ABS Panel (Portrait of George)

[Linda Fried]

Thank you, Chuck!

Linda

[Chuck Yokota]

One more thing; ABS sheet comes colored white or black, so be sure to specify what color you want before they cut up your order. I just went out to my local plastic supplier to get some ABS to try, and they had 3/32" thick sheet in white ABS.

[Linda Fried]

Hmmm.......black, eh? That sounds interesting..
Thanks for the heads-up!

Linda

[Juan Martinez]

Thanks a heck of a lot Linda, Bill, et al.!

I am in the middle of struggling with a sheet of copper for a new painting (trying to get the lead ground even and then waiting for it to dry) when along comes ABS!! Now, I'm eager to ignore my $50 copper plate and run out to get some ABS and start painting right away. Arrgh!



The painting looks great, Linda. Brava.

Juan

[Juan Martinez]

Sorry, one more thing: Bill, do you think that a finishing sander will work as well as a rotary one? It's the only kind I have, so I'm hoping ...

Juan

[Michael Georges]

I used a finishing sander for several ABS panels and did not like the results - because they vibrate back and forth, I ended up with a lot of little "v" shaped impressions in the surface.

I think the rotary sander does much better, but if you don't have one, you can just use foam sanding blocks.

I did my latest panels with sanding blocks starting at a medium rough pad and finishing with a very fine pad. These panels ended up much smoother with no unusual marks in the surface.

[Juan Martinez]

Thanks, Michael, I do have foam sanding blocks.

Juan

[Linda Brandon]

Thanks so much to those of you who said they liked this painting, you've made my day. Bill, thanks for more fully explaining your technique and including the photo.

Enzie,

I've never tried that brand of gessoed board. Good painting (I love pale backgrounds.)

Linda,

George is my husband. I thought I ought to try an experiment on ABS before I tried to convince clients to let me use it for their painting.

By the way, the composition of this painting came about in part because my husband and I couldn't agree what should be in the background. I decided I liked the open pale background after I did a couple of thumbnail sketches.

Linda, you are busy enough these days without having to sand down plastic! I'll give you the name of my supplier if you promise not to do anything about it for a few months: Plastic Engineering in Tempe, very nice people.

Michele,

I'm trying to find my own personal ledge in portraiture between "Painterliness" [West Coast?] and "Classicism" [East Coast?]. The former sometimes doesn't look much like the subject; the latter sometimes looks too much like a photograph of the subject.
Possibly this is just an issue of taste.

[Linda Fried]

Linda,

Well, you did a wonderful job on your husband's portrait. So relaxed and really gives us (the viewers) insight into his personality. Very good!

I tend to admire realism in portraits because when done well they are so amazing they take my breath away.

Yet I find myself drawn more to doing- and being attracted to- a more painterly quality in likenesses. I love the looser more gestured paintings because for me they often (again when done well) seem more "alive".

You've seemed to accomplish the best of both worlds here.

You're right about my having way too much to do to think about sanding plastic right now. This impending move is exhausting me. But it gives me something to look forward to. The saddest day of packing so far is when I had to pack all my art supplies, save a small sketchbook. I am really missing the smell and the pushing around of paint! Ah, soon (not soon enough) it will be over, and the first thing I'll unpack is my paints!!

Thanks for the info. Hope to see more of you when I'm back "home".

Linda

[Allan Rahbek]

Hi anyone,
I am curious and wonder if I can find a Danish word for this plastic material.
What does the letters ABS stand for?
I have read that it contains three plastics: Styrene, plexiglass and rubberizer. What is the normal use of it, what is it produced for?

Allan.