Hi Donato,

Is there a particular kind of cotton paper that you prefer for your final painting?

Strathmore 500 series Drawing 1 ply, it comes in 23" x 29" and 30" x 40", Plate or vellum finish (which ever you prefer). I use both for the original drawing and the final copy to paint upon. It is light weight enough to pass through most oversize copiers.

What kind of glue do you use to mount it on the masonite?

Acrylic Matte/Gloss medium. Wet the paper first to get it to expand before applying the Œglueš to the panel/masonite and back of the copy. Then roll out the paper with a rubber printers roller. The idea is to squeeze out most of the excess medium but leave enough to work as a glue. Practice on a small copy before moving onto the big sheets. And...watchout for those hairs and dust specks! They will leave impressions on the front.

Is there some kind of cheap equivalent to the engineers oversized copy machine that you can recommend?

None that I know, and engineers' is THE cheapest! It's only $1-2 a square foot.

One more tid bit question if you don't mind... When you expand the paper do you somehow glue it down and let it dry with the matte medium or do you stretch it like watercolor paper and glue it down once it has completely dried?

I wet down the paper on both sides quite liberally, and while it is still wet and fully expanded (it takes about 5-10 minutes for the paper to fully relax and increases in size by ~4-5%), glue it down with the medium. Then let everything dry at once. If you let the paper dry again before mounting, it will shrink up a bit and have the same problems all over again: wrinkles appearing when you wet it and not let the paper fully expand.

I then sand the front and apply 2-3 more coats of the medium to fully protect the paper, sanding between each coat.

Best of luck Justin,