How to prepare Bristol Board for Oil Painting?

[Phil Moss]

Hi all,

I usually paint my oils onto Watercolour paper, soaked, stretched and primed, but am trying my hand at bristol board for it's ease of use and reputation. So far I've found it's a bloody JOY to draw on after doing my under drawings on watercolour paper so far - very impressed indeed, despite the slight bump in my expenses.

Can anyone let me know the correct procedure for priming bristol for oil painting? i.e. do I need to soak and stretch, or will it cope with being primed after just a taping down?

Muchas Thankyouas to anyone who can help, as I know you're all so clever and all (creep creep).

Cheers,
Phil.

[arttorney]

Oil paint is really not so good for paper and bristol board. Are you sure you wouldn't like to try something like MDF?

If you must, though, it makes a difference whether you will mount the bristol board onto a rigid support or not. You probably don't want to use an acrylic primer if the support is flexible. You need something as a sizing and priming preparation or the paint won't stay on the surface for very long.

How do you prime your watercolor paper for oils?

[Phil Moss]

thanks arttorney - I prime the paper by soaking and stretching (either by a stretching board or with gum tape onto hardboard) then a few coats of watered down gesso or liquitex matte medium. The surface is very good for painting and I've been using it for a while. I know it sounds a peculiar way to paint, but it works very well and is used by a good few professionals as a cheaper alternative to art boards/strathmore etc.

I know if I soak and tape down the bristol board as above it will work, I just wondered if there was an easier alternative/can cope without the soaking as it's more ridgid than watercolour paper.

Cheers,
Phil

[arttorney]

Bristol board is laminar (sandwich) in construction rather than unitary. Watercolor paper, (especially engine sized watercolor paper) is going to be kind of uniform in that the core of it it pretty much the same stuff as the surface.

Bristol board having different surface layers from the core layer may actually be reinforced enough structurally to skip that part. I don't know for sure.

Here's what I'll do. I go seek out a related thread I know about from a couple of years ago and leave you a link.
Maybe something in here will come in handy http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=78007&highlight=cardboard.

[Bill]

I wonder if you've ever tried a heavy gauge Rag illustration board? Crescent #1 is awesome to work on.

[Aphotic Phoenix]

In this: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=45901 tutorial, DSillustration briefly mentions how he prepares his illustration board for oil painting.

[Phil Moss]

Cheers chaps - and thanks for the links! I think the best thing for me to do is prime a sheet of blank bristol with my usual liquitex solution and see what happens - I'll post my findings here, then we'll have an answer. If it curls, I'll know I need to stretch it first.

Thanks again

[dbclemons]

My personal favorite paper sizing for oils is shellac. 2 or 3 coats of a dewaxed clear shellac will prevent oil penetration to the paper. It doesn't require the use of water so there's no need to stretch it as you would when using acrylics or rabbit skin glue. The shellac actually doesn't need priming but an acrylic primer could be used or thin oil paint.

[Elwell]

If you like bristol, try Strathmore illustration board for oils. It's what lots of illustrators, including Dan and myself, use. It's basically a super 20 ply bristol board.

[Phil Moss]

Thanks Elwell, in a perfect world I'd be using Strathmore - it's what the folks down the road at Games Workshop use, but it's one of their ex-staff that advised me to use water colour paper in the first place as Strathmore is so damned expensive, and his work has by no means suffered as a result.
I think the bonus of strathmore is the lack of prep needed... but you pay for it.
Cheers all

[paintpot]

Strathmore artist paper, inlcuding illustration board (https://www.artistpapers.co.uk/Fine-Art-Papers/Illustration-Boards), is now available from the European distributor in the UK from their site Artist Papers (https://www.artistpapers.co.uk). You might also like to try the 300 series "Canvas" paper for oils (https://www.artistpapers.co.uk/Fine-Art-Papers/Speciality-Arts-and-Crafts/Strathmore-300-Series-Canvas).

As these are shipped from the UK you should find prices are competitive for the quality of the paper.

[bfowler]

I don't see why you could not use Bristol board. The question becomes does the paper need to be stretched and will it tear when you wet it.

I work with oils on paper but I always mount my papers to a 1/8" hardboard. I've used all kinds of paper and the biggest problem is the potential for the wet paper to tear. I've mounted and painted on regular copy paper, 128gsm Canon drawing paper, illustration board (cresent, although that doesn't need to be mounted, just prime both sides to prevent warp).

I use plain old mat medium to mount because it dries clear. It's basically a very similar process that Donato Giancola.

I would also suggest that you spray mount your work before you prime it so the pencil/charcoal/etc. won't smear all over the place.

Like you, I just really enjoy drawing on a good paper but then I want to oil paint over it. If you want any more details, just ask.

[Jason Ross]

Gesso the bristol board and you should be ok.