Shellac can get old and not dry properly. Best not to buy too big a can. Furniture makers and French Polishers make up their shellac fresh from shellac flakes and alcohol for this reason. I don't imagine that it's that critical for priming paper. Also, if you are doing a large more important painting on shellacked plywood, you might want to make sure that the shellac you are using is 'dewaxed' and contains no 'stearates', which could lead to adhesion problems long term. Pure shellac is very compatible with any coating that is not alcohol based (it remains indefinitely soluble in alcohol).
It's worth noting that mixing shellac yourself is trivial. Everclear, food scale, Mason jar, shellac flakes and you're done. Mix according to ratio on package... probably lower for this application. It looks amazing, goes in amazingly.
Great tips! I tried working in oil on paper with shellac awhile back and loved it! I love the toned papers in tan and gray for mixed media sketching as well when traveling and using black ink, alcohol marker, and white ink
In the 60’s they used to shellac pocketbooks and magazine pictures on the wall . Is this how they did it ? Wanted to put fashion pics on wall with the shellac but I don’t recall how we did it in school .
Thanks Aimee for this video! I have 2 questions... After your oil paint is cured/dry on the shellac-ed surface, is it possible to apply oil varnish or cold wax over top? Or what about applying another coat of shellac on top of the oil? I typically use Gamvar Satin, or Gamblin Cold Wax Medium on my mixed media paintings, and am just curious how I could incorporate Shellac into my current process.
Joann, I don't have enough experience to give you a definitive answer. However, I have tried it out and my one experiment worked really well. If you try it, let me know your results.
What is the negative if I don't shellac my sketchbook pages before doing an oil sketch? (p.s. love your art and your RU-vid posts. Hope you have time to add more posts)
oil paints are acidic so the paint will degrade the fibers over time; its the same principle with oil on canvas, if you want your works to last for a good amount of time there needs to be some kind of "sealant" to protect the base layer.
The oil binder will be absorbed into the paper, so then the paints will lack lustre, with your painting appearing dull/appearing matte. The oil will eventually make the paper deteriorate. Since you can obtain water based zero voc shellac, and it’s so inexpensive plus it dries within minutes..it’s worth sealing whatever drawing, watercolour or plain paper, prior to applying shellac. If your artwork turns out well.. you can cut it out of sketchbook and mount it on a panel, using an acrylic medium or a wheat or rice glue. Handy!
Hi Aimee, thanks for sharing! Also is moleskin sketchbook the heavy weight 200gsm water colour sketchbook? We only can get shellac amber colour. Hope this colour isn't too dark.
Paper prepared with either Gesso or shellac is good for oil painting, but they have different qualities. Gesso is water based and makes a coating which adheres to the surface of the paper. Shellac soaks in and coats the paper fibers. The main thing I like about shellac is that it doesn’t warp the paper. It also preserves a papery texture, which is nice to paint on
@@aimeeericksonstudio1463 The reason I asked this question is... I purchased paper specifically for oil painting. This was because the paper absorbed too much paint. It absorbs too much, so I use a lot of medium oil and oil paint. Can I reduce the absorption if I use sellac? I've been stressed about this problem for a month.
@@starbucks1971 Ah. Yes. Shellac will solve this. Try one application, and see if you like it better. If it's still too absorbent, apply a second pass--this time it will sit on top rather than soaking in, and will be much less absorbent.
Well darn! Try this-after shellacking, rinse the brush in denatured alcohol (I keep an inch or so in a peanut butter jar for this) before letting it dry.
Yep. Any of the usual ways of mounting paper are fine. That’s another topic with its own technical questions, so I won’t go into detail here, other than to suggest looking into spray adhesive, rubber cement, tape hinges, and heat activated adhesive.
I HACE LOTS OF FULL SHT CP WATERCOLOR PAPER 140 LB, DO YOU THINK THIS WOULD WORK WITH WATERCOLOR PAPER? IT IS 100 % COTTON RAG. PAINTINGS ON WC PAPER WOULD TAKE UP FAR LESS SPCE THAN CANVASES OR WOOD PANELS
@@aimeeericksonstudio1463 THANK YOU SO MUCH AIMEE, I DO WC PAINTING FOR YRS NOW (SINCE 1978) I REALLY HAVE ENOUGH WC PAPER FOR A LIFETIME+ :-) I LOVE OIL PAINTING BUT THE COST OF WOOD PANELS/CANVASES. THIS HELPS ME SO MUCH! THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY!
