Jasmine Becket-Griffith Painting Tutorial: Butterfly Fairies

Part One: The Panel

Part One:  The Panel

Now that I more or less know the subject of my painting, it is time to take the first physical step - preparing a panel to paint on.

I'm a painter who works with acrylic paints.  Acrylic painters have a wide range of substrates (things to paint on) to choose from.   Some artists prefer paper or illustration board.  Many artists prefer canvases or linen.  Personally, I mostly prefer to work on a hard surface like wood or masonite.

There are many factors that can determine which substrate is best for you.  What works for one artist may not necessarily mean that it's the best option for you yourself.  I choose to primarily work on hard panels for two reasons.  Firstly, most of my artwork is intended to be either framed (put into an open picture frame and secured on the back) or cradled (where there are wooden "cradle" boards added to the backside, for gallery display).  With the types of frames I tend to use, a hard board or piece of wood is easy to frame.  Secondly - almost all of my paintings end up being sent through the mail, often overseas, often many times throughout its life.  I sell a lot of work over the internet, I have multiple home studios (Florida, London, Kansas City), and I also have very far flung galleries - all which require the crating & transport of my artworks on a regular basis.   A hard board / sturdy wood surface means that there is less of a chance that the piece will be damaged in shipping (no chance of creasing, more water-resistant, etc.).  Sometimes upon request for special clients I will paint on canvas or other materials, but when the decision is left up to me, I always go with either wood or masonite panel.

For this particular painting, the client wants it to be 11"x14" in size.  As "European Peacock" and the previous other three Butterfly Fairies are all to be given away as credit card rewards by the Dynamics Inc. Visa company, they want all of the paintings in the series to be the same size and format.  I also have procured matching picture frames for the collection.  So my goal here is to cut a panel that measures 11"x14" that will fit into the frame selected for the painting.

Masonite is sold at hardware stores and art supply stores.  At art supply stores you can get masonite panels (sometimes called "Gessobord") that has already been gessoed.  Hardware stores tend to sell them unfinished.   I enjoy gessoing (priming) my own boards, so a lot of the time I just buy masonite at the hardware store because it is cheaper and I can get really big sizes if I want to.   I purchased this masonite at our local hardware store originally as a very large (3-4 foot) panel.  Obviously this is too big, as the painting only needs to be 11"x14" in size.

I use a table saw or a jigsaw to cut the panel to size, measuring & drawing the lines first with a sturdy ruler.  If you're a kid or are unfamiliar with tools, be sure to ask a parent or wife/husband/friend/neighbor/teacher to do this part for you, as it can be dangerous.  Another alternative is to have the hardware store cut the panel for you, to your exact measurements.  Local "mom & pop" hardware stores are often willing to do this for you if you ask nicely and if you purchase the masonite panel there at the shop.

I now have an 11"x14" panel.  I "dry fit" it into the picture frame, just to make sure it is the correct size.  It pops in fine, so I am ready to start.  I use acid-free masking tape on the backside to secure the panel to my table/desktop, to keep it flat & straight.  This panel is not yet ready for painting.  First it needs to be gessoed - "primed" - so that the surface is suitable for painting.  I will show you how I gesso my panels in the next installment of this tutorial!

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