A Guide to Using Wooden Panels with Oils, Acrylics, Gouache, and Fineliners

Looking for a sturdy and reliable painting surface? ARTdiscount Wooden Panels offer a versatile, rigid and trustworthy support for your artwork that serve great alternative to our pre-primed canvases. Our manufacturer is FSC-accredited, meaning that the timber used in the construction of these cradled panels is sourced from sustainably-managed forests.

ARTdiscount Wooden Panels are between 20mm and 25mm deep, providing a great deal of resistance to warping and twisting over time. This rigidity is particularly advantageous when working with wet media, which typically undergoes dimensional warping as they dry. 

With their affordability, wide range of sizes, and praise from our customers, it's no wonder they're one of our best-selling products! ARTdiscount Wooden Panels are an excellent choice for both beginner and professional artists alike, and are suitable for use with both oils and acrylics.

While our Wooden Panels have an untextured, smooth surface that is already sanded, we recommend that if you're using acrylic, oils or gouache paint, you should put a little preparation in first.

Before working on our wooden panels for this series of work, I prepared them with two coats of size and three or four coats of white matte gesso. See our article "How to Seal and Gesso a Wooden Panel" for more information.  

Five Reasons Why You Should Prepare a Wooden Panel

• Prevent Warping or Cracking
   Unsealed wood absorbs moisture unevenly, which can cause the panel to warp or crack over time.
  
• Protect Against Paint Soaking In
  Raw wood will absorb paint and binder, leading to poor adhesion and dull colour saturation.
  
• Prevent Discoloration
  Wood contains tannins and natural oils that can leach into paint layers and discolour them if not sealed properly.
  
• Promote Adhesion
  Prepping gives your paint a slightly toothy surface to adhere to, helping the paint bond properly.
• Increase Longevity
  Proper sealing and priming can make your artwork last for decades – or even centuries!
  

Wooden panels have a long and distinguished history within the art world, prized by artists across numerous eras for their inherent stability and unwavering support. Unlike more flexible supports, such as canvas and paper, wood offers a firm and unyielding surface. Oil paints, with their rich textures and extended drying times, benefit immensely from the rigidity of wood, as it prevents cracking and ensures the preservation of brushstrokes over time. Acrylic paints, known for their rapid drying and potential for layering, also adhere exceptionally well to properly prepared wooden surfaces. 

Gouache – a water-based paint with an opaque, matte finish – maintains its integrity and vibrancy when applied to a stable wooden base. Beyond traditional painting techniques, wooden panels are also excellent for screen printing and digital flatbed printing processes, providing the necessary flatness and resistance to pressure. The smooth surface also enables intricate details in pen and ink drawings, allowing for beautiful fine lines. The robust nature of wooden panels even makes them an excellent foundation for collage work, securely holding various materials in place.

Beyond being used just as an painting, drawing, or collage surface, wooden panels are also an excellent option for mounting watercolour paintings, providing a inflexible surface that maintains the flatness of the paper.  Panels can even provide a temporary or permanent support for oil or acrylic paintings executed on canvas, offering an extra layer of stability and preventing sagging. 

The inherent presentability of these ARTdiscount wooden panels is another significant advantage. Their clean edges and substantial cradle often eliminate the immediate need for traditional framing, allowing the artwork to be displayed directly upon completion. This ready-to-display characteristic offers both convenience and a contemporary aesthetic.

Many wooden panels – including ARTdiscount Wooden Panels in particular – feature clean edges and a substantial cradle, which eliminates the requirement of traditional framing. This allows artists to display their work immediately after completion, which, in addition to the obvious convenience, can give art a more modern presentation.

For this article, I painted four ARTdiscount Wooden Panels with four different media; oils, acrylics, gouache, and pen and ink. For these artworks, I was inspired by four paintings by one of ARTdiscount's favourite artists; beloved impressionist Vincent van Gogh.

