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Question asked 2021-05-11 08:33:39 ...
Most recent comment 2021-05-12 08:00:33
Grounds / Priming
Drying Oils
Animal Glue
Flexible Supports
Oil Paint
Sizes and Adhesives
Hello,
I commonly paint on a good quality, heavy cotton duck (on stretchers) which I paint on unprimed. I size the canvas with three coatings of fairly dilute rabbit skin glue (1:20 ratio) and paint straight on top. I have been doing this for several years, and my usual test of whether the size is sufficient to protect the cotton from the linseed oil in the paint is to check for strikethrough on the back of the canvas - usually my sizing method prevents any strikethrough, and seems successful. I'm also careful not to create a thick 'layer' of rabbit skin glue, as I'm aware that this can cause problems of delamination and animal glues in general are a bit vulnerable to the environment. I look for a very slight glittering on the surface of the cotton to judge that the size is going to be effective.
For my most recent project I decided to switch to linen. I have what I think is a good quality linen, but when I've stretched and sized it according to my normal method, I'm getting some quite bad results. There is a lot of oil strikethrough happening. I believe that the oil is actually going through the holes in the linen's weave, and then soaking into the back side, since the weave seems rather loose compared to the cotton I usually use, and I can see pinprick holes. My plan to remedy this issue (on the canvasses I haven't already started painting) is to add another layer of rabbit skin glue, at twice the usual strength, and attempt to have the glue size 'plug' the holes in the weave and therefore prevent paint getting through (so basically the usual job of a primer). Adding a layer of primer isn't an option because I already have a detailed sketch on the canvas and need my ground to be transparent so I can see it.
Is this an acceptable strategy to mitigate this problem? Is there anything I can do to my initial layers of oil paint to minimise strikethrough? Adding solvent seems to make it worse, as the resulting thinner paint finds its way through the weave even more readily. I have also been considering relaxing the tension by moving the staples, while the linen is wet with glue, in the hope that when it dries and re-tensions the weave won't be quite so 'stretched'.
I've been reading a bit about the debate over how disastrous strikethrough really is, and it seems a little ambiguous. I'm not sure if accepting the strikethrough is a better bet than experimenting with a thicker size layer? Of course I'm aware that I might end up with oil sinking later on and have to deal with that, but my main concern now is ensuring a stable foundation.
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Moderator Answer
(brian baade)
There are many aspects to your post. First, it brings up the subject of whether animal
glue is an appropriate size for fabric. It does have its issues beyond its
reactivity, and the fact that it is a poor gap filler as compared to
acrylic dispersions and PVA dispersions). Let’s forget about that for the
moment. In truth, as an oil painter, I always sized my cotton and linen fabric
supports with animal glue.
Your proportion of glue to water does seem very slight. 1:10
or 1:15 is more commonly recommended in terms of weight in grams to ml in
volume. I have also had problems with using too dilute glue for sizing.
While it is true that the glue will somewhat fill the open
interstices of the fabric, much of what it does is shrink and stiffen the fabric
reducing the spaces in the interstices. It is likely that your cotton duck was
just more tightly woven than the linen you are using.
I would try gently sanding the canvas and then apply a more
substantial layer of glue. I do not think that stretching you canvas more loosely
will accomplish much. You do have to make sure that your stretcher system can
take the tension.
As to the danger of strike through, this depends on a number
of factors, but it is true that EVENTUALLY the fatty acids in the linseed oil
will likely cause some cellulose degradation (do a search here, I know that we
covered this in greater detail in the past) but some of it has been exaggerated.
It is still something to avoid.
As you would expect, one of the ways to avoid strike-through
is to make sure that your paint is not overly diluted. This is as true with the
application of an oil ground on sized fabric as it is with applying oil paint proper
on canvas with only a size and not a ground.
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