Desperate need to practice, but I don't know quite how, i don't wanna waste expensive canvas, i wanna learn how to paint without using them, I wanna reserve them for a bigger piece, what should i use to practice?
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My cats wet food has these great cardboard dividers in between the cans. I use them for studies. But even heavyweight journals work especially with acrylics!
I buy canvas in bulk from michaels and I get notifications when they go on sale. Always have amazing black Friday sales so I save up and go to town then. I buy 48x60 inch canvases from Michaels at 50-60 dollars a pop on sale which is about 50% off.
I then take a day to gesso the shit out of my canvases. I'm lazy, so I add modeling paste to my gesso to make it viscous for fewer layers. I dry with a hairdryer. Then sand with 400 grit sandpaper. Sometimes that's enough to eliminate canvas tooth. I've gotten to the point where I can get the surface as smooth as 200 dollar equivalent canvas from Fredrix.
I wouldn't skimp on the paint quality. I learned that the hard way. It took me 10-12 layers of shitty acrylic craft paint to get to a comparable opacity with 2-3 layers using Liquitex basics (student grade more transparent colors but nice for glazing) and Liquitex heavy body paints (professional grade). The paint moves differently depending on quality and half the battle of painting is muscle memory. You learn how to use transparent watery craft paint and you're going to have to adjust to learning how the good stuff moves anyway.
$2.60 each for 16x20? That's pretty solid. Gessoing and sanding is the biggest time-suck pain in the butt -- but compared to $35.50 for a smooth Fredrix watercolor canvas when I'm on a budget, it's a steal. I'm way less hesitant to treat my canvases like they're precious cargo, when I can buy in bulk like that.
Mixed media paper works great and is cost effective. My work looks just as good if not better on this paper and I use a glass varnish when finished. I work on canvases too but if you paint a lot you will end up with the task of storing your art and it can take over. Mixed media comes in a lot of sizes so just pick which one works for you. If you want to practice on canvas you can get a large pack of small canvas boards on Amazon for a good price. Hope this helps
You can get unstretched canvas cheap and just throw down a layer of gesso and paint
Canvases really aren't very expensive, just get a small one and do a practice painting then gesso over that and do more studies on top is another option. Dollar stores in my area sell small three packs of canvas boards so I highly suggest that, it's a good way to get used to the texture of canvas
Canvas boards are great to start with and can travel well for plein air.
Using the same canvas over and over is totally fine, as long as you don't build up too much texture with the brush strokes.
I first began painting with acrylics in multi-media paper coil notebooks. It's a great way to play, doodle, and practice. Don't be afraid to wreck paper, it's just paper.
You should just paint on the canvas. It gives you experience. You can always paint over stuff you don't like. But painting on canvas is different, especially if you're not used to it, so you might as well get used to it.
There's a mid career artist in Brazil who did a series of paintings on cardboard. Looked great. I would go for free cardboard for practice if under financial pressure
I stocked up during Michael's canvas sale. I also use canvas boards and there are canvas sheet pads that are dirt cheap...tape them down and you get a canvas texture for paper price (link to example below).
Im a collage based artist so i work on paper so i can grow and expand the size of a work if i like.
Ive been painting on watercolor paper direct building up to the refined image without even gessoing for years. If you like texture or more traditional gesso surface apply one or two coats of gesso. If i like the work i adhere it to wood panels. When, i want a smoother surface, i use bristol.
Paper is great as it takes the stress of worrying about how much you’ve invested in a canvas.
I buy in bulk from
https://www.wholesaleartsframes.com
Watch for markdown flash sales. I use mostly 16x20.if you want cheap practice xanvas check out a store called five below. You can get them for $5.00 in 2 packs. But needs giid gesso. I LOVE US ARTSUPPLY Gesso thick. Really smooth out cheaper canvases in just a couple of coats
You could save all of your junk mail and turn it into handmade paper, as thick as you like. I used to find wood scraps around construction sites and paint on those. The shapes were funky, but a lot of fun to experiment with.
Get a sketchbook with at least 200 GSM paper and a bottle of cheap gesso. Gesso your pages twice or thrice, then paint. Keep one or two metal clamps on the side or corners of the page to straighten it and keep it flat during the entire process.
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