Why you should tone your canvas before painting

Let me say right off the bat, that you don’t have to tone your canvas before oil painting. As long as your canvas has gesso on it, you are good to go. 

But even though you don’t have to do it, you absolutely should TRY toning your canvas, at least once. Why? Because you won’t know if you like it, until you try it!  And even if you don’t like it, you will know what you are rejecting.

See my painting tip video below to see how I paint my mini canvases.

And here’s some BONUS content for you. Click here to download your QuickStart Guide to Oil Painting. It’s free. Easy to read. And designed to get you painting fast.

Why some artists prefer toning their canvases before painting. 

Painting your canvas with a solid colour of paint before you start painting can help you judge colours and values better. 

When you start with a white canvas, the white of the canvas makes the other colours around it all seem darker than they are. But when you start on a canvas painted a mid-tone, your eyes will be able to see a broader range of values.

Toning your canvas first can also affect the look of your painting, especially if you let the background colour show through. 

And many people also like toning a canvas because it takes away some of the anxiety of starting a new painting. The canvas doesn’t look all that fresh and new, so you don’t feel as anxious about the possibility of ruining it. 

What kind of paint to use for toning? 

You can use both acrylic and oil paint to tone a canvas. Remember: you can paint over acrylic with oil paint. BUT you can’t paint with acrylic on oil paint. It won’t stick. 

If using acrylic, you must wait for it to dry first. But acrylic dries fast so it won’t take long.

If using oil paint, there are 4 ways that you can tone a painting: 

1. you can wait for it to dry first
2. You can paint on while wet
3. You can also grab a lint free cloth and wipe away some of the oil paint to just leave a stain of colour on your canvas. This is a favourite technique of plein air painters who need to paint fast to catch the light.
4. You can paint a layer of brown or burnt umber or sienna, then while wet, wrap your finger with a lint-free cloth and “draw” your design into it. By lifting dark colours off, you can work out the values of your painting – what will be light, medium or dark.

What colour to tone a canvas

You can use any colour you want, but popular choices are:

• yellow ochre 
• burnt sienna 
• burnt umber 

Artists like to use these because these pigments dry fast. They also add a nice warmth to paintings.

You can also try using the complementary colour of the main colour in your painting. For example, if you are doing a summer painting with lots of greens, try underpainting with purple. Complementary colours have a special relationship with each other that makes them zing when put close together.

Toning cradled wood panels or hardboard 

When toning canvas, as long as it has gesso on it, you can apply paint to it. 

Same thing if you buy pre-gessoed wood panels. They are good to go.

However, if you buy unsealed wood panels, or hardboard (Masonite), you will have to prepare these first by sealing the wood, and then gessoing it. Sealing will prevent the wood saps from leaching into your painting. And gesso acts as a primer

Sealing wood and hardboard for painting

To seal, apply two coats of shellac or Golden’s Gac 100 to the wood, followed by a coat or two of gesso. 

For the sealer, paint it on thinly with a synthetic house-paint quality brush, and wait for the sealer to dry between coats. 

If you are going to extend or wrap your oil painting onto the sides of the wood panel, then you need to seal and gesso the sides as well as the front.  

Some people say you should seal the entire back and sides also with sealer: this is to prevent the wood from warping. However, a painter friend who trained at a prestigious London school told me they taught her to just paint an X on the back of a panel with sealer. I guess we’ll have to live another 100 years to test and see if this works well. But for now, I am painting the back of my panels with an X.

When your sealer has dried, add one or two coats of gesso. Let the gesso dry in between layers. Then sand your surface smooth, and wipe clean with a damp lint-free cloth. Sanding will get rid of the rough bumps that may interfere with your brush strokes.

It’s a good idea to do more than one panel at a time. Batching will make it more efficient and it’s nice to have panels ready to go.

Protect the edges of a cradled wood panel

If you’re going to keep the sides of your cradled natural wood, then protect them from getting dirty with green painter’s tape. Buy tape that is as wide as your side panels and cover the sides carefully so no wood shows before painting.

If you are planning on finishing the sides of your cradled wood panel with acrylic paint (some people like to paint the sides all black or all white) then make sure to either paint the sides first and protect them with tape. Or protect the sides from getting dirty with tape first, then wait for the painting to dry before removing the tape and finishing the sides. Acrylic paint doesn’t stick to oil, so you want the sides to be free of oil paint. 

Choosing your gesso for wood

Canvas has a bumpy surface — or tooth — which affects the speed of your paintbrush. Wood, on the other hand, is quite smooth. Some people find this feels slippery when they paint – there is less friction when the brush meets the surface, so the brush moves too fast for them. 

If you find the surface is too slippery, you can try clear gesso instead of regular gesso. Clear gesso has a grain texture that makes it feel like sandpaper. This will slow down your brush and make it feel more like a canvas. But be careful, it will also wear your bristles down as you paint! In this instance, you might want to spare your expensive brushes. 

Toning paper for oil painting

I really like painting on paper. The texture is different. I also find the surface is a bit more absorbent so it gives the painting a nice matte surface.

To paint on paper you need to use thick watercolour paper. And you need to prepare it with gesso first. I usually coat the paper with 2 coats of gesso and then a coat of acrylic paint if I am toning it. 

Sometimes I add acrylic right into the gesso. Gesso is made of acrylic nowadays, so you can do this with no problem. But do note that the colour won’t be very strong because gesso is white, so it’ll lighten the colour to a pastel shade. 

There are now also special papers made especially for oil painting. These do not need to be gessoed. You can paint directly onto the paper. Give them a try.

Do remember that artwork on paper is best framed behind glass to protect it from getting wet. 

Watch my video for how I tone a canvas for Oil Painting

What I’m doing here is I’m just painting a mini canvas with leftover yellow ochre paint from an earlier session. This can be a great way to use leftover paint.

Because this is water-mixable paint, I’ve just added water to it to make it thinner. If you are using traditional oil paints, you might like to add OMS or Odorless Mineral Spirits to the paint to make it thinner (remember to keep the window wide open and to put a lid on your OMS. OMS isn’t great to breathe, so be careful). 

When underpainting, your coat doesn’t have to be perfect. It will most likely all be covered up. But you can let some of it show through for pretty effects. 

That’s it. Have you tried toning your canvas before painting? How did it work out?