What kind of wood support should I ask for at the lumber yard? And what method do you recommend for attaching linen to wood?
We don't like to suggest the use of untempered hardboard for use in artwork and it bows terribly and does not seem to be very well made, at least the kinds we have seen locally.

The newer tempered hardboard, like what is used by Masonite and Ampersand seems to be of very good quality and takes acrylic primers well. Avoid any tempered hardboard not made in North America. Others still use the older method of greatly saturating the fibers with linseed oil. Ampersand has a great web site and the folks there are really great to talk to. My preference is cabinet-grade birch plywood. It's made extremely well and has at least one very smooth side.

Other plywoods, like "MDO" or "MDF" are acceptable to use. In general, get the thickest and best grade you can afford for artwork or murals (not that murals aren't artwork).

Anything 1/4" or less should have stretcher bars attached. It's up to you whether you want to stretch canvas over these, but later down the road, a conservator will probably prefer you to stretch the canvas over the panel.

What would be the procedure for painting a wooden, outdoor sculpture?
Seal the wood with 2 coats of GOLDEN GAC 700, then you can either gesso it, or apply paint directly onto the GAC 700.

It is suggested you use only "lightfastness I rated" pigments, which means they are rated excellent for resistance to fading from sunlight. Once the paints have been applied, and allowed several days to cure, we suggest applying an isolation coat and then the MSA Varnish.

We would like to use one of your acrylic colors on a door and door frame made of plywood. Will the film be hard enough? How do we prepare the old paint (probably an alkyd)?
Roughen up the existing paint until it is completely dull. It doesn't need to be very coarse, just dulled. Be sure to use a lightly dampened cloth to wipe dust away as you work, so you can see if any shiny spots remain. Use the acrylics as you want, but if you are unsure about the adhesion, blend in GAC 200 to make the film harder and have better adhesion (1:1) mix is enough. Depending on the door's proximity to the weather, you may need to seal with quality non- yellowing Polyurethane. This is best if the door will be used a lot.

I would like to sand down a wood table and use one of your products to paint it without leaving brush strokes. What do you recommend?
The fluids are probably the line closest to the thickness you desire, although we also recommend Matte Fluids. These paints have better leveling, a nice matte finish, and great stroke free coverage. Most of our paints, including Heavy Body and Fluids can be thinned and made to brush out smoother with the Acrylic Glazing Liquid. This also gives you more working time before the paints begin to dry. For functional objects like chairs, we suggest a quality Polyurethane varnish to be applied over the top of the acrylics.

I intend to airbrush fishing lures made from wood and plastic. Would your paints be compatible with what I want to do?
Yes you can use our products for painting the lures, however, you'll need to use a standard clear coat like a Clear Acrylic Enamel or a lacquer for durability. For spraying, there are two main mediums you'll need to work with, and between the two of them, you have essentially unlimited paint products to work with. You can use the Airbrush Colors, the Fluids, Iridescents & Interference, pretty much any of the paint lines. Airbrush Medium was developed to make other products sprayable, particularly the Fluid Acrylics. Airbrush Transparent Extender is also going to be required for many of the applications, especially when using thicker products like the Interference paints.

If an artist paints on wood should they be concerned with the acids in the wood going through the gesso and harming the archival nature of gesso and/or acrylic paints?
Several coats of gesso should prevent this, but to be on the safe side, consider applying GAC 700 as a size before gessoing.

What wood sealants do you have available which, after the wood is sealed, would allow it to accept paint?
We have been and are currently working on wood coating testing with the acrylics. We have been very interested in wood coatings, we know many artists and craftspeople are utilizing acrylics in their wood based art work and we would like to better understand, formulate and test for these applications.

To make the best recommendation, I would need to know more about the application, the use and the expected exposure of the artwork. Many of our products can be used to size, seal and coat many types of wood and to make the best recommendation I would need to ask you some questions.

I would need to understand what types of wood you need to seal and what performance attributes you expect from the sealer. It's been our experience that some artists are concerned with how the wood will accept stain or paints after sealing. Perhaps the grain raising of a water born material is an issue and you need to limit grain raising for your application. Perhaps you need a stain blocking sealer to limit support induced discoloration (SID) of lighter colors (the notorious "wood knot" bleeding issue). Also, I assume you want to paint the sealed wood with an acrylic, if this is not true I would need to know what type of paint you would like to use over the sealer.