Drawing number 122
Drawing number 123
Drawing number 124On Friday I stretched a canvas for the first time (with some help from a more experienced classmate). I didn't make the stretcher, I re-used one I stripped a canvas from last year (originally I intended to restretch it, but plans changed), but I daresay The Bloke could show me how if I want to make another. Not as hard as I imagined, just a matter of using the staple gun and making sure the canvas is taut.
Then I cooked up some rabbit skin glue to seal the canvas - it makes a nice surface to draw on with ink, I've been told. And yep, the stuff IS made with rabbit skins, among other gelatin-providing substances. It looks like little flakes of shellac in the bag. You soak it in water for five minutes then put it in a double boiler with more water and cook till all the crystalline flakes dissolve. It stinks. A bit like wet dog, only worse. Then paint onto the canvas with a brush before it cools (it gels up when cold). My canvas now has a lovely off-white finish and is taut as a drum.
Next class I may use the epidiascope to transfer a drawing (or several, it's a fairly large canvas) onto the rabbit skin glued surface to ink up. I love me some technology :)
Then I cooked up some rabbit skin glue to seal the canvas - it makes a nice surface to draw on with ink, I've been told. And yep, the stuff IS made with rabbit skins, among other gelatin-providing substances. It looks like little flakes of shellac in the bag. You soak it in water for five minutes then put it in a double boiler with more water and cook till all the crystalline flakes dissolve. It stinks. A bit like wet dog, only worse. Then paint onto the canvas with a brush before it cools (it gels up when cold). My canvas now has a lovely off-white finish and is taut as a drum.
Next class I may use the epidiascope to transfer a drawing (or several, it's a fairly large canvas) onto the rabbit skin glued surface to ink up. I love me some technology :)
