Canvas Preparation and Penciling

Now that the canvas is stretched, the borders are all painted in grey.

The borders than get taped off. I won't see them until the painting is finished

I paint over the tape in order to keep any of the white gesso from seeping into any of the cracks.

The entire surface is prepared with 3 coats of gesso that are sanded between each coat. The gesso is used to keep the oil from seeping into the fibers, and without enough gesso, this can still happen. If this should occur, the canvas will actually rot away in a few decades, and the painting will fall apart. The gesso also smooths the surface, making it nicer to paint on.

The outline of the painting has been drawn onto the now dried canvas using a blue pencil. the reason for the blue is because it won't affect the color of the paint that goes on it like regular pencil lead would. It also washes away easily with mineral spirits since its made out of a material different than graphite.