Standing page
About Underlayer Studio
Underlayer Studio is a working notebook about oil and acrylic painting, kept by one painter and one conservator who got tired of explanations that stop at "build it up slowly".
What this site is for
Every entry answers a question that comes up at the easel rather than in a lecture: how long this pass actually needs, whether the next film should carry more oil, what happens if you scratch back into a layer that is not fully dry, how a glazed surface is built in a painting you can go and stand in front of.
The entries are written in pairs. One of us paints; the other has spent eleven years in a museum conservation studio looking at cross-sections of paintings under a microscope. When we disagree — and on drying schedules we often do — both numbers go in and the entry says so.
How the layer cross-sections are made
Each entry carries a film cross-section drawn from its own layer record: one band per layer, band height set by that layer's drying time, fill set to the colour the layer was mixed to, and 1px rules throughout. Nothing on the diagram is decorative. If two entries look different, it is because they dry differently.
The measurements come from our own test panels: 10 × 15 cm boards, painted and then checked with a thumb test at four-hour intervals in a room held at 20 °C and 50 % humidity. It is a workshop method, not a laboratory one, and the entries say where the uncertainty is.
How the site is published
Entries are released a few at a time rather than all at once, so that corrections from the studio can be folded into the queue. Anything whose date has not arrived has no page and appears in no list; the archive shows only what has been published.
We do not run sponsored posts and we do not accept paint or medium samples in exchange for coverage. When a specific product appears in an entry it is because it is on our own shelf and we name the ratio we use.
Corrections, disagreements about drying times and questions from conservators are all welcome at [email protected].