Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

OK, so we're going to have a quick set

up on our canvases here.

What is a canvas?

What type of canvas?

We have some stretched canvases here.

We also have some unstretched canvases,

which I like to start with.

So what's the difference, stretched, unstretched?

Well, this is not stretched, i.e. meaning it's

not on a frame, it's not on a stretcher bar,

it's not on any kind of a chassis.

Of course, this would be a classic stretched canvas

sold in any art store.

Or we could have made this ourself from the primed canvas.

Simply create a wooden frame, crossbar, staple,

staple, staple.

You would have a non-store bought frame, but something you

would make yourself obviously.

And for many years, when you're at the beginning of it all

and you don't have the funds or the resources

to buy high end materials from an art store,

well, you can buy raw canvas, cheapest.

Stretch it yourself.

Still cheaper than buying something store bought.

And then prime the cameras yourself.

So from a real DIY way, anything you

see that's kind of traditional and store bought,

we can all do this at home as well.

So I'm primed, primed.

And both canvases have different applications.

Unprimed canvas can obviously become primed canvas.

Just a question of applying the medium, the primer, the gesso.

Or unprimed canvas can be kept as unprimed canvas.

I happen to like both.

I recently did an exhibition which was primarily

on unprimed canvas.

And that was a lot about how the effects of spray

paint interact with a canvas that's not stretched.

A lot of saturation, very wonderful techniques.

I want to show you guys something that I used to do,

something I learned probably when I was in high school.

This can be done with paper, fabric, just about anything,

clothing.

Almost makes you think of tie-dying, which

I guess is where it comes from.

So this is a quick little demo.

Because I have a can of red paint here,

we're going to start with red.

[SPRAYING]

So what I've done is, I basically

bunched up this material.

But what I've done, is I've also created all of these cavities

and crevices and chambers.

All those folds are going to be wonderful.

[SPRAYING]

So I'm going to paint it from this side just like that.

And as a result of the way it's folded,

and once again, it's totally arbitrary.

It's nothing preplanned here.

It's just go with it.

And this side has been painted red.

I'm going to try this and paint the other side black.

[SPRAYING]

All right, it's pretty basic, but.

So just on the strength of an effect,

it's pretty interesting.

And believe it or not, this is another accident

waiting to happen for me in that I wasn't trying

to make a tie-dye anything.

I just did what I did there.

I bunched up some material and I sprayed it,

conscious of knowing if I spray something from one side and I

spray something from the other side,

you will create this kind of meeting in the middle.

And what I love, is the way the shadows of the white

basically create the depth in this type of effect.

So something like that is so simple, yet quite interesting

visually.

So if you could imagine I did that to the entire canvas,

well, wow, that would look pretty interesting.

Could that be the finished product?

It could.

Could it be a background to something else?

Of course it could.

You can't do that with a stretched canvas, of course.

And it wouldn't work with the unprimed cameras

either, because you would never get any of the color.

It would just get evaporated into the canvas.

Size of canvas is obviously very important.

I think this is something around 54 something or other.

Canvas comes in all types of sizes.

I would imagine the smallest roll

size might be about four feet.

So once again, buy in rolls, I mean, something like, you know,

a roll like this and a roll like this would be great starters.

You know, hey, I want a role of unprimed canvas, hey,

I want a roll of primed canvas.

You don't need to make it too big.

52, 54, five feet.

60 inches max would be perfect for anyone.

Of course, you can cut this up into as many pieces

as you want.

I mean, we're working with this now

at scale, the scale in which it comes.

But this could be cut in half, quartered.

Do whatever you want with it.

But I would say start small.

I mean, get yourself a roll of canvas.

Doesn't even have to be unprimed, because maybe

for the moment, you wouldn't really

have any application for it.

I would stay was something primed.

It's going to be a lot easier to work with.

And/or in addition to something like

that, get yourself a couple of store bought.

This looks like to be two feet, 18 inches.

I don't know, but something very reasonable, workable.

You just want to be where you need

to be in order to finish the painting that you're

trying to work on.