Frosted Mylar -- marvelous!
 

I just returned from doing a little painting and lecturing at a workshop in Austin, Texas for a group of young Concept Artists. These are the folks who design the games and do all the monsters and dragons in the movies.

They are, one and all, highly dedicated to Drawing Drawing Drawing. Being kids who wear their caps backwards, you know that they are all cutting-edge experts when it comes to computers. Much of their artwork is created on computers, yet they all have an abiding respect for the Old Ways and are not strangers to oil paints.

I thought it might be good here to introduce a most useful material for painting sketches and roughs. It is FROSTED MYLAR and it is sold at places that sell architectural supplies. I tape it to a drawing board and happily paint away. It is archival, paint does not bleed through it, it is as thin as paper which makes it easy to store one

I intended to do a generic figure painting, but habit got the best of me and I ended up doing a likeness. This is a detail of the sketch, painted on frosted Mylar. I can

Tell me more
 

Dear William,

This post is very intetesting for me, now that I am leaving home for two months and normally carry canvas with me. I don't like to paint on canvassed cardboard, it is too thin, and MDF 6mm thick is quite heavy.

Can Mylar be used in bigger sheets (40x50 cm) and in the remote case I achieve something nice, can it be mounted somehow permanently?

Thank you,
Ilaria

Since most architectural drawings are larger than 40x50cm, I'm sure you can get frosted Mylar in the sizes you need. Being thin like paper, it is also very easy to cut.

I saw it framed in a gallery once. I don't know how it was done, but I assume it can be dry mounted to a backing board, like foam core or museum mounting board and then framed.

William-

Thank you for this info! I'm a big fan of painting on paper, for it IS very portable - as you noted. Wonderful study, by the way. I hope you'll post the entire piece to your site one day.

I'm going to assume that the mylar doesn't need to be primed in any way - but if you could confirm this, I'd appreciate it. If this is the case..... hoooraaay! One less step for me!

Best,

Rob

Rob,

It is perfect for lazy people like me. No priming necessary!
Also, it cuts easily just like paper, with scissors or an Exacto knife.
You can't tear it though.

Yes indeed, one more example of the miracle of plastics making our lives better and better....

From one lazy man to another, I thank you, sir!

I'm signing off and heading to the store for some right now. :thumbsup:

I believe that this plastic material can be mounted on thin plywood with a special glue that is manufactured for mounting cork tiles, linoleum and other synthetic carpets.
The glue is water based but dries well even under plastic.
Allan

Wow,
I HAVE frosted mylar in my my studio and I've never thought about using it as a substrate for oils. I am SO on this tomorrow morning!

thank so much Bill for making the suggestion.

And your work is stunning... as always. the example you show here is sumptuous.

Linda

I did a quick search on the sizes, weights of frosted Mylar and came up with this site.,www.posterprintersupply.com. It apparently available in a wide variety of sizes as well as in rolls. There are other sites out there but this will give you a quick idea of prices and sizes.
I don't know whether frosted and matte are the same, but this site refers to matte as used for drawing so I suspect it may be.

Thanks Bill for posting this along with your lovely example.

Thanks so much for posting that Mylar supply site Sharon.

"Frosted" and "matte" are indeed the same.

Double matte refers to sheets that are matte on both sides.
Single matte is a sheet that is shiny and slick on one side, matte on the other.

Both work just fine. I've used them both.

Looks like double matte costs less. I'd go for that. It has been my favorite in the past.

Bill

I really wanted to give this a try, but that link Sharon posted is for large amounts - minimum of $90. I found a smaller pad of it to give it a try at Dick Blick and a few craft sites (they use this for stencils I believe) in case anyone is interested.

It's been a while since this thread had any action.

I have been experimenting with a variety of boards and linens, mounting my linen on well lacquered single ply and masonite. Lately i have been painting on linen taped to board and getting it acid free mounted at a later stage.

Mylar has been something ive been interested in since seeing Alex Kanevsky's work. Bill, have you every primed the mylar? I like having some sort of tooth or texture to work on.

Being frosted, the Mylar already has a tooth. I only use it for sketches and very small works. I have never seen a need to prime it. I paint on canvas when I work larger.

Thanks Bill, btw Alex's work can be found here...
http://www.somepaintings.net/Alex.html

Thank you for the link Evan. Alex Kanevsky is a terrific and inspiring painter and I've been following his work for some time, It was very thoughtful of you to provide the link.

Alex Kanevsky is an inspiration.

Ive just contacted Dupont but am having a hard time tracking mylar film down in Sydney. What thicknesses does it come in?

I don't know. I don't have specifications here. I know it comes in various thicknesses. Sometimes it's frosted on one side only, sometimes on both sides. In thickness, mine compares with a nice sheet of drawing paper.

There are several other manufacturers of drafting film, such as Grafix, Azon, or Alvin. They're all pretty much identical. 3 mil thickness is common, up to 5 mil I think, but once mounted it doesn't much matter. I've used an acrylic gel as an adhsive and it works fine. The single sided matte is slightly cheaper than double sided. There's another film type made of polypropylene (Borden & Riley's Denril brand) that is almost identical. Also, drafting "vellum" is made of cotton fiber rather than synthetic. Canson makes a Opalux brand of this, and there are others. It's not as tear resistant as Mylar, but otherwise about the same.