Tutorials, videos, tips & techniques

Learn techniques from professional artists, follow tutorials, videos, and more.

Watch this fun and easy tutorial by Karen Vernon and make a sunflower on Aquabord.

Caroline Adams, an egg tempera artist, discovered Claybord for her abstract landscape artwork. Inspired by the many places she has lived, her work draws from the colors, shapes, and lines of each place.

The Gessobord Art Shadow Box has a 2" deep cradle frame with the Gessobord surface on the inside instead of the outside. Perfect for dioramas, installations, and three-dimensional painting.

Decorate the top with water-based paints, inks, collage, photo-transfer, graphic markers, metal leaf, or other decorative techniques.

The smooth clay surface is highly absorbent and perfect for paint, collage, ink, pencil, stamping, and anything else you can imagine.

Artwork by Emily Chaplin

Ampersand Floaterframes are the only do-it-yourself frame specifically designed for wood panels and can also be used for stretched canvas. Made with premium hardwood, Floaterframes are the perfect depth to protect your artwork. Everything you need to frame and hang your artwork is included.

To help us showcase our Floaterframes, we enlisted the help of Havi our gallery dog, plus the talents of many amazing Ampersand Artist Ambassadors.

Watch this fun and easy tutorial by Karen Vernon and make a flower bouquet on Aquabord.

If you are working with multiple Ampersand cradle panels, bolting together the panels is an inventive way to present your work.

Artwork by Barb McCormick

Ampersand Unprimed Basswood is a smooth, uncoated panel that is free from plywood seams, knots, or troublesome raised fibers. We compiled our top ten reasons and advantages of painting on this surface.

We caught up with Ampersand Artist Ambassador Karen Vernon, a loyal Aquabord user, to find out about how she communicates through her watercolors.

Abby, Egg Tempera on Claybord, Mark Meunier
Artwork by Mark Meunier

Here are three recipes for egg tempera but there are many more. If grinding the dry pigments is not something you want to try right away, substitute gouache for the "pigment paste" in each of these recipes.

Unprimed Basswood is handcrafted using a sturdy, non-flexible 4mm basswood top, sanded perfectly smooth and ready to seal and prime with the ground of your choice. Its minimal wood grain is straight and has a fine, even texture and a moderate natural luster.

Artwork by Rick Plasters

General tips and techniques on transferring images, adding color, and sealing and framing Ampersand Scratchbord

Artwork by Jane Hunt

Gessobord’s acrylic gesso coating has just the right level of absorbency allowing you to blend oil colors and maintain their slower drying time.

Artwork by David Gonzales

Gessobord is the perfect choice for acrylic painting. Forget about the time-consuming process of applying and sanding several applications of gesso; Gessobord is ready to use, no preparation necessary.