Tips and Tricks for painting shields

[JPT]

You will want to base coat the entire thing for a couple of reasons. One, you need to "size" the canvas. In this case sizing means to prime the canvas for painting. Canvas is rather absorbant stuff so you want to basically seal it. Artists have used a number of different materials for this over the years, the most common being gesso. In period though the material of choice is a glue made from melted rabbit skin. Other skin glues were used as well but the substance is generically referred to as rabbit skin glue. (Very very icky stuff to make by the way) The other reason is a matter of wear. If you only paint part of the canvas it will wear differently than the unpainted part.

There's another place where this type of canvas is used and that's for home built airplanes. They often use exterior grade acrylic base coat for the first several coats.

For our purposes what I would recommend would be exterior house paint in white or near white. Put a coat on, let it dry sand, repeat. The canvas and base coat will give a good tooth for painting the rest of your device on. It's not a super quick process, but it looks really really good.

I haven't painted a shield yet but I have a hypothetical question: suppose the device you're going to paint has a red and gold field, and you have some red canvas lying around; using Elmer's (either carpenter glue or the old school white) can you glue it to a wooden shield without "splotches" or smears showing through? Or will you just end up having to paint all of the canvas after the gluing anyway?

I found some colored canvas last weekend but I'd like to know if it's doable in terms of a clean, finished appearance or if I should just pick a netural colored canvas and paint the entire device after gluing. If I can cut down on paint (and upkeep later) by having to paint only part of the canvas that would be great.

Any tips or ideas are appreciated. Thanks.

[Gwyneth]

Gwyneth,

Thanks again for the suggestions. I think I'll try to tough it through the red canvas this go around and learn my lesson for next time. So, since it sounds like pencil won't work too well, how about chalk?

Madyn -

Sorry for the late reply - I was at Gulf Wars and just got back.

The chalk will result in a fatter line - if you are doing a lot of detail, you may not want that. I would use a light colored transfer paper that is made for transferring designs to dark fabrics. You can find it at Hobby Lobby or Hancocks for sure. Using the transfer paper will allow you to have fine line detail on your design.

If I can get a picture of it, I'll post a photo of Marvin's shield post-Gulf Wars. The edging came off in places, and the covering is pulling away in a few places, but it held up remarkably good for a shield that was painted with 44 cent Wal-Mart acrylic paint and stuck down with Elmer's glue!

And another note on preparing canvas with sizing, gesso, etc. - you don't *really* need to use it. I have a wall hanging I made out of an untreated cotton canvas shower curtain (I'll see if I can get a photo of that one too). I didn't gesso or base coat - I drew the design directly onto the canvas with a pencil , then painted it with my cheapo Wal-Mart acrylics, then put a sealer coat over the whole thing. Looks fabulous, has held up great, and the acrylic paint is flexible enough that I can fold it up and pack it into a shoulder bag. I also painted one on a double layer of poly-cotton broadcloth - it turned out fabulously also! Not even any problems with the paint bleeding through.

So don't be afraid to toss all the advice out the window and experiment with various materials! Expensive doesn't always mean better or easier! After a couple layers of paint, you won't be able to see the weave of the fabric anyway, and modern acrylics look remarkably similar to egg tempera (yes, I have seen a side-by-side comparison).

Wyrmspleen -

I would just use a wood filler on the indentation to smooth it out again, stick the torn piece back down with glue, and paint over it to hide any mar in the paint. But your leather idea sounds like it would work too - just more expensive than canvas. Go for it! And show us pictures when you are done?

Gwyneth

[Madyn]

Wyrmspleen--Love the name, and sorry if I'm hijacking your thread Hopefully all this information is helpful for you too.

Gwyneth--although it was a pain, I managed to get my details freehand with pencil, but I'll give the transfer paper a whirl on the next go around. Thanks for all the tips. I should finish the shield this week, and it's turning out pretty well for a first attempt. I'll try to post some pics when done.

[Templar Bob/De Tyre]

Okay, very frustrated...

I've attempted to e-mail the people who make [url]http://www.magicsculp.com]Magic Sculp[/url], to no avail. I've even called the company in California to learn if they have any distributors in Indiana. I'd like to order the five-pound size, so I can get started...by I'm getting pretty much zero contact from them.

Is there anyone in California that can get the stuff locally?