Painting on board

VTA

Hi All,
I have a question about painting on illustration board. I recently tried it, having gessoed the board and sanded it a little.
I like the idea of cutting the board for custom sizes, because I can't stretch canvas at this point, but it was pretty lousy as the paint would not dry. Over a week after application, I'd retry and still end up pushing the initial paint around and not getting any build up and just gave it up. Sort of amazing that the paint on my palette would dry faster than the paint I'd put on the board and exposed to the air for over a week.

I figured I'd try again with Liquin or some other dryer, but would like any suggestions for making this less of a headache.
Thanks for any ideas.
-V

broker12

You might try painting on a sturdier, but cheap surface. For years, I have painting on "hardboard." It used to be called Masonite, but this is not available anymore. I buy 4X8 foot sheets for around $9 a sheet and cut it into various shapes. Over the years, I figure the cost of my average panel from this is around 75 cents. I lightly sand the smooth side, apply gesso, and paint away. I figure that if I accidentally create a masterpiece, others will figure out how to preserve it. One of the fun things is that you can do all sorts of wonky things when your apply gesso . . . pile it up and makes random patterns with various tools such as pallet knives, whisk brooms or balled up newspaper, or roll it on and sand it lightly for a smooth(er) surface. As noted above, you can cut to any size that pleases you.

dencal

VTA

The support is not the issue here. It is the non drying paint.

You will need to help us a bit. Are we discussing the gesso, or an oil/acrylic stain/toner?

I will assume an oil toner. Did you use Mark's recommended mixture - quick dry white with burnt umber, both from the tube (no slow dry medium) and some OMS solvent? If so this should have dried in a few hours.

What was the approximate temperature during the drying period?

Denis

VTA

Hi guys,
Thanks for the replies. dencal, yes it is an acrylic gessoed board. I figured out the problem since. I had fixed the drawing with a light coating of fixative and it was like painting on glass. I scrapped it, re-gessoed another board and used a dilluted mixture of acrylic and a little water to cover the drawing and let it dry and that did the trick.

Thanks again for the suggestions.
-V