...just for scale

Just for scale...
This is a better pic of one of the 6"x 6" paintings in it's frame. I put the business card in there to give it some scale which was suggested by a good friend. I've grown to love the 6x6 masonite panels. They give you a bit more room to play with compared to a 5"x 7". I bought a large 4'x8' sheet of untempered masonite and cut up my initial 5"x 5", 5" x 7" and 6"x 6" panels on my table saw. Trust me, you get a heck of a lot of panels from a full sheet of masonite. I think I had cut about 60 or 70 panels...told you it was a lot.

You need untempered masonite to paint on. It is lighter in color than tempered masonite. Tempered masonite is impregnated with oil to make it water resistant. Tempered masonite is also much darker in color. If you paint on the tempered masonite the oil will eventually leach it's way through your gesso and into your paint so buy untempered masonite....put on at least 2 coats of gesso...I put on 3. For most of my larger masonite panels, 8"x 10" & up, I glue on preprimed canvas. I will only paint up to 12"x16" with masonite because it starts to get heavy in sizes over that. When you add your frame the weight starts to become a consideration when hanging it...especially on drywall which is what almost all new houses have. I sold a 12"x 36 painting of sunflowers and the combination of larger masonite and a thick wood frame was a bit much...man, that puppy was heavy!! I hope their house is still standing.

Why panel?....well forn the one main great reason...it is so easy to frame panel compared to stretched canvas. You lay it in the slots on the back of your frame and use a brad (framers points) stapler to lock the painting in place. Takes 10 seconds. With stretched canvas there is always that part of the canvas sticking out too far in back if the rabbit on the frame is shallow. Rabbit? The slot you stick your painting into in the back of any frame is called the rabbit. Some frames have a deep rabbit & some have a shallow rabbit. Depends on how thick your frame is. Shallow rabbits make your stretcher bars stick out in back and do all the contact with the walls....not the frame. You have to consider this stuff when ordering frames. Also...you have to predrill pilot holes for your screws that will hold the brackets to keep the painting in place. When you paint on panels none of this applies....which is why I love panels!