Reddit reviews The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques: Fifth Edition, Revised and Updated (Reference)

This book has more info on it. If you want to know more about your materials it’d suggest you give it a read.

I kept seeing this post pop up all day, and I kept refraining from commenting because I figured someone would eventually come along and point you towards a specific book, and that was really what you were asking for. But since no one else has commented, here's my advice: The most important and useful thing you can do is practice. If you want some practical tips, go to the library and take out some books about techniques, but I've never actually found any of those helpful. The only book that I've ever found useful was this but it doesn't tell you how to do anything, it just tells you what every material is and basic information. Actually, I learned a lot from it. Aside from that, practice a lot, pay close attention to what artists that you like do, and experiment with the paint a lot. Hope that helps.

Ive been painting for about ten years and have tried just about every type of paint i could get my hands on. First thing is you should stretch your own canvas, the painting is an art object and store bought pre-stretched canvas are the devil. You get so much more control when you do it yourself and save a ton of money. Good stretcher bars make all the difference as well. In terms of cloth heavy cotton duck canvas is pretty much standard. But theres also linen, panel, tyvek, canvas drop cloth, a towel a bed sheet or whatever else you want. Again the standards are there to make things archival and last forever, practice on whatever you want. Canvas generally hads a heavier tooth, so using hog hair bristle brushes on gently primed canvas will give you more resistance opposed to heavily gessoed canvas or linen with a horse hair sable brush or a synthetic squirrel hair which will give you much more fluidity. Priming with rabbit skin glue or pva glue will seal and tighten canvas like no other. Rabbit skin glue on linen can snap stretcher bars in half. When using oil my favorite was cotton duck primed with rabbit skin glue and then an oil primer titanium white. It gives a really slick surface to work on without much give. But its also a finicky process. The main thing you want is the cloth to be completely sealed so the oil wont eat away at it. Then you get people like Helen Frankenthaler who used oil on raw canvas and that was what she was about and now museums are dealing with how to preserve them. In the long run it comes down to what you want to achieve and the look you're after for a piece. You should look in to picking up a copy of this http://www.amazon.com/The-Artists-Handbook-Materials-Techniques/dp/0670837016 if you really want to dig deep in to materials. Every painter I know knows about that book and its a hundred times more useful than any learn to paint book.

Ok, there is a lot going on here and let me try to break down the sort of issues I foresee. I don't know what kind of knowledge and materials you already have, so I'm not going to assume anything.

The rabbit skin glue always makes a more matte finish. Sealing the gesso with the RSG will keep that quality. Fortunately! The exact thing you need to combat that will give you the fine lines for things like the background in that portrait.

Mediums are really important in oil painting. Controlling the viscosity is how you get refined lines. And nice brushes. If you don't have nice brushes... well.... that breaks my heart thinking about the amount of frustration you can prevent.

Here is what I used to use:

Panel: I assume you are purchasing a panel from an art store. It should be sufficiently sanded. I suggest you avoid making your own panel because it is a pain in the ass sanding and reinforcing. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there are many artboards available larger than 24" any more :( So if you need to go larger then that be sure to reinforce it with cross grained laminating, stretcher bars and cross bars.

The only reason to use linen on this panel is if you want the texture of linen. Otherwise skip it.

Gesso: Classic RSG with marble dust! This makes such a beautiful springy surface it's hard not to just lick it. The opening comment has a description of how to make that gesso.

Underpainting: Same as the first comment. Dilute your sketching color to watercolor consistency with turp.

Painting:To make my next layers I would use 1:1 turp with oil. This is smooth and covers large flat areas. It also works well for blending. When I was ready to start putting in details I'd use Gamblin's Neo Megalip. It's a less brutal recreation of some Dutch Old Masters medium (I've made some of those from scratch and frankly it sucks). It is heaven.

Varnish aka Making it all shinyGive everything a few weeks to dry and varnish it with Damar or Gamvar.

If you don't have The Artists Handbook you should really get a copy. Also, lock it up. Three of mine have been permanently borrowed.

Let me know if you have questions. (Yes, Damar goes over gold, I don't know about Gamvar. Sable brushes are the best for detail.) Hope this helps!

The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques "Since 1940, when it was originally published, The Artist's Handbook has become indispensable for thousands of practicing artists and art students. The book has remained continually in print through many editions and has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. A detailed index makes a wealth of information readily available. Charts and line drawings throughout."

The best one I've ever seen is in Ralph Mayer's The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques.

Sorry I can't find a link to the content, or even my own coy of it to transcribe it for you. Apparently, it's been lost during one of my 30 million moves over the years...

Hey asshole, look what you're doing here. You're arguing about how cheaply you can buy canvas, in a thread about an amateur artist who is making shitty Bob Ross-inspired paintings on boards. So before I mute you, I'll just remind you that I said you win, you can make your crap paintings on any crap canvas you like. Just don't argue with the world that crap canvas is going to hold up over time, every standard artist's reference book has extensive details on the archival qualities of canvas, and any art restorer will inform you of the details of which you remain willfully ignorant. Judging by the peek of your real paintings in the corner of your trophy picture, I am relieved that the world will not have to endure your horrid paintings for long before they will decompose.

I mean light as in value

With oil you want to go fat over lean, and oil paint straight from the tube is -supah fat- (its carrier is oil after all)

You don’t need damar, if you use just a wash and don’t apply your under painting thickly you won’t need a curing agent (oil paint doesn’t dry it cures)The odorless mineral spirits is fine (gamsol). Less is better in an under painting. So… yes don’t work straight from the tube. Let the ground be your white. You’re just going to paint over this anyway so don’t overwork it. Footnote: saw the discussion about whether to use white or not. That’s a personal preference totally. It’s not mine because of how I work but it’s ok if you want to. Part of learning to paint is to figure out how you want to do it. There are limitations and rules of the medium, which you will figure out as you go, but there’s no right or wrong way to do it beyond that. Oil painters love to discuss/argue about the technical shit :)

3 hints.

If you’re buying prestretched canvas, after you take the plastic off wipe it down with a wet washcloth. They can get covered in surfactant at the factory (basically soap). Wiping that off helps it take paint.

With oil, before painting the first time coat the whole surface with linseed oil, then wipe it all off. You shouldn’t be able to feel the oil when you touch the canvas the benefit of this is while you can paint on acrylic (which is what most gessoes are today) oils sticks to itself better. You can also add a little pigment to tint your ground if you want. If you drew your under painting down spray fix it before doing this because it’ll wash your drawing off otherwise. I suggest a casein based fixative like spectrafix for this. It’s friendlier to the process and is nontoxic.

Get this book and read the shit out of it. It’s technical but it’ll tell you all about different paint materials.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Link: The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques


|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|




This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting).

Many years ago, I purchased The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques. It was originally published in 1940 and it's a comprehensive reference for every material and technique.
It includes explanations on the fat over lean rule and much more that relates to your question that could never be covered here.

another greeat book to get would be The artist's handbook by ralph mayer. reviews everything one could want to know. also a color wheel is another great thing you could get her.

link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Handbook-Materials-Techniques-Reference/dp/0670837016

link to color wheel: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002J4OPEM/ref=asc_df_B002J4OPEM5271826/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B002J4OPEM&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167148482147&hvpos=1o4&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8189816881818029176&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009892&hvtargid=pla-310385990598

This book has everything you'll ever need to know about any sort of technical problem. The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques by Ralph Mayer.