Although I prefer to carry prepared canvas boards because they are light and don’t need elaborate preparation or stretching, there is a multitude of other possibilities. You can use hardboard panels, plywood or metal. All of these need to be rubbed down with sandpaper before you start work, to give the paint something to key into. This roughness is called ‘tooth’.

Canvas can be bought in rolls or, more expensively, already attached to stretchers. The rule for the sort to choose is logical and easy to understand: rough for large pictures, where you will be splashing on the pigment with a certain abandon; fine-grained for small pictures, that will be worked on in thin washes and covered in fine detail.

Cotton or duck canvas is bright white, cheap and easy to stretch. Jute canvas is much stronger, darker in color and far more expensive.

Whatever surface you choose, keep away from synthetic fabrics unless they have been especially prepared for oil painting. Otherwise, the oil may dissolve the fabric, and you could find yourself with tiny holes in your most successful picture.

Canvas boards are sold by most art shops in a wide variety of sizes. They are backed onto a kind of heavy cardboard; they are not too expensive, and provide a clean, white surface in a reasonable range of medium-rough to smooth textures. They are ideal for outdoor painters since several can be carried tied together with string. A finished board can be easily taken home, carried in your hand if necessary.

If you are using acrylics, you can also use paper; there are pads designed for use only with these paints. If you prefer to work on canvas or canvas boards, it is essential that these have been prepared for acrylics, not oils. And avoid re-using canvas that has already been painted with oils – the acrylic film will not adhere properly.

I hope that you will gather from these pages that I dislike very much falling into a system of using over and over again a procedure or a set palette. With your painting materials always the same, each picture will tend to appear just like the preceding one, with only a rearrangement of subject matter. If the materials you use are sound and compatible, and each lends itself to the realization of the desired final effect, then you have selected and used them for their best qualities.

ZINC WHITE possesses the wonderful quality of drying very slowly. When you also use a slow-drying painting medium, it allows you to work wet-in-wet, • sometimes for days. If you use a non-absorbent ground and, at the end of the working day, the picture is covered or placed away in a dark closet where the air is not allowed to circulate, the drying processes will be slowed even further.

TITANIUM WHITE does not have the history behind it of lead or zinc white, but has been used widely for a number of years. From all appearances, it holds up well and is compatible with other reliable colors of the palette. It is the lightest of whites, on the cool side, possessing extraordinary covering power. It works well when you are painting in successive layers or alta prima. It dries at a normal rate, but has a tendency to produce a glassy surface if • too much medium is used. Lead and zinc white have a much better glazing quality than titanium white. For grounds, the opaque quality of titanium is desirable, although you must allow for a longer drying period before proceeding to paint.

LEAD WHITE. The oldest of whites used in oil painting and the most versatile, it works well in grounds, has a semi-transparent quality and, when used with a little more body, will be opaque. Lead white dries fast and well. If the correct amount of medium is used, it will not build up a glassy surface • that is hard to work over with glazes. It yellows more than the other whites and has a tendency to become more transparent with age. A matte finish is easily arrived at without a large amount of turpentine. Of the three whites, it is the warmest. It is a poisonous white, so be especially careful if you grind your own paint.

UNDERPAINTING WHITE. One of the best forms of white I know for underpainting is the white you grind for yourself-either lead or titanium white in powder form, ground in a mixture of dammar varnish (heavy body) and linseed oil-one part oil, one part varnish. You may increase or decrease the oil or varnish to hasten or slow the drying time. If this white is not mixed too rich with medium, it will dry matte and will be a good surface to receive the overpainting. The drying time of this mixture will be but a few hours.