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Hi. I know this video is three years old so hopefully not too late for a question. I’m confused. I thought the whole point of using gac 100 was to seal wood panel to prevent sid. Why do I then need to use the non absorbent acrylic primer? Is this not redundant? Thanks for your video and advice. I’m a novice oil painter so lapping up information!
@@dorisr6424 Great question. Sizing the panel with an acrylic medium helps to prevent discoloration as you indicated. The nonabsorbent primer is to help prevent the oil from absorbing into the primer, which can make it more difficult to wipe away and can make the painting appear. dull, when unvarnished. Did that help answer your question?
I have been or started to coat my wood panel with a mix of drywall mud and plaster , then I proved it with folded GaC 500 and gesso then acrylic painting on top. I want to make the move to doing oils over acrylics and o wonder how it will work to apply the plaster/drywall Mud mix to the panel again particularly if I do acrylic under painting?
@@JanineMKartist plaster is a very interesting use for a ground. I’ve seen it used for frescoes but am not familiar with how it would work for oils and acrylics. What made you choose plaster?
This was so so helpful. I don’t typically paint with oils. I may decorative painter so I must like chalk paint some acrylic, but I was using an oil-based liquid gold leaf, and found it difficult to get out of one of my brushes. I didn’t have the items you were suggesting, but I did have some Goo be gone… which I think is an orange oil base, and I also mixed it with a little bit of vegetable cleaner, which I think also has an orange oil base… Anyway, it worked really well! Thank you, thank you!
@@kimmm68904 glad it helped!!! If your in a pinch vegetable oil followed by soap and water works. Just make sure all the oil is out before painting. Vegetable oils don’t dry like linseed oil.
It smudges and blurs lines on my gouache painting and I’m trying to figure out why :( I feel like I’m very light on my hand and my painting has stayed for several days.. can’t find anyone who had this problem.
@@feliciamarianne966 what surface are you painting on and what gouache are you using? I’m sorry to hear that is happening. Perhaps try some experiments with little sketches on different surfaces to see if there is any difference. I’d be curious if the results vary.
@@GalleryBry arches paper different weights and winsor and newton gouache. Cant find anyone who has had a similar problem. So what I do wrong is a mystery 🤷
@@feliciamarianne966 perhaps it is the arches paper. It is very highly sized and is less absorbent. I usually only seal paintings on wood panels that I don’t frame behind glass. I typically frame works on paper behind glass. Is there a reason you want to seal the works on paper?
@@GalleryBry I guess for protection (if any moisture would find its way to it, during a move or so). And I guess I just like the thought of sealing it, it makes it finished for me 😄 I also like the satin finish of dorlands wax.
If I were you, I would paint the sanded wood panel with white lead oil-based paint. Then umber or sienna for underpainting. Wood panels do not require any sizing. It is for canvas. I don't like primers.
Is it the concentrated Wood Cleaner version of the Murphy's that should be used on brushes, and should it be diluted before using? And is it safe for sable and squirrel? Thanks!
I don’t believe the version I had was concentrated and I did not dilute it when cleaning bristle brushes. For sable and squirrel, I use those for watercolors and don’t clean mine with soap, just water. I would encourage you to contact the brush manufacturer regarding specific care for natural sable and squirrel. I don’t want to give you the wrong information.
As far as I know there is no uv protection in the wax medium. If you can get the pigment codes you can get a rough idea of lightfastness. Some pigments like alizarin crimson are notorious for fading. Earth pigments like yellow ochre are very lightfast.
Nice Video, I don't size with the GAC 100 for hardboard. With two coats and fully dried the product is very hard, the hardboard substrate and the ground do not react.
