volition appear normal because they cake the light.
Of course you can bring a board along with you and place it behind the stretched sail to block the light.
Since canvas panels take a solid core, they entirely block out the sunlight.
Small-scale Paintings
Canvass boards are likewise popular among artists who pigment minor.
While you tin can make a 6"x6" stretched sheet by stretching canvas over some stretcher bars, a sheet panel is a more convenient and simpler solution.
They take a more uniform and neat advent so they're perfect for small paintings.
Stretched canvases don't e'er provide such a uniform surface at smaller sizes.
Another result with stretcher bars is they have rounded edges and they seem more pronounced at smaller sizes. You may not find the rounded edges if the canvas is big, but they can exist distracting on smaller canvases.
The corners where the stretcher bars run across tin can sometimes take flaws where they don't line up perfectly.
Stretching canvas beyond pocket-size stretcher confined can exist tricky. The smaller size can make it challenging to go enough tension in the canvas so it doesn't sag. Trying to staple a small canvas while stretching the canvas with a pair of canvas pliers is cumbersome. Since larger canvases have so much more canvass material, the canvas will stretch more hands.
Canvas boards are very consistent and the corners are almost e'er perfectly foursquare. Even if you make canvas panels for yourself, it's piece of cake to become a square corner and a smooth surface.
Collage
Some artists use sail panels for collage. Sturdy canvas panels should concur upwards to most collage techniques.
If you utilize actress thick papers for collage or employ many layers, I recommend using panels that are cradled and so that they're less likely to warp.
You'll need some sort of glue to adhere the paper to the console. I commonly use acrylic mediums for collage. Matte medium works well for sparse papers only if you need a thicker glue, gel medium will work too.
Acrylic mediums are archival, acid free, clean up with water, and are low in odor.
Gessobord is another type of panel you lot can use for collage. Y'all can view the different sizes of gessoboard on Amazon. Essentially, gessobord is a wood panel without the canvas that's primed with gesso. These boards seem more rigid than the hardboard you would find in the hardware store and work well for collage. Ampersand offers cradled Gessobords as well.
You tin can click on the image below to view the broad assortment of gessobord that Blick offers. (This is an affiliate link which means if you lot click on it and make a purchase, I earn a commission at no cost to you lot.)
Common Canvas Lath Sizes
You can purchase canvas panels in a variety of sizes, from 4"x5" all the fashion upward to 18"x24" or fifty-fifty larger.
One effect to keep in mind is that larger panels are decumbent to warping, more then than smaller panels. This is something that I cover more in the section about warped canvas panels.
Below is a table of the sizes that are most commonly available. Many daily painters adopt to piece of work in the square format and then y'all'll find squares canvas panels in a variety of sizes.
| Mutual Canvas Panel Sizes |
|---|
| 5" × vii" |
| 6" × 6" |
| 6" × 8" |
| eight" × 8" |
| 8" × x" |
| 9" × 12" |
| ten″ ten 10″ |
| 11" × xiv" |
| 12" × 12" |
| sixteen" × 20" |
| 18" × 24" |
In that location are many more sizes available, but I find these are the sizes that artists gravitate towards the most.
Ane key issue you want to remember when that choosing a size for your paintings is how are you're going to frame the finished painting.
While you lot may leave that upwards to the collector, information technology nonetheless pays off to think about this beforehand. I discuss framing canvas panels afterward in the mail service.
In short, you can make framing much quicker and much less expensive if you pigment on the near common sail panels sizes.
How to Cutting a Canvass Board
You can cut down a sparse sheet panel with a handsaw. Thicker panels may require a table saw. Cardboard canvas panels can be cutting with a utility knife but the edges may look strange. This is because the other uncut edges volition still have the canvas that wraps around to the back.
On the side that you cut, the canvas won't wrap effectually to the back and information technology may stand up out in comparison to the sides that are uncut. This may non be a problem if you plan to use a frame that volition hide the edges of the board.
Another concern with cutting downwardly cardboard canvas panels is the canvas may elevator from the cardboard because information technology doesn't wrap around to the back of the panel.
As for wood panels, I don't recommend trying to cut a forest sheet panel with a utility knife.
Some people cut sheets of hardboard with a utility knife by scoring both sides and then folding it until it breaks. I don't suggest using this technique to cut a sail panel because it would leave a ragged edge.
Cutting all the way through the hardboard with a utility pocketknife may produce a smoother cutting but it would have forever and quickly tiresome your blade. Instead, you'll desire to use a handsaw.
Below is how I normally cutting a canvas console that'due south ⅛" thick. Information technology'southward a good thought to test your saw on a bit canvas panel to see if you lot like the results before cutting down larger, more than expensive panels.
Steps for Cutting Downwards a Wood Canvass Panel
- Measure the board and draw the cut lines. Utilise a ruler to measure the board and draw lines where you lot desire to cut the board. For instance, I had a sixteen×20 canvas panel that I wanted to cut down into iv eight"x10" panels. The math was easy. I only had to divide the board in half in both directions.
- Cutting downwards the board with a hand saw. My hand saw has aggressive teeth and I was concerned that it would cause fraying as I cutting through the canvas, but it worked rather well. Information technology helps to cutting the board with the canvas facing up. Keep in heed the saw will remove some of the material then your finished boards may exist slightly smaller than you expected.
- Sand the edges of the wood console with a sanding block. If y'all don't accept a sanding block you can wrap a piece of sandpaper around a flat piece of woods.
Go on in listen the saw will remove some of the material and so your finished boards may exist slightly smaller than you expected.
