I’m planning several projects that are of a rather large scale…in excess of 5 feet x 8 feet. (I’m probably going to use several media, but primarily acrylics). I’m still in high school, and I don’t have a job, and on a virtually non-existant budget, large canvas is pretty expensive…not to mention hard to find in the desired dimensions.
Now, an aunt of mine is redoing her basement, and has some large sheets of drywall leftover that she said I could use. Is there any reason not to use it? Has anybody ever tried it? Any other cheap surfaces I might want to try instead?
Dry wall (often referred to as “sh!trock” in the building trade) is basically a thin layer of paper over a more substantial plane of compressed gypsum. Acrylics are a water based paint. Have you seen what happens to drywall when it is exposed to water?
I realize that you are attempting to save money, so here goes. Take some of the scraps left over from the building project and give them a good coating (or two) of an exterior grade titanium white latex paint. You’ll want to allow each base coat to dry for a rather long time in a well ventilated area. I would go for two coats just to establish a really good seal between what you’re going to be painting and the cheap paper and gypsum below.
Once you have a well dried white undercoat, you should be able to paint with impunity. Even to the point of using palette knife effects without blistering the underlayer of paper. Never having done this before, all of my suppositions are merely based on my interior painting and structural work with sheetrock.
My husband did this once, when we happened to have some drywall scraps around. Bad idea. They are heavy. They are hard to frame. They are hard to move around and hard to store. The smaller ones (3x4ft) aren’t that bad but the large ones, which are the size you’re talking about, are utterly impractical from every way you can look at them except that they were available at the time and provided a nice surface.
I would recommend finding a local tent shop, where you can get canvas scraps–and the canvas scraps of commercial tentmakers are huge–much cheaper than buying canvas from art supply places.
Something tells me using drywall could backfire on you. If your project isn’t going to need to be any kind of permanent, you could chance it I suppose.
You might consider masonite instead of drywall. Don’t paint directly onto it… give it a couple coats of gesso first.
You won’t find canvas that large at stores because generally people who want to go that big make their own frames and stretch the canvas themselves.
I was concerned about the weight issue, Cicada. I’ll look into the canvas idea, thank you.
Regarding your suggestion of masonite, Hazel-rah. What qualities would it have that would make it preferable? Second, you mentioned artists making large frames themselves–you wouldn’t happen to know of a cite, book, etc. that could teach me how, would you? I’d imagine the canvas itself might still be expensive, but it’d be worth it, considering I’d have the exact dimensions I needed.
I mean, the basics are pretty obvious. I’m after a source that’d have tips, possibly a list of places one could get the loose canvas, that sort of thing.
Masonite is a composite material specifically fabricated to have a very smooth front face, be extremely water resistant and exhibit great strength in thin, light-weight panels.
Orange Skinner, there is a book called The Artist’s Handbook of Materials & Techniques by Ralph S. Mayer. The edition we have is 1982. It’s a big fat book–it was kind of expensive but it does have lots of stuff in it like, for instance, how to make rabbit-skin glue (yuck). I would guess it has examples of how to make canvas stretchers but I can’t open it to find out as at the moment it’s sort of serving as a base for a series of objects that my husband may or may not be finished drawing. In other words, I’m not moving it! Not an inch!
Forget using drywall for the above listed drawbacks- Approach a building contractor by finding a new housing development.The contractor will probably donate any “Housewrap” (TYVEK) that he has left over- It comes in 8’ rolls, is made up of paper that has been impregnated with fiberglass. Originally designed as map material for pilots because it is impervious to all weather, impossible to tear (unless you cut it first), will take gesso, and will take any medium you have in your painting studio…including BONDO. Once primed, will not shrink, yellow or disentigrate. I staple it right to the wall, paint on it, then stretch it over stretcher bars, and have used it since 1979. Today it is used for white contamination suits, car covers, tear-proof envelopes. I would contract a building contractor before I spent money on Masonite…and a truss! Bldg. supply stores sell it as well, but it has a rough waffle-texture to it if you buy it at a supply store. The word TYVEK has been stamped on the house wrap every 24-36", but gesso or a good (lotsa’ pigment) house paint or primer can cover the TYVEK trademark. In your spare time, punch up <Dowchemical.com> and then TYVEK for the entire story about the stuff. My best of luck to you young man. Any other studio-type q’s, drop me a line. Be well.
