"Tea in the Hedge" session 1

I prepared the painting board by sealing a piece of 1/4" hardboard.  I then dampened my drawing, applied a layer of matte gel medium to the board, then smoothed the drawing in place, rolling from the center outwards with a brayer to remove any trapped air.  At first the paper buckled a bit, but it flattened out completely after drying overnight.

But I did learn something important.  I first drew the hedgehogs, then found that I needed them to be a different size.  So I re-sized the drawing on the computer, then cut it out and pasted it to a plain sheet of paper, them continued with the drawing.  This may have been a mistake, for two reasons.  First, the printed paper from the computer buckled a lot worse than the drawing paper.  Second, the line where one kind of paper ends and the other begins shows on the painting, even after a layer of oil paint.  So I will avoid this cutting and pasting in the future.

Anyway, I then coated the board with two coats of transparent gesso and when that was dry, began painting with my oil paints.  The paints went onto the surface beautifully!  And I didn't have to transfer any drawings!