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Alick Burt

Building a Wood Canvas Canoe - Part 9

The use of masking tape on paint patterns is not as straightforward as it may seem. You might think its a simple matter of putting the tape on painting up to it and lifting off the tape. Think again.. What if you want to put a second coat of paint on? When should you lift off the tape? Is all masking tape the same? Will it give you a good line or will the paint bleed under it?

With these thoughts in mind I did a little research and a can of worms was opened. Some say “use a particular brand or type of tape.” Some say “peel the tape off before the paint is dry”.

That would mean I would have to re tape for a second coat! And so on and so on…

In the end I decided to leave the tape on for my second coat and let it dry just overnight before removing the tape. I used a tape with a good reviews for this sort of work and made sure the edges of it were well pressed down using the end of a ballpoint pen, another tip I read somewhere. The end result looked good and there were a couple of areas where I had a bit of bleed through but I used a little turps on a rag and a sharp chisel to carefully scrape them from the layer below without disturbing it.


The white panel is where the artwork will be and the bottom is painted in a single colour
The bottom has been painted with forest green and the masking tape removed to form a border for the artwork.

After leaving the paint a few days to dry my next task was to load up the canoe and take it to my Sister, Artist Sarah Burt for the artwork. We had discussed the design brief basically It is to be painted with animals and scenes depicting UK wildlife.

I refitted the yoke which has lovely comfy pads making it easy to carry. This is an earlier picture of it.

The yoke seen here in an earlier picture was refitted for transport.
Yoke showing comfy shoulder pads (pictured earlier)

Loading it up was done in the usual manner putting it on my roof bars and strapping it down but I was extra careful to pad the paintwork as I didn’t want to arrive with strap marks on it!

Car topped ready to take to be painted with artwork by the Artist.
Loaded for transport .This is usually the best way to transport a canoe

I arrived at Sarah’s and then we took it to a barn of her friends where she was to do the artwork on it and I left it with her to work her magic on.


The canoe as a blank canvas with the artist Sarah Burt.
Artist Sarah Burt on the canoe's arrival.

Sarah’s artwork looks amazing as you will see in the next blog!

Thank you for reading.

Alick

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