I think I’ll try Murphy’s oil soap next; I moved from pretty exclusively painting in acrylics (aside from watercolors) to experimenting with oils over the last few months, & this has definitely been one of the biggest nuisances… Starting acrylic painting, brush care was definitely annoying compared to the effortlessness of watercolor, but it wasn’t hard to adjust to… I just had to accept the need to constantly be cleaning my brushes to avoid letting paint dry on them… But I found soap & water 100% effective. As long as I don’t let the paint dry on the brushes, the kind of method you demonstrated (just cleaning them off on your hand until no more color flows out) works perfectly well. Very simple process. And I love just being able to have a simple glass of water to rinse my brushes off in between colors- dipping them in water & then cleaning them off on a (paper) towel is sufficient to get them basically back to clean between colors, & then a soap cleaning periodically to ensure no acrylic binder works its way into the ferrule or dries on the bristles… That’s about it. With oil paints, on the other hand, yes, it’s nice that you don’t have to worry about paint drying on them every 10-15 minutes… However, I’ve found that whether I use hand soap or even harsher soaps like Dawn, these methods simply do not get all the pigment out of the brushes. I’m not sure if it’s a difference of the materials that the brushes tend to be made of (maybe the natural fibers that are more common for oil painting purposes just stain more easily) or if it’s something to do with the oil binder itself, but the same method that works so easily for acrylics simply does not seem to work for me with oils. It’ll get them to maybe 50% clean- it’ll seemingly wash away the oils- but the bristles remain stained with the color of the pigment, & then further washing just gets diminishing returns until it’s clear that I’m making no progress & just probably wearing on the brushes. It’s unfortunate because there are things I really like about oil paints. I’m having to learn solvent-free for practical reasons, & I’d probably prefer to keep it that way for health too… It’s certainly been difficult to find a way of getting thin enough washes for underpainting to really have a wide fat over lean spectrum (lavender spike oil works okay, but I haven’t really found a happy medium with it that gives me results comparable to what I’ve seen others do with turpentine, so not sure whether it’ll serve that purpose, but it does at least give me a bit more leeway on the lean side of things. For now I am thinking I’ll just stick with acrylics for most underpainting purposes.
Acrylic does work well for under painting. Typically I dry brush my under painting. No oil. No solvent. It allows me to slowly build up the darks. It’s quite similar to working with charcoal or pastel. It’s also very easy to paint over because it is so thin and lean. Sometimes I use the wipe out method. I tone the panel with paint and a touch of oil. Then wipe out the highlights with a silicone blade. Works great. This is what many of the old masters did, except they used a rag. It’s also very lean and easy to paint over.
I haven’t had any issues with that. I’ve been using Gamblin for years and it always evens out the painting for me without oiling out. But there are many variables in painting so perhaps it is an issue for some people. Thanks for sharing that. Much appreciated. :)
You could but you’d need to be very careful not to get lint in the varnish. You’d need a lint free cloth but even those can shed some lint. Is there a reason you’d rather use a cloth instead of a brush?
Very helpful thankyou, Im going to switch to oil. I have a question though, what do you use to thin/lean out your oil paints for blocking and beginning layers and does linseed, walnut, and or safflower oil lean out paint or make them more fatty?( I know they make paints more fluid but dont know if that counts as thin/lean when it comes to layer building from lean to fat.)
This is a great question. The short answer is I don’t thin my paint (I use a thin amount of paint) and dry brush my underpainting when painting alla prima. I use softer paints from brands like M Graham, Michael Harding, and Blue Ridge. These paints have a higher oil and pigment content and are easier to manipulate. Are you planning to paint directly or indirectly (alla prima or layering)?
You make a good point: it can potentially take more time and money. I choose to size the tempered hardboard for a few reason. It can help mitigate any potential warping in the future. Sizing all sides can help keep out moisture and protect the wood from environmental elements. It can also help mitigate any potential SID that could occur with tempered hardboard, since tempered hardboard is treated with oils and resins. This is just a personal choice. I primarily do this with works I plan to sell, and typically not with studies and sketches that I use for practice. :) Did that help at all? Thanks for your comment!!
When I varnish my palette knife paintings I squeeze nearly all the varnish from the brush and and use the least amount of varnish possible. I then varnish in sections to ensure I’ve covered all the surface area. I haven’t had issues with pooling varnish by using thin layers.
How do you properly dispose of any oil paint, especially if washing with with the soap-and-water method and/or using a tissue? (I threw away two tissues that had oil paint on them from my first pair of oil-painted canvases, but from some looking, I fished them out from the bags I tossed them in.)
Any paint I wipe on a paper towel I let lie flat and not balled up to avoid any fire risk. Then on garbage night I put them in a bag and place them outside for collection.
@@KBAFourthtime it depends what paint you use. I paint with earth colors and not heavy metals like cadmiums. If you’re using cadmiums check your local laws to see if there are any disposal restrictions.
If I may, how are these cans resealed? I assume you could probably do it like a paint can, but it would be awful to open one and find out the hard way that it is not possible.
It does have a solvent in it. So if you are allergic to chemicals it might have a strong smell to you. I’m not a fan of strong smells and it didn’t bother me. But everyone is different. It’s not odorless but not overpowering.
