Well I have temporarily stopped doing a painting a day. My work is suffering, so I have to catch up. I am still doing my portrait class, and going to live painting with a model on Wednesdays. Hopefully when I catch up, I can find a way to start back doing a painting a day.
This is a commission and it's not finished. I have a little more detail to do and will post again when it's complete.
This is on a 12"x16" hardboard. I have finally found the right combination for making my supports! I went to Lowe's on Friday and bought three 4'x8' hardboard panels that were 1/8 inch thick. Lowe's will do cuts for .25 each, so I had them cut these into 12"x16" panels. The hardboards cost $8.38 a piece so I ended up spending around $30. Of course some of the cuts weren't exact, so I ended up with 60 exact 12x16's and then 12 that were 12x15 1/2. I will use the wrong sized panels for my live model class.
Then I bought a small roller and some sandpaper blocks. So on Saturday I got more than half of the boards ready to go. I did do a little research on the roller - and to get the best finish I bought really good rollers with a 1/4 nap. I couldn't find micro fiber ones so got mohair and they are working fine. They leave a little bit of a pattern on the canvas, but it's barely noticeable. The sanding is the key to a smooth finish - I might invest in a small handheld sander in the future. On the sandpaper, I started with a 100 grit, then used a 220 and finished with a 320 grit. I found that I like four coats of gesso the best, but three would probably work.
Even with the extra expense of the rollers and sandpaper and counting the cost of the gesso, I still spent less than $1 a board on these, not counting my time. If I bought 60 12x16's with the average cost being around $7 it would have cost $420. So that's a considerable savings, and I am really, really happy with the boards. I used one of them for this painting, and was really happy with how the paint adhered. In the past I had made the mistake of buying wood panels - the wood just soaks up the gesso and paint too much, and makes the surface very dry and porous. The hardboard makes all the difference!
