Frosted Mylar -- marvelous!

[William Whitaker]

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

[William Whitaker]

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

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

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

[William Whitaker]

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.

[Rob Sullivan]

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

[William Whitaker]

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....

[Rob Sullivan]

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

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

[Allan Rahbek]

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

[Linda Nelson]

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

[Sharon Knettell]

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.