Question re: Painting Prep Work

[jillsy]

Am I the only one who primes my carvings before painting? Seems like most people just add a clear sealer. To me, it seems like priming makes the colors more brilliant. Anytime I've tried just using a sealer, they seem more watered-down.

I have to admit, I hate priming though. Any better ideas for prepping a carving to paint?

[Irish]

It depends on the wood that you are painting, Jill, and the final finish you want. With basswood priming is very important as the wood is so porous it just seems to eat the paint. I would much rather the basswood soak up several coats of gesso or primer than my more expensive cadmium red!

Try thinning your gesso with water, about 2 parts gesso with one part water. Brush that very thin gesso over everything and allow the carving to throughly dry. This first thin coat will be thin enough that you can see some wood grain through it after it dries.

Then very lightly sand the carving to remove any fibers that the gesso has brought up. Wipe the carving clean of any dust then ... grab an old styled brown paper bag and use the paper bag as if it were sand paper. This will give a beautiful smooth finish.

Do a second coat of the thinned gesso and if needed a second very light sanding after that one dries.

Thinning the gesso lets it penetrate deeply into the wood fibers and the light sandings mean you have a very smooth surface for your colors.

Also, try different colors as your primer or gesso coat. Medium gray is a perfect primer for any areas that will be either bright red or true blue. These two colors are semi-transparent and the gray primer takes away the streaky look. A biege or tan color primer is excellent for bright yellows and for skin tones whether Causcian "peachy white" through the beautiful "chocolate brown" of African Americans.

My point here being primers and gesso coats don't have to be just white. In fact sometimes your gesso stage can be almost as colorful as your final painting.

Susan

[jillsy]

Thanks Susan! All this information I never knew.

Is there an advantage to using gesso over normal primer?

I've been using a very thick primer, thinking it was better than using something thin. Now it seems like thinner is better.

I also never knew about sanding the piece after priming or the brown bag trick either. So much to learn, so little time!

[Irish]

Hey Jill,

When I think of the term "primer" I think of the base coat for house paints as latex, alkiloyd (SP) or oil based paints. Each paint has it's own primer made just for the float media (water or oil) in the paint.

I use artist gesso as my base coat or priming coat as gesso is made specifically for artist colors, either acrylic or oil paints. It has a very fine grind to it so can be sanded to an extremely smooth finish.

I much prefer several very thin coats over one thick coat. Thin coats penetrate into the wood fibers deeply, raise any fuzzy bunny fibers that are left over from the carving and don't build up as thick globs in my detail cuts.

So several thin coats give me an excellent coat for my color without either creating brush marks, leaving fibers or losing my v-gouge cuts.

Paper ... A favorite sanding media for me. Brown paper bags are about as fine a grit sanding finish as you can get! You know those nice big old styled ones that had Giant or Safeway stamped on them back when they still asked "Paper or Plastic?" In fact I also use brown paper bags and the want ad section of the newspaper as a finishing honing for my knives. Especially the want ads give a beautiful bright polish to the edge.

Paper bags can also be used to 'seal' your acrylic colors. Once the painting is done let it dry overnight. Then take a piece of brown paper or unprinted newsprint paper and begin rubbing the paper over the colors. The paper will polish the colors to a very soft glow!

Susan

[Kenny_S]

I like the lighter brown paper bags like people carrying their lunch in. But then, it could be a heavier big sack, if you are a big eater.

Tear off a piece, wad it up, then use it like you would sandpaper, rubbing the fuzzies off.
Definitely try it!

[Nancy-ID]

Originally Posted by jillsy1969

Am I the only one who primes my carvings before painting? Seems like most people just add a clear sealer. To me, it seems like priming makes the colors more brilliant. Anytime I've tried just using a sealer, they seem more watered-down.

I have to admit, I hate priming though. Any better ideas for prepping a carving to paint?

Jill, I like to slather Linseed oil all over my carvings, the artist type I prefer over the kind you get at (house) paint stores. Let it soak in well. I think it helps preserve the wood from the inside out and helps the paint flow better. Not soaking up/spreading to areas you might not want that color. Then I do many coats of very thin wash. Sometimes as many as 7-8 coats to get the color the way I want it. I rarely let these coats really dry before I put on the next one. This helps with the "wet blending". Once the painting is done and very dry, I put one or two light sprays of Satin Deft on. My carvings are mostly realistic animals so if I were to do something "more colorful" I would still do the Linseed oil then a Gesso wash.

[Kenny_S]

Nancy, Is that BLO or just linseed oil?

[Nancy-ID]

Originally Posted by Kenny_S

Nancy, Is that BLO or just linseed oil?

Kenny, Just Linseed oil I guess. I get it at an art supply, its used to mix in to the oil paints (I think) I started with the BLO and it works fine but smelled bad to me. This Artist Linseed Oil is very clean looking and smelling.

[AlArchie]

If you don't mind a totally obliterated grain (absolutely covered by the primer) yet not so thick as to cover details, try the automotive or metal primers available in spray cans. They are available in white, black, gray, tan and maybe some other colors. I use these on fish and other carvings that will be painted and they work very well by providing a good solid adherence to the wood, and giving the applied colors a brilliance that is hard to achieve when just using a clear sealer.

With basswood, I use a clear sanding sealer first, sand lightly to get rid of the fuzz, they put on the white primer.

Al

[Kenny_S]

Maybe you have something different than the stuff I do and the drying time isn't long. This stuff I have is called Artist linseed oil but takes forever to dry.