Painting No. 1 - 'Blossom Tree' in oils, inspired by Vincent van Gogh's 'Pink Peach Tree'

Pictured Above: Pink Peach Tree, Vincent van Gogh, oil on canvas, 73cm x 59.5cm, 1888

 

For this painting, I was inspired not only by the Impressionism of van Gogh, but also the techniques of Divisionism, a Neo-Impressionist painting theory pioneered by Georges Seurat. The theory of Divisionism, using techniques such as Pointillism, is that by using individual dots or patches of colour in close proximity to one another, the viewer's eyes are tricked into seeing more luminous and varied colours than there actually are. This technique was used particularly within the blossoms and foliage of the piece, creating an overall more nuanced and delicate representation the scene. I also, of course, made extensive use of the short, broken strokes characteristic of Impressionism – particularly in the trunk of the tree and blades of grass – to create a highly textural, evocative representation light and shadow across the canvas.

The oil paints I used were richly pigmented, allowing for use to create subtle hues to enable greater control over the Divisionism technique. This helped give the blossoms of the tree an ethereal quality. Their creamy texture gave us the ability to apply the paint to the panel in thin, translucent glazes in the initial stages, before moving onto thick, impasto-style applications during the final painting stage. This thicker application is what gives the painting its distinct Impressionist style. After the artwork was completed, I then varnished the painting to unify the finish of the colours and give it a protective layer which, alongside the dimensionally-stable wooden panel, will allow this painting to last for years to come.

Painting No. 2 - '13th and 14th' in ARTdiscount Own-Label Acrylic Paints, inspired by Vincent van Gogh's 'Cypresses'

 

Pictured Above: Cypresses, Vincent van Gogh, oil on canvas, 93.4cm x 74cm, 1889

Pictured Above: 13th and 14th, Ellie Jakeman, ARTdiscount Acrylics on ARTdiscount Wooden Panel, 30cm x 42cm, 2025

Pictured Above: Closeup on 13th and 14th, Ellie Jakeman, ARTdiscount Acrylics on ARTdiscount Wooden Panel, 30cm x 42cm, 2025

Inspired by Van Gogh's depictions of Cyprus trees, this second tree painting, '13th and 14th', features Scots pine trees with rich textures and emerald-toned colours. Our Own-Label Acrylic Paints are well-regarded for their excellent value and reliable pigment strength, making them an excellent option for this painting. In keeping with Van Gogh's love for the colour yellow, I used the ARTdiscount Acrylic Colours Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, and Primary Yellow throughout this piece.

First, I blocked out the composition using a thin application of these acrylics, before moving onto thicker dabs and daubs in the Impressionist style, mimicking dappled light with short, expressive brush strokes. Like with the oil painting, I then proceeded to varnish the painting to unify the finish and protect it from the test of time. 

Painting No. 3 - 'Blue pot with Red Blossom' using Winsor & Newton Designer Gouache, inspired by Vincent van Gogh's 'Almond Blossom'

Pictured Above: Almond Blossom, Vincent van Gogh, oil on canvas, 73.5cm x 92cm, 1890

Pictured Above: Blue Pot with Red Blossom, Ellie Jakeman, Winsor & Newton Designer's Gouache on ARTdiscount Wooden Panel, 30cm x 42cm, 2025

Pictured Above: Closeup on Blue Pot with Red Blossom, Ellie Jakeman, Winsor & Newton Designer's Gouache on ARTdiscount Wooden Panel, 30cm x 42cm, 2025

For this painting, I was inspired by Vincent van Gogh's "Almond Blossoms" series, which were painted between 1888 and 1890. Blossoming trees were of particular interest to the Impressionist, as he found them  a serene, calming presence that represented new beginnings, reawakenings, and hope. Van Gogh was inspired by Japanese wood block prints, specifically the work of ukiyo-e master Utagawa Hiroshige, whose artwork he had the opportunity to collect throughout his life.

When analysing van Gogh's wood block-influenced oil paintings, I noted that he made great usage of a flatter application of colour. As a result, I created my painting using Winsor & Newton Designer's Gouache, which are an excellent option for creating uniformly flat, opaque blocks of colour. That flatness was key when creating the negative space, which I then juxtaposed with vibrant and detailed plant life. I used vivid lime greens and punchy reds for the foliage, which contrasted well against the deep ultramarine hues of the background.

