Cheap Painting Surfaces

     I bet you want to know what you can use to paint on that’s dirt-cheap (but still quality). Well, I’ll tell you! There’s nothing really wrong with going to Michaels and buying a small canvas for $30 but… Well there is something wrong with that but you can disagree with me if you want. Anyway, why do that when there are other, cheaper painting surface options out there?

 Hardboard

     This stuff is AMAZING. If you would love to give that smooth, sleek look to your paintings, this is your best friend. All you need to do is cut back on a latte or two for some extra spending money and head straight to Menards or your local hardware store and pick up a gigantic sheet of hardboard for about $7-$10. You can buy the big, bulky sheet as-is or you can have one of the workers cut it into exact sizes for you. Otherwise you can take it home and cut it into any size you like. 

before you just paint all over it, I would recommend priming it with Gesso or some other priming medium.

Thrift Store Canvas 

     Yup. Head to your nearest thrift store and peruse their wall art section– here you will find some sloppy old paintings that are ripe for the picking for between $0.50-$5.00.

What you will need to look for are the real canvas paintings, not prints of other random paintings (I’ve never tried these but I’m assuming the quality wouldn’t be very good).

Next, you’ll want to purchase some artist’s Gesso, or some kind of paint primer. 

The, of course, all you do is paint that Gesso on that puppy and there you go! A super cheap canvas to satisfy your  many painterly desires!

Do you have any ideas yourself? Feel free to comment!