Can I Use Canvas Boards with Wet On Wet Technique?

I've watched all 403 Bob Ross’s “Joy of Painting” some more times than others and he often says not to use canvas boards for this technique. His reason was that because the middle of the board is cardboard which sucks up the medium used and you end up with a dry board. At the time it may have been the case as the panels were only single primed. Today, however, I can purchase triple primed canvas boards even at box stores like Walmart or other stores carrying paint/craft supplies. The drawback still is that the center is cardboard and like with pre-stretched canvasses, quality varies even from one board to another.

There are many reasons why most of us might want to use canvas boards. The obvious one is they’re cheaper. Another is that you don’t have to put it in a custom frame costing you plenty. I use both depending on what my purpose is. My goal is to enjoy painting but keeping my costs down. I paint every day. Sometimes I’ll do one and other times I will do two. In a years time this thing with painting could cost me a fortune.

I first began using canvas boards for painting portraits. I wasn’t sure how liquid white would get absorbed into the board and often mixed liquid white into the paint to thin it rather than onto the canvas board itself. Doing portraits need a soft oil paint and rather than going out and get ripped off by purchasing more paints, I decided to use my thick Winton oils by Windsor and Newton and just thin them down. Winton oils worked well for me doing the wet on wet technique so why not on portrait. My goal is to save money when ever I can. I’m tired of getting ripped off by paint supply stores and by manufacturers. When I discovered how well this worked, I decided to take it up a notch and try painting the entire board with liquid white and liquid clear.

The first thing I did was to take a 9"X12" canvas board which was only double primed, covered 1/3 of it with liquid white. The middle section, I covered with diluted soft white thinking that it may be a good substitute for liquid white should I run out. The bottom 1/3 I covered with liquid clear. I just let it sit and see what happens. They were all still wet and slick after 24 hours. Just to see if they would last another 12 hours, I thought that I'd let them sit over night. 12 hours later they were all still wet and slick, ready to go. So 36 hours later the canvas board still had not sucked up either of the liquid white or liquid clear.

I have now used various size canvas boards up to 16”x 20”, the largest, I found and covered them with liquid white and then painted a landscape. Most of them were completed in a day. My problem was that the larger size boards began to warp, but then as I recall I had the same problem using acrylics earlier in my learning to paint period. The way I solved that problem was to secure all four sides of the board using tacks or screws….no, not through the board! I used a piece of luan plywood slightly larger than the largest canvas board I could find and then screwed small screws into the luan along the sides of the canvas board so that the head of the screw would secure the top, bottom and sides. I used two on all sides giving me a total of eight screws holding the board well in place and keeping it from warping.

I like doing many of my paintings using colored gesso and mix my own colors for the background thus saving on waste. Let’s face it folks, there is a lot of wasted oil paints using this technique costing you and me plenty. By doing most of my backgrounds in acrylic gessoes, I save a lot of oil paint. Acrylic gessoes also add texture. I discovered that for some reason the liquid clear disappears over Gesso after a few minutes. Two coats are needed over acrylic Gessoes. I apply the first coat over the entire board and let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes. If the board looks and feels dry, I'll go ahead and add a second coat. This usually does the trick and allows me to finish my painting with out problems.

Liquid white and liquid clear work better on a fresh white canvas board right out of the package. Once more gesso is added to the board whether black or other colors, liquid clear seems to get sucked in while liquid white does not. So do what I do, add a second coat of liquid clear if need be and go about your painting.

Here are some paintings I did on canvas board:

a wet on wet technique on canvas board

another wet on wet using canvas board

using acrylic gessoes for backgrounds saves money

canvas board painting using liquid clear and liquid white

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