Stretched Canvas vs Canvas Panels
| Stretched Canvas | Sail Panel |
|---|---|
| 3/four" thick | 1/8" thick |
| Stretched across a wood frame and stapled to the dorsum | The sheet is glued down to woods board or a slice of paper-thin |
| Stretched canvas has a springy feel | Sheet board is rigid |
| Allows calorie-free to smoothen through the sheet when you lot paint outdoors | Entirely blocks out any light coming from behind the canvas |
| Y'all need a french easel or regular easel to hold information technology in place as you paint outdoors | Pochade boxes have clips that hold the panel in place when painting outdoors |
| The sail is more prone to puncturing by abrupt objects | Rigid wood back up resists damage |
| Can exist displayed with or without a frame | Requires a frame to display it on the wall |
| Canvas tension changes with the weather | Canvas lath is always rigid, there's no sagging |
| Canvass is flexible, expands and contracts, which may crusade peachy | Wood supports are more stable and flex less than sail |
| Mural size canvases are possible, requires heavy duty stretcher bars | Larger panels crave cradling to resist warping |
How to Frame Sheet Panels
Beneath are the three basic framing methods for canvas panels. I wrote a very in depth commodity about how to frame sail panels, which includes a video demonstration ( you tin scout it beneath).
- You can buy a floater frame kit for framing sheet panels. This method requires you to gum or use double sided tape to adhere your canvas board to the frame.
- Use a regular wood frame to frame a canvas panel. Picture show frames have a recessed groove along the back edges of the frame which is deep enough to hold a canvas panel in identify. You'll need to use points to secure the panel in place. I recommend using a point driver, or a less expensive manual point driver.
- In that location are frames for canvas panels. All the same, they're not easy to detect. This method also requires the use of some sort of adhesive to hold the panel in identify.
I prefer using regular woods frames with a point driver (option number 2) because information technology works with a variety of frames. Another benefit is yous tin apply flexible points which makes information technology easy for yous to reuse the frames past switching out different paintings. Below is my YouTube video where I demonstrate how to do this.
How to Gear up a Warped Canvas Panel
This is a challenging question to answer because information technology'south very difficult to fix a warped canvass panel.
There are a few circumstances that can cause a sheet panel to warp. Acrylic paint can shrink a little as it dries and the tension causes the board to warp. The canvas is some other part of the console that can compress and crusade warping.
Another common cause of warping is leaning a canvas panel confronting a wall for an extended period.
If this is what happened to your panel, yous can try flipping the painting over so that it's leaning against the wall in the opposite direction. The idea is to use gravity to pull out the slight bend in the console.
However, I don't have much conviction though that this would effect in a perfectly apartment console. And it would take a long time.
Depending upon the agglutinative, you may be able to remove the canvas and adhere information technology to a new board. This is a drastic measure and you shouldn't have information technology lightly, you lot may end up damaging the painting beyond repair.
Consult with an art conservator before you effort to remove the canvas from the panel, especially if information technology's an important piece.
I've also heard of artists trying to flatten out a canvass console past weighing down with a flat lath and weights of some sort. This solution is besides fraught with risks. Acrylic paint tends to stick to surfaces if you allow it to remain in contact for besides long.
Acrylic paint is soft, so placing weights on a painting with thick impasto may harm it.
Similar problems exist with oil paintings. Thick layers of oil paint takes a long time to dry, and so thick impasto marks may go damaged nether pressure level. Onetime oil pigment tends to become breakable with age and flattening out the board may crusade cracking.
There isn't actually any simple solution to flattening out a warped canvas panel. It's best to learn how to preclude them from warping in the first place.
How to Prevent Canvas Panels From Warping
There are a number of variables that will cause your canvas panels to warp.
Larger canvas panels tend to warp more than smaller ones. In fact, panels that are larger than sixteen×20 would benefit from cradling. Panels that are cradled have wood strips attached to the back of them.
This helps to stiffen the lath and forestall it from warping.
Another cause of warping is leaning a panel against a wall for an extended period of time. There's aught wrong with this if it's but for a couple of days, but gravity volition eventually crusade the board to curve a little.
If you lot're going the DIY route by making your ain canvas panels, y'all should use primed sheet when y'all mucilage the sail to the lath.
Otherwise, if you lot were to apply gesso to the raw canvas after it's glued down to the board, the sail will shrink and create plenty tension to warp the board.
The best way to foreclose warping is to frame the sheet panel as soon as possible and hang information technology on the wall. It's very unlikely that it will warp in a frame considering it will hold the painting completely vertical.
If you tin't frame it then the best solution is to store the painting in such a way that it's vertical.
The All-time Canvas Panels for Oils and Acrylic
Over the years I have tried out numerous canvas panels and my favorite panels are the ones from Raymar. They offer them in 11 different surfaces including canvas, linen, and paper.
The RayMar website has the well-nigh pick, while Blick carries the smooth canvas panels. (If you purchase through the Blick link, I earn a commission at no cost to you.)
Panels with acrylic gesso will work with acrylics and oils. They also brand sheet panels that are primed with oil painting grounds.
These boards are made from MDF and the agglutinative is PH neutral. They are backed with gray melamine to help forbid warping and to preclude damage. They are available in a multifariousness of sizes and canvas types.
I like the variety of canvas textures that they offer. I use the smooth portrait sail and the rougher mural canvass.
Conclusion
In decision, canvas panels are pocket-sized, easy to use, durable, and good for traveling. Virtually of my recent paintings are on small and canvas panels and they work dandy.
I unremarkably adopt to purchase them instead of making them so I don't accept more time to practise my painting. They're very user-friendly to employ and I experience more confident they won't become damaged when I transport them to collectors.
Source: https://drawandpaintforfun.com/canvas-panel-guide/
Posted by: solomonstrel1937.blogspot.com
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