[MUSIC PLAYING]
Today I'd like to do
a little oil sketch.
I've got something new--
something pretty
interesting-- to work with.
This is Arches paper
for oil painting.
It's a new product from Arches.
It's a paper
specifically formulated
for use for oil painting.
This paper has been
formulated by Arches
to protect the paper fibers
against the oxidation
of the drying oils.
No preparation, no priming,
no gessoing is required,
so that all I need to do
before the paint is measure,
tear the paper to
the size I need,
and I'm ready to start painting.
If I was stretching
a canvas, I'd
been tacking the canvas
to the stretchers,
putting on three coats of
gesso, waiting for drying in
between each coat.
But working on the
Arches oil paper,
now I'm ready to get started.
So this Arches paper
for oil painting
does have exactly
the same quality
as the Irish watercolor
paper that we've all
been using for so long.
I could take my paper
and my drawing board
out into the landscape
much more easily
than I can take an easel
with a stretched canvas.
So with the nice
absorbency of the surface,
I can work with these
fairly thin turp washes
and not worry at all
about the paint running.
You get some very good
control of the paint
even when it's being worked
really thin like this.
It's easy enough to take a rag
and wipe the white right back
into it.
And I can work
pretty hard on this,
and I don't have to worry about
damaging the paper surface.
This is a paper that's
really just as tough
a surface as working on
the stretched canvas.
They are very finished paintings
by Rubens, executed on paper,
going back to the 17th century.
And then of course we can look
at the monotypes done by Degas,
using pastel to highlight and
add the highest chroma color
over the top of oil monotypes.
I can alternate between using
low broader painterly approach,
and working in a
little sharpness using
some of the drawing materials.
There are people who work in
much more painterly styles
with heavier
applications of paint.
That's fine.
The paper is equally versatile
working with thin application
or working with
heavy application,
right up to some
really thick impasto.
I've allowed it to dry--
pretty much the same
drying times as I
would have on a canvas
or on a prepared panel.
I'm going to check and make
sure that actually no color is
coming up.
No, I don't see any
chalking at all.
The absorbency is
just right here.
I think I'll call this a painted
sketch more than a really
finished painting.
Taking the painting
and storing it
is not any great
difficulty either,
because the paper was ready
to go without the gesso
preparation.
I can roll it just like this.
It'll be absolutely fine.
I really like the
fact that I was
able to get to work without
spending a lot of time
on preparation--
that I didn't have
to change my
painting style at all
to make it work on the paper.
The paper was just as durable--
really a very high
quality product.
Arches paper for
oil painting really
is going to prove to be a
very useful and important
new painting support.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
