Question for William or anyone else if they know

[Mark Branscum]

William,

I notice on your site you mention painting on panels, specifically a birch panel. What is that exactly, where does one get it and is it cheaper than canvas?

A lot of questions I know, so please pardon me, I am just curious as I thought it was quite beautiful.

Another question, do you prepare it in some way before painting on it?

Mark

[William Whitaker]

I went to a home store and bought (and had cut to size) high quality 1/2" birch plywood. I also bought a booklet on fine furniture finishing and bought the necessary supplies to do the job.

I had fun finishing the panels, but it was a lot of hard work and I probably won't ever do it again. I still have a few left in storage.

Here is a detail from a very small painting done on one of those birch panels. A lot of the wood is still showing.

Bill

[John Zeissig]

Hello all,

This thread is interesting to me because I've been doing all my paintings on various types of panels. In my case the motives were stinginess and ignorance. Through a business connection I have nearly unlimited access to plywood, MDF (medium density fibreboard) and Masonite panels in a variety of wood species, thicknesses etc. at the best possible price: free. The ignorance refers to the fact that it never occurred to me that there might be any problems associated with painting on them. In fact, the only significant problem , of which I was already aware, is that on panels larger than about 11" x 14" it is wise to seal the backside of the panel with either a varnish or acrylic sealer so that cupping of the panel (due to uptake of atmospheric moisture) does not occur. Alternatively, the back can be sealed by laminating Formica or backer sheet to the back. Birch or maple plywood in 1/2" thickness goes for under $ 1/sq. ft. around here, 1/4" MDF for about $ 0.40 / sq. ft., etc., so it's not all that expensive to buy. William may have used Finnish or Baltic birch, which has a lot more laminations and can be quite expensive. In any event, Mark, it's probably worth a trip to a local custom cabinet fabricator to ask if they have any fall-off pieces that they'll give you. Usually they generate a fair amount of scrap that they'll just give you if you ask nicely. Plywood and MDF start to get pretty heavy in larger sized panels, so stick to the thinner stuff if you're planning to paint big. There's a whole lot of opinions on panels on various painting discussion groups.

I usually prime the side to be painted with 4-5 coats of acrylic gesso and then sand to the desired level of smoothness. What caught my attention was William's technique of clear finishing the wood and then painting on that, leaving the wood grain showing through. Having just spent some frustrating hours on two paintings with wood wainscoating in the backgrounds, tediously doing faux woodgrain in oils, I'm wondering if it would be possible to use this technique to incorporate the natural woodgrain into the painting. Would it look too perfect? Could you use stains to render the different values of different planes? I've never heard of anyone doing this, have you?

William - Beautiful painting, beautiful subject!

[Margaret Port]

A few years ago I decided to paint some icons on 1/2 inch craftwood (it sands completely smooth, is lightweight and came highly recommended by another artist). I carefully sealed both sides & all edges with artist quality sealer. I painted about eight paintings in oils, 12" x 24" each. Even put gold leaf everywhere. Then we moved house & they were stored in a spare room, stacked on edge against an internal wall. I thought I'd get them out for an exhibition and there was a mound of grey mould completely covering all surfaces in the stack. They went to the dump.

Also, apparently the glue has a formaldehyde base, so I'm advised, so the other problem with man-made panels is that they vent fumes for about five years and then there is no strength left in the glue and they begin to separate.

[Michael Fournier]

...backgrounds, tediously doing faux woodgrain in oils, I'm wondering if it would be possible to use this technique to incorporate the natural woodgrain into the painting. Would it look too perfect

John, I think you might not be happy with the result. Why? Well unless you are painting on the same species of wood and also painting life size the grain will not match the scale of the actual grain in your painting. Also the grain will be flat and not match the perspective of your painting. The effect of the wood grain showing through as in Bill's painting I like but he was not intending for it to represent wood.

[John Zeissig]

Michael

Right you are! After I posted that I took a scrap of maple ply to fool around with and it was immediately obvious that, except for planes orthogonal to the line of sight, there would be no gradient to the grain, thus confounding any attempt at perspective. Strange, because I've done marquetry pieces where a section of veneer with a diminishing distance between grain lines was deliberately selected to avoid that. Odd that that knowledge wouldn't immediately transfer to painting.

I've seen people do wood-graining with a single brush stroke, so I guess it would be wiser to practice that if you're faced with having to do a bunch of it.

Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and thanks for your response.

[ReNae Stueve]

I know I should have started another topic in tips, but I didn't think the question was worth a whole subject line. How DO you do wood graining with a single stroke? I know there is NO right answer, depends on the type of wood etc. but I'm looking for a place to start. I just finished a still life with a high polish wooden kitchen table. Getting the grain, and the reflections and the perspective was a real bite. I'd like to do this type of setting in a more "painterly" style one of these days, but wood grain puts me off.

Any tips to start my practice ?

[Michael Fournier]

Yes, a side topic on painting wood, both polished and rough, is a fine idea. I will start one.