(Excerpts from ART HARDWARE: The Definitive Guide to Artists’ Materials, by Steven Saitzyk © 1987)

TODAY IT IS RARE to find artists making their own brushes or paints; however, the reverse is true when it comes to preparing a surface or support to paint on. An artist's involvement in preparing a painting surface may range from purchasing raw canvas, stretching it, sizing it, applying a ground, and priming it, to simply apply­ing a second coat over preprimed stretched canvas.

Preparing your own surfaces to paint on provides the opportunity for you to create a working surface that meets your own requirements. Manufacturing it yourself also saves money. Too often, however, an artist's impatience, lack of money, and incomplete understanding of the role of a properly prepared painting surface results in a painting that eventually requires major conservation or simply self-destructs. The unfortunate reality is that the preparation of a proper painting surface is too often the last consideration that a painter makes.

There are some basic guidelines for the preparation of a painting surface that have developed over the last seven hundred years. If these guidelines are vio­lated, disaster will result. This does not mean that only traditional surfaces may be used, but rather that the principles of these guidelines must be understood so that new, as well as old, surfaces can be properly prepared so that artwork will have a reasonable chance of survival through time.

Definitions

Portable Supports

Sizing

Grounds

Priming

Fixed Supports

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Last modified: 06/06/08