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I love the look of the oliphant painted canvases, seriously love them. Can't get enough of portraits on them by the likes of Joey L, Clay Cook and Annie Leibovitz but the reality is I will never afford one, there are some cheaper options available but they still aint cheap and there's a lot of other gear I need to get before it would get to the top of the list. But it's just paint on a canvas how hard can it be? Well to spoil the punchline not very hard to do but I guess bloody hard to do well. I will add I had planned from the start that this was a cheap first attempt to see if it was even possible, though inside I'd secretly convince myself it would come out exactly like the Oliphant canvas I always wanted.
Anyway I've toyed with the idea of making one for a while, I've read a bunch of tutorials by others who had semi-successful attempts and figured why nottry it. So last weekend it was dry I had nothing planned so I decided to give it a go.
I already had white and magnolia dulux trade matt emulsion from painting the house so I bought the following list of items to get ready:
Painters heavy twill drop cloth for the canvas ... £15.99
2.5L Black matt emulsion ... £9.99
paint roller and head at poundland ... £1
paint tin opener/mixer at poundland ... £1
paint roller tray at poundland ... £1
painters polythene drop cloth at poundland ... £1
3 pack large car spounges at pundlan ... £1
3 pack masking tape at poundland ... £1
2L tupperware style tub for mixing paint from poundland ... £1
20 pack latexy gloves at poundland ... £1
total spend, £33.98! Fuk you very much Sarah Oliphant
So with all I needed and an empty garage I started to get ready. And then the issues started coming out. Firstly the twill drop cloth whilst a good size for a canvas isn't one piece, it's two seemed right down the center, b*****ks! Next the plastic drop cloth to protect the floor wouldn't stick to the concrete as the poundland tape is awful. Buy better tape then you say, nah I'm already here and I'm just gonna do it and the canvas will hold it down so lets batter on.
I swept the concrete garage floor then laid out the plastic drop cloth to cover it. After failing to tape it as the tape SUCKS I spread out the "canvas" over it and got to the paint. I'd figured as these backgrounds are quite distressed and non uniform I'd mix in small batches and it would be fine so I mixed some black and white paint then a bit more black then the tub was full and I'd read to dilute it so I tipped some in to the roller tray added some water gave it a stir and started to roller a base layer of a darkish grey.
Next problem arose about half way through, I had planned three greay coats for a nice solid pure base, about half way through I realised I wasn't gonna have much paint left after one coat! Ooops! I since reread some of the tutorials which recommend diluting first coat 60/40 water to pain and subsequent coats 40/60 water to paint. I was probably dilluting with less than 10% water which also probably explained why it was so bloody hard work getting the paint to coat evenly.
I persevered mixing new batches of grey as needed and after about an hours work I had finished the first coat, it looked ok but had I hardly any black paint left. Option was to go out to screwfix and buy more or just screw it and have a seat. I chose the latter and went for a break about 2 hours later I went out thinking it would be dry to start finishing off. The good news was that one coat looked ok the bad news was it wasn't really dry. In my continued pursuit of perfection I decided to push on and just add the rest of it. I alternated between pure black, mid grey and magnolia dabbing them on with wet sponges and started to build some texture the work consisted dabbing off worst of paint on cloth then dabbing sponge all over canvas and smearing to reduce texture until I thought it was done, I was wearing old trainers and kept walking over canvas so also had to smudge out foot prints all over the place. I gave it about 30-40 minutes and got bored so shut the garage door and left it for a week to dry out.
So I went back to check it today and it's actually not too bad. Another problem has arisen that I either didn't notice or didn't have at the start is that the canvas/cloth isn't rectangular its badly skewed so not all length is usable, I'll need to cut a bit off the top and bottom to square it up but at the moment I've just stapled it on a slant to a ceiling beam in the garage.
here it is...
Ok I take back the mean things I said about Sarah Oliphant their stuff is clearly a mile away in quality and look but lets be realistic for a minute. It doesn't look that bad imo and it was made in under 4 hours start to finish for under £35. I'm fairly confident MK II will go a lot better as I've Iearnt a lot from even this rushed job.
Next time I will make the following amendments....
Buy a better canvas to work on, I really didn't think this would work so went basically cheapest route to get the canvas. Next time I'll buy proper canvas I;ve sourced 273cm runs of 12oz Duck Cotton canvas which costs between £15 & £20 per meter, it will be a lot pricier but should show in the finished product.
Take time and better tape to secure the polythene sheet flat to the floor at the start and trim it to size. It worked well to stop any seepage through the canvas but I would have preferred to have it stuck down as it flapped around with the slightest draft and made doing the edges hard as it could fold over the canvas whilst you were working.
Allow a lot more time for painting, I think I'd retry it with a few coats I would definitely dilute it more to make rollering easier to start with and follow the 60/4 then 40/60 route. I reckon it would need at least 3 possibly 4 hours between coats I'll use a dehumidifier to aid drying. Doing this way will probably make it a 2 day job with first day to coat and second to texture.
When texturing next time I'm gonna wear socks with plastic bags over my feet and knees as you will be all over the canvas, I'd do it in two coats with dark/mid working in then a light/mid working out on first coat then a second pass with light and dark working across canvas 4-5 hours later.
***edit***I'd also put weights along top and bottom edges to stretch and hold the canvas then cut any unpainted edges to keep the canvas flat when its finished.***edit***
Other than a possibly getting a slightly better roller handle, the poundland heads are fine, and maybe a pole for the roller I was fairly happy with the shopping list otherwise I probably need twice as much black paint as I originally bought but I reckon there's potential to create something that is unique, decent quality and not too expensive if a bit of time is taken. I got a quick snap of my highly uncooperative toddler I may be able to save to edit later but I'm looking forward to testing it out properly.
hopefully after such a long post it was useful or interesting to someone.
