Home Forums Explore Media Oil Painting The Technical Forum My new toss away practice substrates.

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  • #1460106
    wet rat
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        The lightly spray painted paper was OK for practicing brush control and techniques. But wasn’t working well to give any real feel of a gesso covered surface. Nor was it any good to paint on. Everything you see is scrap. Bit of a pack rat. I’ve got a good 30+ pair of ripped bluejeans. Lots of scrap wood and flat steel at my disposal. Instructions are easy. Cut 3/4 inch (19mm) into 9×10 or 10×11 (228x 254 mm or 254 x 279 mm ) Then cut to grooves 7 inches apart and just about 3/16 (4.4mm) and close to half way through. Have two pieces of 1/8 by 1/2 inch flat steel of your choice. Cut to be longer than the groves in the wood. Mine are a bit overkill because I’m using the scrap as is. Cut your bluejeans to be no less than one inch wider than the distance between your two grooves. The material needs to form a C inside the groove to be tight.

        To assemble. Place your material a good 1/2 inch or more to the outside of the groove. Place your flat steel over the groove. Using a hammer tap into place. Do the same for the opposite side. If you need to you can try pulling the material tighter as you tap it into place. Gesso and go!

        I can wait for one side to dry. Turn it around and use the other. Then toss it. Getting good at something isn’t comparing what you’ve done to where you want to be. Getting good at something is comparing what your doing to where you want to be. That’s the reason I have no intentions of keeping any of this.

         

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        Failure is an opinion. Doing is not.

        #1460137

        Similar to a Ken Bromley Stretcher board.

        Doug


        We must leave our mark on this world

        #1460158
        Richard P
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            Ingenious! Although I don’t have 30 pairs of jeans to spare.. ;)

            #1460223
            wet rat
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                Doug, checked out Ken Bromley Stretcher boards. Awesome! A lot nicer looking than my scrap wood.  Definitely better at stretching than mine. The only advantage mine have is the ability to hold different sizes of fabric. As long as one side is nine inches wide the other can be anything up to nine inches. After about seven inches I have to use tape to hold down the unsupported sides. All in all I would not recommend my scrap stretchers for anything other than practice or studies you don’t intend on keeping.

                Richard, 20+ years of being really limber does really bad things to inseams. :) Any medium weight ( 12 to 15 oz) low stretch fabric should work. And be a hole lot cheaper than the pile of jeans I have. Doubt if I have a single 36 x 60 yard of fabric out of the three pair of bluejeans I’ve cut up.

                Failure is an opinion. Doing is not.

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