Building Materials

June 30

I don’t think I've ever made my own stretcher bars before. So this was the perfect time to get back into building my own supports. The last stretcher bars I used, or at least prefer to use are about $25-$36 per bar. I was very lucky and was able to use those for years for a small cost. The limitation on those are the size because they were about $1 an inch at art supply stores. At this point I can only assume that the portrait I’ll work on would be fairly large so buying into pre-made ones aren't an option for a dude like me. Plus I would rather special order things that art supply stores have never ordered before, not some lame ass stretcher bars that are just big.

Since I’ll be doing a few practice portraits to get my rhythm back I didn't feel it was right to go out and buy some cheapos from one of the local big box art suppliers. I’m going old school on this portrait project so there was only one option open for me. Make them myself. So I headed on out to the local Home Depot and bought 4ea 1x3in planks, 2ea 1/8in dowel rods, and 2ea 16ft .5in quarter rounds. At the checkout I was hit with a number I didn't quite expect. I did some wrong math somewhere in my head and went triple over my initial budget, or at least double. Either way $32 for everything isn't bad at all when you can build an 8x8ft canvas with as many cross braces as you need.

The materials laid out. Note the brightness of the day.

I used staples to tack the .5in quarter rounds to the 1x3s. Seems to work.

After trimming the 1x3s down and stapling the quarter rounds in place it was time to assemble.

After feeling accomplished but taking too damn long to make one small frame I put my shit away and thought the rain would come any time. I was sweating like a horse for the first part of the day and was kinda not in the mood to make any more of these. I thought one was enough. I took a break, ate some food, and started a file in Silent Hill: Homecoming. I liked the Silent Hill games, but they went downhill after the second game. Not until I played “The Room” did I say fuck these games. But after two hours of SH:H and no rain, I thought I should make some more stretcher bars. I was kinda falling asleep anyways sitting on the floor with a controller in my hand, not quite according to the days plan I had set. Besides, I’ll rest when I’m dead. So with a newer take on making these things I thought I’d half-ass them. I mean really, who’s gonna care? No dowels in the construction, just staples. So I make two more and they seem to hold up quite well. The reason I cheaped out on the construction is because stretchers bars don’t last forever. If the painting is worth saving, take the thing off the bars and mount it to something. The bars are there to keep the canvas stretched and easier to paint on.

After building and assembling the bars my brother put on some NetFlix movie. I don’t remember the name but it was a Chinese revenge movie. I put up with it, but damn... the end just sucked. Talk about a waste of time. I guess that’s my problem. When I put so much time into something and the end is right there in sight, I have to finish it. The end of the movie was coming... sometime... and I was gonna leave when it was done. Finally, the ending comes and I was thinking, “really...”. You wanna talk about a waste of time? After that turd of a movie was flushed from the que it was time to get some canvas on these sleazy ‘lil bastards and get them ready for painting. I get back to my place, whip out a roll of canvas and begin stretching. I was dumb and didn't factor in the length of the 3in bars. I was playing around with canvas pliers and thinking “shit... it’s gotta be by hand now”. I stretch one and it feels good enough to paint on. If it feels good enough to paint on, then no reason to change up the process right? So I get the other two stretched and they all feel solid. Did I say that I was impressed by the two that don’t have dowels holding them together? Because I am. I can’t tell the difference between them when I try to bend and flex them. I put some PVA sizing on them and also manage to get that shit on my floor. I wiped it away as best as I could. I don’t really care too much because it’s cheap flooring and I rent. I then get this great idea to put something down on the floor so I don’t get PVA splatters on the fake hardwood floor. That worked and I didn't have to keep wiping up spatters with a “clean” finger every time it happened. I’ll have to remember that cool trick next time I do things like this. I’ve never done that before and it explains why my floors always kinda look like shit and need some major cleanup when I move out of places. Note to self: MAKE AN EFFORT.

Not bad for for a couple hours labor. I’ll make some more detailed notes so next time I can just crank out these things out. I’m actually very surprised that the ones held together with staples hold up quite well.

3in of space around the frame.

I pulled the canvas tight by hand.

Little fuckers stretched and ready for PVA size and oil primer!

After the PVA and oil primer I can’t tell the difference from the ones that don’t have the dowels. My thought is that the staples will one day rust or fall apart. I don’t really care about that though. If I did, I’d use wood glue and dowels. So that’s it. Total time is maybe 5 hours. Making the first stretcher bar frame took about 2 hours (I spent too long just looking and playing with the compete bars and thinking about where the building process was going and how I was going to compete it). As usual the more you make the faster the process gets. Now that is all over and done with. I was thinking that next time I do some small practice pieces I’ll go out and buy some of the cheap and crappy stretcher bars from the big box art supply stores. That would have saved me several hours of construction time AND I could have put my focus on putting something down on the floor when I size and prime my canvases.