Staining your canvas . . . what do you use

[Alexandra Tyng]

I'm glad you brought that up, Michele. It is important to think about the future, and I am usually so enthusiastic about painting now that I forget to consider what might happen down the road.

I tend to put a lot of paint on the light areas, less in the midtones, and even less in the shadows. Since my ground is a midtone, would it be bad if the color on top thinned or lost color so that the ground showed through more? Same with the shadows. On the other hand, what if you don't tone the canvas. Would the white show through, and is that what we would prefer?

The other thing I am wondering about is whether the colors in the toning mixture would be fading at the same rate as the top layers of paint. This would certainly occur if I mixed a ground color from the dominant shadow color in my painting and its complement, thus making a neutral. Then the same pigments would be in the ground and in the painting.

Gosh, Michele, I never thought about any of this until you brought it up! Is there anyone out there who KNOWS?

Alex

[Richard Budig]

Yes, this thinning of paint over time is well known. A painting by Valesquez (sp) called the Water Seller comes to mind, as well as a couple i've seen in museums. I'm sure there are bunches more where an under painting is peeking through.

But, you gotta consider that there are also museums full of paintings where this isn't apparent, and a goodly number of these paintings are by artists known to do all sorts of thing on the under layers.

My thought is that many things are at work in these paintings with ghosts. For example, Valesquez seems to have painted thinly his correction of the Water Seller's collar, so "thin painting" could be one of the culprits.

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Richard Budig

. For example, Valesquez seems to have painted thinly his correction of the Water Seller's collar, so "thin painting" could be one of the culprits.

I have seen that painting, as well as others by Velasquez, where corrections become visible. But that has nothing to do with the under paint, as Richard correctly states, but thin, faster drying paint upon impasto details, like a leg that had to be moved, or a gun that was too long.

When we plan our works carefully so that we don