Fixative on canvas?

Question

I sketched something on a primed canvas using a pencil. I am planning to use it as a guide before painting in oil. I did this before but the pencil lead mixed with the oil color. Can I use Fixative so that I can paint over the sketch? Would the fixative ruin the painting? My classmates suggested not to use pencil but to sketch using oil during underpainting, but I am not comfortable with this method. Please Help!

Answer 1

I'm thinking yes, though an initial sketch should've been done using a charcoal pencil instead of a regular #2 type pencil.
I'd say the fixative would fix the drawing and prevent it from smearing, though the bleed-through of the lead may become undesireable in spots.
Depending on what you're painting you very well may need to add thicker layers of paint in certain areas to cover up any stubborn areas that keep showing through your paint.
I'd also suggest that you experimant on a smaller primed canvas, even if it's a 5" x 7", just to understand what will happen...for your own knowledge.
Fixative is exactly that, a spray that will fix your drawing in position...exactly what you want. If you used charcoal and it mixed with your paint that would be fine and would cause no harm whatsoever. Drawing corrections etc. can be made to an oil painting well after it's dried and painted over with no ill effects!
Try to steer clear of using regular pencils when working with oil paints in the future though but unless it's a super important paintingt that you're currently working on you'll be fine to paint over your fixed drawing without having to do an acrylic underpainting to fix it (cover it up). Fixative IS an acrylic based product. A couplke of thin coats should do the trick just fine.
You can always do an underpainting with thinned oil paints and mix Liquin with your paint so that it'd dry overnight.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Oh please don't use hairspray... it's NOT pure laquer - but a mixture of water-soluble varnish, alcohol and water! If anything is going to ruin a pastel painting, it's hairspray! It also yellows far more than fixative. First of all, soft pastels are water-soluble - they are made only of powdered pigment and gum arabic, just like watercolour paint! - and should be framed behind glass for this very reason. Fixative only holds down some of the surface particles and doesn't go down into the layers - one or two light coats is all that's recommended - and it is NOT a final varnish. Anything you spray onto pastel will dissolve the gum binder and make it transparent, thus causing the drawing to appear darker. And if you spray enough, of course it will run. Sorry, but soft pastel was never intended to be used on canvas. A spray varnish will give pretty much the same results as the fixative. Your only option is to frame this work behind glass.

Answer 4

Hi,

I've read and I think it has happened sometimes that a graphite pencil (I guess you guys may also call lead pencil in US) should not be used for drawing before oil painting.
One should use either paint (like mentioned before) or charcoal. Depending upon the work, and colours I'll use, sometimes I fix the charcoal and sometimes I don't.
And why NOT use graphite ?
Because as you know (or now you know :-) ) graphite is a very powerful lubricant. And there are reports of oil paintings suffering frorm the graphite comming to the surface after long time.
This is what I have read. Never saw it actually.

Kind regards,

José

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Answer 5

Use a fixative lightly. If the purists want to criticize that then let them. Graham Coughtry once told me that he did some work with oils on paper and the Metro has them. He went on to say that " I know that they say never paint oils on paper, but the way I figure it 'if the work is worth anything then they'll find a way to preserve it, and if they don't then it really wasn't worth anything and we aren't losing anything' ".
So go ahead use a fixative I don't think it is going to do any harm at all.
Another means you could use is a light spray of diluted acrylic gesso over the graphite. That's the way the master's did it in the old days.

Answer 6

Fixative will dissolve due to the solvent in the paint. The only solution is to do an under painting in acrylic, let that dry and paint over that in oil. The acrylic will fixate the pencil smear and you will have a non leaking sketch to work from.