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Adam-Nowak In reply to QueenOfCostumes [2011-07-30 16:03:38 +0000 UTC]

A few things I've noticed having worked with it:

Pros
- A much better feeling of the brush to the canvas and I can make the strokes that I plan in my head. On cotton, I usually have to end up fixing everything because of the way the paint sits on the canvas. (this is completely my taste though, I do like some cotton canvas textures as well)
- Less chance and degree of the paint sinking into the surface (usually the case when it's oil primed instead of acrylic gesso)
- It's stronger than cotton

Cons
- Costs more (About the only con I can think of. I try to balance it out by painting a lot of my studies on wood (free scraps that I cut, sand, seal, and prime) and then take the saved money to buy rolls of linen for other work.

I go back and forth all the time still trying to find out what fits me. I've bought really nice decent linen that feels great, I hear lead primed linen to be amazing, though I've never personally tried it, I've bought really cheap linen that actually makes the oil paint sink in faster than cotton. There's a lot of variety out there to try.

This one in particular was the first batch of raw linen I bought, sealed, and oil primed by hand. (Quite a long process) but I got my own texture built up that I wanted.

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QueenOfCostumes In reply to Adam-Nowak [2011-08-01 07:37:11 +0000 UTC]

Ah perfect! THank you so much for your lengthy answer, I'll have to try it out. I was worried about the linen being too thin and the water absorbing too quickly as you mentioned, so I'll have to keep an eye out for the good brands. Thanks again!

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