Anyway I've toyed with the idea of making one for a while, I've read a bunch of tutorials by others who had semi-successful attempts and figured why nottry it. So last weekend it was dry I had nothing planned so I decided to give it a go.
I already had white and magnolia dulux trade matt emulsion from painting the house so I bought the following list of items to get ready:
Painters heavy twill drop cloth for the canvas ... £15.99
2.5L Black matt emulsion ... £9.99
paint roller and head at poundland ... £1
paint tin opener/mixer at poundland ... £1
paint roller tray at poundland ... £1
painters polythene drop cloth at poundland ... £1
3 pack large car spounges at pundlan ... £1
3 pack masking tape at poundland ... £1
2L tupperware style tub for mixing paint from poundland ... £1
20 pack latexy gloves at poundland ... £1
total spend, £33.98! Fuk you very much Sarah Oliphant
So with all I needed and an empty garage I started to get ready. And then the issues started coming out. Firstly the twill drop cloth whilst a good size for a canvas isn't one piece, it's two seemed right down the center, b*****ks! Next the plastic drop cloth to protect the floor wouldn't stick to the concrete as the poundland tape is awful. Buy better tape then you say, nah I'm already here and I'm just gonna do it and the canvas will hold it down so lets batter on.
I swept the concrete garage floor then laid out the plastic drop cloth to cover it. After failing to tape it as the tape SUCKS I spread out the "canvas" over it and got to the paint. I'd figured as these backgrounds are quite distressed and non uniform I'd mix in small batches and it would be fine so I mixed some black and white paint then a bit more black then the tub was full and I'd read to dilute it so I tipped some in to the roller tray added some water gave it a stir and started to roller a base layer of a darkish grey.
Next problem arose about half way through, I had planned three greay coats for a nice solid pure base, about half way through I realised I wasn't gonna have much paint left after one coat! Ooops! I since reread some of the tutorials which recommend diluting first coat 60/40 water to pain and subsequent coats 40/60 water to paint. I was probably dilluting with less than 10% water which also probably explained why it was so bloody hard work getting the paint to coat evenly.
I persevered mixing new batches of grey as needed and after about an hours work I had finished the first coat, it looked ok but had I hardly any black paint left. Option was to go out to screwfix and buy more or just screw it and have a seat. I chose the latter and went for a break about 2 hours later I went out thinking it would be dry to start finishing off. The good news was that one coat looked ok the bad news was it wasn't really dry. In my continued pursuit of perfection I decided to push on and just add the rest of it. I alternated between pure black, mid grey and magnolia dabbing them on with wet sponges and started to build some texture the work consisted dabbing off worst of paint on cloth then dabbing sponge all over canvas and smearing to reduce texture until I thought it was done, I was wearing old trainers and kept walking over canvas so also had to smudge out foot prints all over the place. I gave it about 30-40 minutes and got bored so shut the garage door and left it for a week to dry out.
So I went back to check it today and it's actually not too bad. Another problem has arisen that I either didn't notice or didn't have at the start is that the canvas/cloth isn't rectangular its badly skewed so not all length is usable, I'll need to cut a bit off the top and bottom to square it up but at the moment I've just stapled it on a slant to a ceiling beam in the garage.
here it is...
Ok I take back the mean things I said about Sarah Oliphant their stuff is clearly a mile away in quality and look but lets be realistic for a minute. It doesn't look that bad imo and it was made in under 4 hours start to finish for under £35. I'm fairly confident MK II will go a lot better as I've Iearnt a lot from even this rushed job.
Next time I will make the following amendments....
Buy a better canvas to work on, I really didn't think this would work so went basically cheapest route to get the canvas. Next time I'll buy proper canvas I;ve sourced 273cm runs of 12oz Duck Cotton canvas which costs between £15 & £20 per meter, it will be a lot pricier but should show in the finished product.
Take time and better tape to secure the polythene sheet flat to the floor at the start and trim it to size. It worked well to stop any seepage through the canvas but I would have preferred to have it stuck down as it flapped around with the slightest draft and made doing the edges hard as it could fold over the canvas whilst you were working.
Allow a lot more time for painting, I think I'd retry it with a few coats I would definitely dilute it more to make rollering easier to start with and follow the 60/4 then 40/60 route. I reckon it would need at least 3 possibly 4 hours between coats I'll use a dehumidifier to aid drying. Doing this way will probably make it a 2 day job with first day to coat and second to texture.
When texturing next time I'm gonna wear socks with plastic bags over my feet and knees as you will be all over the canvas, I'd do it in two coats with dark/mid working in then a light/mid working out on first coat then a second pass with light and dark working across canvas 4-5 hours later.
***edit***I'd also put weights along top and bottom edges to stretch and hold the canvas then cut any unpainted edges to keep the canvas flat when its finished.***edit***
Other than a possibly getting a slightly better roller handle, the poundland heads are fine, and maybe a pole for the roller I was fairly happy with the shopping list otherwise I probably need twice as much black paint as I originally bought but I reckon there's potential to create something that is unique, decent quality and not too expensive if a bit of time is taken. I got a quick snap of my highly uncooperative toddler I may be able to save to edit later but I'm looking forward to testing it out properly.
hopefully after such a long post it was useful or interesting to someone.
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