about painting surfaces
A lot of people think painting is done on raw canvas.
They just get the canvas, stretch it out over wood. Apply your 1.3 children of gesso- dry, and that’s it. You’ve got your surface.
Have you ever painted on a painting?
Wasn’t it nice?
I like to really prepare my surface.
Lately I’ve taken affection to putting straps of newspaper drowned in gesso over canvas.
I let it dry, I put more gesso on top. Then I’ll make a graphite drawing.
When I’m happy with that, I’ll seal it in my special acrylic underpainting sealer formula.
Which tends to consist of cigarette ashes, maybe some spit, acrylic medium, and maybe some acrylic modeling paste.
I don’t put it on with a big fat fucker of a brush, I put it on with a medum brush. Why? Because I enjoy it.
No, seriously. I’ve found myself asking that- when it takes so damn long. I’ll sit there crouched over on the floor carefully covering a 22×28 inch chunk a art- and I’ll ask.
And that’s the answer- it’s love. It’s .. there’s just something about it.
Stop painting on canvas. Fuck canvas. Prepare the surface. Even if you paint on canvas.
Give it character.
Please, actually click on these images to see how beautiful and inviting they are.
Does it take a long time? Yes.
But this is art, motherfucker. This is war.
This is one of the doctor's mad lab rooms. It's one of the bedrooms I never go into, really. Nicely covered with a beautiful strap of textile. Note the lack of light and my dirty laundry on the left.
This is a painting surface. Note the texture. It's interesting. It's not too crazy. You have to look at it from up close. This is what you want to paint on- on life.
Here you can see some real detail. This appears to be a lot of gesso gumpled over- but no. This comes together when you work- and it's nice to lay graphite on this junk. Make sure you use an 8B graphite stick- not you're grandmother's #2 kiddie pencil.
This is a bit of a flatter surface. Still, it holds character.
Note the shine- this is a drawing that's been sealed in a crazy acrylic mixture. Yes, cigarette ashes and old acrylic- sometimes. Let it all roll.
