Oh Linda, I can't tell you how frustrating it was! The paint wouldn't come off the brush as smoothly, it would scratch down leaving board showing, and was harder to blend (hence the choppy strokes).
Yes, it was masonite pre-primed ultra-smooth with acrylic gesso. I lightly sanded it to try and give it more tooth, as I remember having some problems with smooth board, but it didn't really work. I wanted to use a board, however, because it is cheaper and takes less space to store than stretched canvas.
I'll check out realgesso. When you say that you bring linen to an open studio setup, do you mean linen on stretchers or glued to a board? If the latter, and you've glued it yourself (rather than from realgesso), what brand/type linen and glue do you use?
Thanks,
Holly
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