When I used to paint in oils I bought them all ready made... saved a lot of time... and faffing about with larger quantities of poisonous chemicals, I guess.

Also, had a guy to help make up the canvases. Although it was college... so they made us tack the frames together, stretch and prime them ourselves.

Now, if I went back to it, I would most likely just buy ready stretched and primed canvases to save me time.

Going back to the likes of the Renaissance, those guys used a lot of bodily fluids, excretions and the like in mixing up their paint colours, apparently. Definitely wouldn't fancy getting into that.

But I do believe there are still some purists who do...