Painting on hardboard or Masonite panels is economic and produces great results for oil and acrylic painters. In this short video I teach you how to prepare a panel for painting. This is an easy process and only takes about ½ hour (at most!) from start to finish and will save you money.
Be sure and check out the added tips below this video…
Here are a few extra tips:
- I usually make an assembly line and gesso a series of panels all at once.
- Sometimes I use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process. Once dry, I can immediately begin to paint on the prepared panel and expect great results! Hardboard allows me a smooth surface for fine detail, glazes and texture. Most of my paintings are painted on hardboard!
- To prevent warping of larger panels – gesso both sides.
- For extra large boards over 30×40, I suggest ‘cradling’ the back of the board. Cradling makes the panels’ rigid using wood bars that are glued to the back of the panel. My custom framer does this for me.
- Make sure you use at least 2 coats of gesso because hardboard/Masonite is highly absorbent and the paints will sink otherwise.
- Use a tweezer to pick out any brush hairs, clumps or lint.
- Sand and ‘knock-down’ the rough edges of the board to help conserve the life of your brushes!
- Use un-tempered hardboard which will not yellow with age.
Let me know how this works for you!
Lori
About Lori McNee
Lori,
Thanks for the tip, I can’t wait to try out your techniques.
Hi Steve, great! Glad you found this article helpful. Let me know how it works for you.
Hiya im new on here. I hit upon this website I have found It amply accommodating & it’s helped me loads. I hope to give something back and guide other users like it has helped me.
Cheers, Catch You Around.
Nice article. Thank you for this info
Very good post.
Thanks for you great post.
thank you very much for this useful video ,lory! ♥
You are so welcome, Natasha. Great to see you here at FineArtTips…let me know how shipping your painting overseas works for you – hey, share a tip about that! Thanks, Lori
Hi Lori, again I love your site. I was curious where do you buy your boards and what type of wood to you use. I called Lowes and they had several types of wood. Unlucky for me the salesman did not know what type of wood an artist would use. Can you help? thanks
Keith
Hi Lori,
I applied gesso to a panel using a similar method. I used Golden’s gesso and did 3 layers. The surface seems to be very porous compared to store bought gesso boards. Does the gessoed surface need to be sealed prior to painting with oils?
Thanks,
Rebecca
Well, I find that most hand gessoed boards are rather porous and soak up the paint. After I apply the first layer of my oil underpainting, the board is not as absorbent. In the past, I have sealed the gesso with ‘re-touch varnish’, but I am use to working without it now.
I find store bought boards to be just about as absorbent and more expensive…
I hope this helps you. Good luck!
Lori
Hi Lori,
I’m in the process of painting a large landscape on hardboard 50 x 42. I had my caprenter craddle the support. I’m planning on using three to four coats of gesso on both sides. It was suggested that I first use PVA sizing on the board before gesso. You don’t mention PVA sizing, Do you feel it is not necessary? Also the carpenter used nails near the mitered corners of the craddle backing, not just glue. Do you think this could be a problem? Right now nails can’t be seen and I think they will be covered once the painting is framed, but I have some concern.
Hi Jean, thanks for sharing this post on Twitter. I hope it helps
Thanks for linking to this article…even though I am not sure how you are using gesso as a make-up tip!