Someone on another forum posted an intriguing question. The instructor in an art class they had attended prepared MDF panels with one coat of acrylic primer and when dry applied a thin coat of linseed oil that was allowed to dry. The panels were then used for oil painting. The surface was said to be less absorbant and smoother to paint on than just painting on plain acrylic primer. It begs questions about the number of layers of primer that should be applied as well as there being no mention of sizing before the priming but my main question is this: Is it a viable practice to apply a thin layer of linseed oil over acrylic primer and then, once that has cured, apply oil paint over that? Will the oil affect adhesion?
First, MDF is not an archival solution, it will fail quickly and many work on MDF already shown of issues.
the safe option would be Hardboard, oil tempered to use.
also, if you already do acrylic ground, there is no reason to apply oil on top.
i believe the reason you want acrylic ground is you want a lean one to start from, but coating w. oil will make it very fat. that will breank fat over lean rule.
or if you only paint in one layer, use oil ground is fine.
I would like to joke about the fact that if a layer of pure linseed oil helps the binding between the acrylic primer and the oil painting, then another layer of pure linseed oil would help the adhesion between the acrylic primer and the next layer of pure linseed oil.
As mentionned before, starting with a pure layer of oil is quite a risk for the fat over lean rule. Doable, but with a risk that could be avoided otherwise.
To start painting on a smooth surface, it’s best to sand your gesso layer. But if you really need to reduce the absorbant tooth of the surface for your painting techniques, you can mix your gesso with acrylic colour to adjust it.
Otherwise you could smooth the surface with a painting medium or an alkyd medium at least instead of pure linseed oil.
Careful with painting on really squeaky smooth surface with zero tooth or porosity, you risk refusal of wetting or later delamination. (but I’m aware it can make interesting dripping effects if you’re looking for them)
Cheers,
Lussh
