A new project in the works

I have a new project in the works for the next few weekends. I had this new idea for a painting a few days ago. It seems to be a popular trend to have multiple floating panels for paintings. I have been wanting to do this for a while now. Pricing out canvases for odd ball sizes like this can get expensive, and so can building and stretching your own.

In the past I have painted on hardboard panels with really good results. It is much cheaper and still is pretty lightweight, until you get to really big sizes. Plus, it isn’t going to tear if something hits it.

I have tried both the rough side and the smooth side. Both work well, as long as you sand them a bit. The rough side tends to catch more material, which many artists like. When doing a lot of blending, though, I like the smooth sides a lot more.

Below, I took a couple pictures of these being built. I use 3/16″ hardboard and 1″ x 2″ lumber to build a frame. I air nail the frame together, apply wood glue, then air nail the panels to the frame, making sure it’s lined up as I go. Then, I either clamp them down or put a lot of weight on them on top of a level surface so that the wood glue dries and hopefully works out the inevitable warps and bends in the lumber.

Once they dry, I will then start filling in the nail holes with filler. Then, once that dries, I will get out the sander to smooth out the frames and scuff the surface up. Finally I will put 2 or 3 coats of gesso on the front as primer and 1 coat on the back. This helps a bit with preventing the panel from warping.

Right now, these are clamped down and drying. I will post pictures of the primed ones a bit later.

What is this going to be?

Framed panels ready to clamp down

Painted, primed, and ready for color!