Before beginning any painting with a pigment-rich gouache set like this, it's crucial to understand how the paints will mix, how their colour might shift upon drying, and how they behave with dilution. Creating a colour chart to practice and test colour mixtures beforehand is highly recommended.

The matte finish of the gouache worked effectively on the gessoed panel, resulting in a velvety, almost chalk pastel-like surface. As with the other paintings, upon completion the artwork was varnished.

Painting No. 4 - 'Winter tree study' using Fineliner and acrylic ink, inspired by Vincent van Gogh's  'Pollard Birches'

Pictured Above: Pollard Birches, pencil, Vincent van Gogh, pencil, pen and ink on wove paper, 39cm x 54cm, 1884

Pictured Above: Winter Tree Study, Ellie Jakeman, fineliner and acrylic ink on prepared ARTdiscount Wooden Panel, 30cm x 42cm, 2025

Pictured Above: Closeup of Winter Tree Study, Ellie Jakeman, fineliner and acrylic ink on prepared ARTdiscount Wooden Panel, 30cm x 42cm, 2025

For my final piece, Winter Tree Study, I was interested in exploring just how versatile wooden panels are as a surface. So, rather than being inspired by van Gogh's oil paintings as you might expect, I instead looked towards his pen and ink work and chose to work in a predominantly dry media. My aim here was to demonstrate how wooden panels are not only great as a traditional painting surface, but are also excellent for illustrations.

Van Gogh's Pollard Birches was illustrated in March 1884 with pencil, pen and ink, and watercolour. He loved how pollard trees had gnarled, heavily-textured trunks which enabled him to make a particularly expressive use of line. In van Gogh's illustration, you can observe how he uses contour-hatching to give dimensionality to the trunks, cross-hatching for grass and figures in the background, and wild, loose linework for the twigs and branches of the trees. This considered application of line gives the scene a great deal of depth, with a solid contrast between the rigid, fixed nature of the trees and the more wild, transient world around them.

Inspired by van Gogh's masterful use of line to create an atmospheric scene, where the flat white sky reflects in the stream below, figures guide their sheep home, and the trees stand tall and unmoving, my Winter Tree Study on ARTdiscount Wooden Panels employs similar line qualities and mark-making techniques. I used a range of fineliners available on the the ARTdiscount website to create descriptive mark-making detail on the structure of the trees and landscape surround them. Fineliners and inks perform exceptionally on the gessoed wood panel, giving an experience similar to working on thick, semi-absorbent watercolour paper. 

Wooden panels offer near limitless creative potential. Artists can prepare the surface in numerous ways using acrylic gesso mediums, allowing them to achieve rough or smooth textures, and opting for transparent, black, or white grounds. A coloured ground can also be created by adding pigment to the gesso.

For this illustration, drawing the trees on a wooden panel felt like a natural and fitting exploration – honouring their origin while simultaneously presenting both the artwork and the medium itself!

'Wood' You Like To Start Painting?

I hope this article has helped illuminate just how versatile and reliable a surface ARTdiscount Wooden Panels are for artists! As we have seen, their smooth and untextured surface is not only suitable for fine art applications, taking acrylics, oils, and gouache with ease, but are even, with some preparation, an excellent option for illustrators!

The timber used for our wooden panels comes from FSC-certified forests, meaning you can be sure that the artwork you're creating is on a sustainably-sourced surface. ARTdiscount is committed to, wherever possible, ensuring that our supplies can be used by environmentally-conscious artists without worry.

Whether you're an experienced artist or just getting started, we think these panels provide a compelling alternative to traditional stretched canvases. They can accommodate a wide range of techniques and styles with ease. I hope you put what you learnt from this blog into action and are inspired to get creative! If you post on social media, don't forget to tag your art with #ColouringTheNation so we can see your incredible work!

For more about ARTdiscount Wooden Panels, check out our blog article "How to Seal and Gesso a Wooden Panel".