For your project, I would do the following: Locate a new house being constructed.Ask the contractor if he/she is going to be using TYVEK housewrap, and can you buy any scrap that he has left over (he’ll give it to you free). TYVEK is a white roll of paper that has been impregnated with spun fiberglass (angel hair). Originally designed as map material for downed pilots because it is impossible to tear by hand, totally impervious to weather, and can be folded or rolled up. I’ve used it in my painting studio since 1979: Staple the TYVEK directly to the wall. Prime it with gesso or a good (lotsa’ pigment) house paint. Once primed, it will “tighten up”, so place your staples 6-8" apart around the outside edges, and about 1/2" in from the edge. When it dries, you can use any medium (including Bondo) on it. When you finish the painting, remove the work, and staple it to your stretcher bars just as you would canvas. TYVEK comes in 8’ wide rolls and 4’ wide rolls. Costs about $1/ft. on a 4’ roll, but bldg. contractors throw away what they don’t use on a house. It is easy to spot, because the word TYVEK in blue ink is stamped right on the stuff, so drive around the neighborhood and check out any new housing developments that are wrapped in white paper. There are other brands that contractors use, but TYVEK is the best. You might punch up <Dowchemical.com) to learn more about the stuff.(?) Good Luck!
Well, I mainly suggested it because I know it’s one alternative to canvas that a lot of painters use. It has a much smoother surface compared to most canvas is why I used it. I don’t have a lot of experience with sizes like you’re talking about, however.
Your best bet would be to head to an art supply store and find somebody who can help you decide on what materials are best suited for your project. They may even have demos to teach you how to stretch canvas… it isn’t hard, but it’s something best seen demonstrated live and is tough to get the hang of from reading a book.
Since you have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing, they should be able to suggest something. They’ll want to know your budget (not much), your medium (acrylic paints), and some other stuff… what size, do you need archival-quality materials, etc. In my experience they’re quite helpful and very forgiving of your ignorance at the art supply store. So ask questions.
Well, I didn’t find it especially expensive… the canvas, the wood pieces (you can buy many different lengths pre-cut that just fit together) that make up the frame, a can of gesso and a (manual) staple gun. None of this stuff is super-pricy. You can buy canvas-grabbing tools to make it a bit easier, but those aren’t strictly necessary. Thing is, as I said, I never went that large, so my wood frames didn’t need bracing. Yours would.
Last fall our orchestra asked me to do 6 murals for a concert - these needed to be large enough for the audience to see them. And for my benefit they had to be cheap - but they didn’t have to be archival quality, since it was just about achieving an effect for this one concert.
So I went to the Depot & got 6 big sheets of masonite for like $20 (really the limiting factor is the vehicle you have for transporting them), and I purchased regular old kids’ tempera paint from Hobby Lobby @$2/pint, plus a ton of good quality gesso (that was the most expensive part). The trick is - gesso the bumpy side of the masonite! Two coats did the trick & it looked like canvas.
I was thrilled with the results - I’d decided to do tributes to various artists so some of my paintings had a lot of flesh tones, some had a pastel-type approach, one was a pointillist landscape, one was very graphic. But none of them looked like they’d been done w/kids’ paints! And the working process was great - it was easy to clean up, the smell wasn’t too strong, and the paint dried slowly enough that I could rework the surface as I went along.
One thing to keep in mind when working large in oil - NEVER EVER use turpentine over a big surface, like a wash. Never. It’s extremely dangerous. You’re better off using a substitute anyway (I like the orange ones from EcoHouse). If you can smell your solvent, there’s a problem & you need better ventilation.
And don’t EVER airbrush acrylics, either. Also VERY dangerous (you’ll inhale the metals).
Also don’t smoke in your studio - the fire at the tip of your cigarette will react to fumes in the air and you’ll inhale an even worse product.
But building your own frames is fun if you’ve got some carpentry skills - there should be a bunch of books at your library that can show you how. Some people just build frames for some extra income - if you go to a local show and see an artist working large, ask them where they got their frames, you might find a pro that way.
My brother is both an artist (Master’s Degree in Fine Art) and a construction worker (family business. He tends to teach during the winter and work construction in the summer, but has done construction work on a full time basis plenty o’ times.) He gets a TON of what he calls “found canvas” on the job site. He uses pretty much whatever he can find - masonite, drywall, wood planks, you name it.
Granted, the drywall sketches tend to be fairly small - 12"x12" or so - and in pencil, not painted. But he has a whole series of drywall art.
Now that I think about it, I don’t remember the last time I saw a painting he did that was actually on actual canvas.
Add me to the masonite crowd: While cleaning out my garage recently I found some paintings I’d done about twenty years ago–acrylics on masonite panels with an undercoating of gesso–and while I’d made no effort to protect them from temperature extremes, dampness, dust, etc. over the years, they were in near-perfect condition. They are completely lacking in artistic merit, but I’m quite pleased and impressed by their durability.
That’s fine but you shouldn’t put oil paints on top of that as some did with our mural project on Cannery Row & more than half the murals peeled off in 5 years.
Dry wall isn’t something you want to take to school, its soft, if you drop it, it cracks & chips, it weighs a ton & the teacher would probably laugh. Make your own frame from lumber, its actually pretty cheap & canvas/burlap from a fabric store is too.