Preparing the Supports

There are several supports which can be used for painting with oil. Canvas, wood panel, copper are some. For this project I will use only linen canvas and panels made of birch. Here I am stretching raw, unprimed linen over sturdy stretcher bars. Making sure there is enough to pull around the bar, I staple the back side securely, but not too tightly. There must be some slack which will be tightened when the sizing/glue is applied. One concession for this project is the use of staples and a staple gun. Purists would use tacks with a tack hammer which is the authentic method. I very consciously made the decision to use staples because of the tremendous amount of time saved.