@@GalleryBry Thanks! ! I have severe migraines so trying to find good sealers for my art. just got varnish for acrylic its not strong ...then bought mod podge for my gauche and the smell was too strong like chemicals even with a mask. Hopefully it's ok if i use my mask :)
Thanks for the question. It really is just a matter of personal preference. Sometimes I use the GAC 100 when I use thin layers of gesso. For me I like the smoother surface it creates with less gesso, rather than using multiple layers of gesso, which creates a more porous painting surface, even with Michael Harding’s primer. If you apply several layers of gesso you probably can do without the GAC sizing. I also do it just to be safe, to protect the paint from the board and the board from the paint. It just depends how thickly you apply your gesso. You can run your own test. Gesso some paper, paint on it, and if oil still seeps through, adding the GAC 100 will block it completely. Was that helpful at all?
It depends on how thickly the varnish is applied. Since making this video I now apply my varnish even thinner. I use the least amount of varnish possible. I load the brush then squeeze out as much varnish as possible and apply in a circular scrubbing motion. If applied very thin, it can be touch dry in 24 hours. If it’s still tacky, then it’s possible it was applied to thick. Did that help? Also, I try to dry it standing up to limit dust accumulation. If then varnish is applied thinly, then it won’t drip or run. :)
From the official description of the ground: "Please remember that any absorbent substrate such as canvas or paper should be sized before the application of Gamblin Oil Painting Ground. This will seal the surface so that the oil does not leech into it or cause it to rot. You can use acrylic size, rabbit skin glue, or acrylic primer for this purpose; Gamblin recommend you use the Gamblin PVA size." So literally almost everything in this video is just wrong.
If a wood panel is covered with 3 coats of Michael Harding's Non-absorbent acrylic primer only (without being sized first), will that be enough to protect the oil paint?
Three coats should be sufficient. But It depends on the type of wood and how thick the coats are. There should be less issues with unprocessed wood like birch panels vs a compressed wood like MDF, which contains harsh chemicals. Thicker coats will add more protection. I use really thin coats of primer or gesso just to add pigment and I rely on the sizing as my non absorbent layer. To be sure, you can run this test: coat a piece of paper (say a 4x6 piece of watercolor paper) with your desired level of primer. Make a small oil painting on the surface. If no oil seeps into the paper, then you should be okay. To put this into context, The Scream by munch was painted on cardboard, and it’s still in okay shape. Did that help at all?
@@GalleryBry Yes, thank you. Because I'm so paranoid regarding these issues, I think that I am just going to sand off the primer, apply GAC and then re-apply the non-absorbent acrylic primer. That way I know I'll be safe. I'm new to wood, so hence the mistake.
After removing Gamvar varnish, can it be re-varnished with another brand of varnish? If the answer is yes, how long do I have to wait between one process and another?, Thanks!.
Once Gamvar is removed with a solvent like Gamsol you can apply another varnish as soon as the painting is dry and and the solvent has evaporated. When in doubt just wait 24 hours to be extra safe.
I would be cautious about painting on an unfamiliar surface. Without knowing what chemicals are in the finish and whether it is gloss or matte, there is no way to determine how well paint or a sizing will interact and adhere to the surface. If you plan to size and prime the wood yourself anyway then the finish likely wouldn’t be required. Did that help?
That is one limitation of this method: the wax cannot be extensively cleaned and removed the way oil painting varnish can. I would recommend framing behind sealed glass to ensure the painting lasts for generations and is not damaged by environmental elements. This method could work well if you plan to exhibit the painting for short periods without glass.
Gamblin's website did not show if the ground needs stirred as you did here...thank you for that & your visual demo of how oil ground is better for oil painting...I have an old 24 x 36 gesso primed stretched canvas to add the ground to so I can use oil paints & have them remain glossy. Do you think one coat of ground would be enough? Also will the ground help tighten the canvas? Already used steam on the back to tighten it & may also use wedges before the ground. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful. The number of coats is a personal preference and depends on how thick you apply it and how much tooth you like in the canvas. Apply more coats and sand between if you like a smoother surface. It may tighten the canvas some but it depends on how loose it is. Wedges or keys will help you get it much tighter. Hope that helped. Anything else I can help with right now?
@@GalleryBry Thank you Bryan & yes, how can I tell if a canvas is so loose it needs re-stretched? Also Jackson Art says to wait until after I prime the canvas to use wedges as priming will cause the canvas to shrink, this already has gesso so is it better to use the ground oil primer before or after wedges? I would love if you could tell me a way you could see what I'm dealing with. Thank you
@@tonicamino6366 because it has a layer of gesso, less oil will reach the canvas so it should not shrink too much. You should be okay to stretch it to your desired level and then prime it. I’m not sure how much slack is in the canvas but if it is too loose and you stretch it after priming it may cause cracking.
