Today’s question comes from Soroya and she asks:
“Is it ok to use plain paint prior on canvas or do you have to use Gesso? If so why. I am an American living in the UK and I find art supplies very expensive here. The gesso that is of a good quality is expensive, so I thought primer is not a bad cost why not? Thanks for any help in this matter.”
Do you have any information that might help Soroya?
Please leave your response below under the “Comments” Section. Thanks!
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Lonnie on Fri, 26th Sep 2008 12:45 am
Soroya,
If your plain paint is oil paint the oil will rot your canvas.
Acrylic paint probably would not last as long as Gesso.
Jeni on Fri, 26th Sep 2008 1:52 am
Hi Soroya,
) Many of the local people here also paint with acrylic house paint ( the owner of an art supply store told me this as he had heaps of it in his store) so that may be another option – please let us know how shat you come up with that is a success and much joy in your painting
What a great practical question for us beginners,
I do not use acrylics yet but I was talking to a friend the other day and she uses mostly acrylics and she said she covers paintings that she has lost inspiriation on and is wanting to use the canvas again with car paint and then starts and entirely new painting so it is propbably worth trying your idea or hers – we have similar product cost issues here living in Bali as every thing is imported ( except the car paint
Jeni
john bowmamn on Fri, 26th Sep 2008 2:14 am
gesso or ordinary paint on canvas?
I have used house acrylic paint for over 20 years and no complaints with it.
the thing is to get a good quality acrylic
I use a self primer acrylic at present
Hope this helps
Gill on Fri, 26th Sep 2008 9:24 am
My husband uses primer and it works just fine
Joyce Smith on Fri, 26th Sep 2008 10:41 am
I live in Cyprus and art materials are not always easily available. I have been told the household emulsion paint is a good substitute for gesso – it is cheap and comes in a multitude of colours – good luck.
Soroya on Tue, 30th Sep 2008 1:58 pm
OOPs what a goof I meant to write plain acrylic primer not prior hope everyone understood
Thank you all for the suggestions and encouragements. I will let you know how it worked out
~Soroya
Karin Wells on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 5:25 pm
Gesso is archival. Raw canvas requires a “barrier” or the paint won’t handle properly, will sink in and eventually rot the canvas.
Don’t use house paint -ever – if you are serious about painting and want your work to last.
House paint is for houses, not canvas.
Mike Walker on Tue, 14th Oct 2008 8:06 pm
Hi Soroya,
I have used both acrylic primer and gesso on canvas. The primer is OK as long as you remember that the painting may not last as long. I normally gesso my canvases and use top quality materials for all my work so they will last well after I am gone. I also reflect this in my prices. I don’t see a problem with using “cheaper” materials that willl probably outlast yourself. Who knows how long modern acrylic paint will last when applied to canvas, & probably many professionals are using acrylic primers on their canvas. Go for it!
seemore clearly on Tue, 11th Nov 2008 2:46 am
Until makers of “artists” colors put their formulations on the tube of paint, unless you are a chemist with a test facility, all you can do is take someone’s word that the paint will last. With acrylic house paint, Consumers and others test for longevity. If a good quality exterior paint lasts for 15 years under the harshest of conditions, on a properly prepared canvas and sealed afterword, a painting should last a pretty long time. Makers of artist’c colors have a bias–they want you to buy their expensive paint–and so won’t tell you that their formulation may be identical to Behr or Sherwin WIlliams or whoever.
Elsevier has at least 2 books out with hundreds of acrylic paint formulations and they cost 150$ each and they are meant for professionals in the trades. Obviously there are lots of possibilities in making acrylic paint.
Student quality paints may be house paints for all we know. When artist paint mfgrs start putting content labels on, then we can be sure of what we are getting. There is of course also the “snob” appeal of using Grumbacher instead of Sherwin-Williams. WHich brand did Pollack use? Oils crack, acylics can crack but they have plastisizers to prevent that so who knows. Acrylics don;t yellow.
angus on Wed, 1st Jul 2009 7:58 pm
1.Plastic polymer paint is not Gesso. “Real” Gesso (which means ‘gypsum’ in Italian), is primarily rabbit glue and gypsum.
2.Most “gesso” used today is a plastic polymer.
3.Acrylic paint needs no “gesso”. Modern “gesso” was formulated by acrylic paint companies so they could sell more acrlic product. You can put acrylic paint directly on most grounds.
4.Oil and egg tempera paints should be used with their traditional gesso formulas, and not acrylic “gesso”. Acrylic “gesso” is too flexible for these paints.
5.All of the above only matters if a painting is expected to last a long time. You can use plactic under oil or cheap house paint primers if you do not care about eventual peeling or stretching. There have been cases where impoverished artists have used cheap materials, with unfortuate long-term results. On the other hand, if you use $100 a tube artist paint and are a hack, who will keep your acrchival-quality rubbish?
6.Student paints are better than house paints. House paint is designed with very cheap pigments. House paint does not need to last much longer than a decade. Student paints of low pigment quality would give the manufacturer a bad reputation in ten years, and they cannot afford that. I know this from speaking with a factory rep from a major supplier of artist and student paints. Student paints have less pigment, and sometimes may have lower quality pigments, but any from a reputable manufacturer are designed with lightfastness and stability in mind.
Jeremy Worst on Mon, 19th Oct 2009 5:36 am
Angus …That should be all people need to here! .. use Gesso if you want to be proffesional about painting..
I stretch my own canvases and use the Liquitex Acrylic Gesso .. its awesome..and covered lots of huge canvases but it does cost alot if your not selling pieces on time….
check out my work at jeremyworst.blogspot.com
Jeremy Worst´s last blog ..First Animal Painting … Bird
Redsam on Thu, 17th Dec 2009 6:32 pm
I have seen several sites where this discussion has the same two sides…the practical folks who recommend ordinary acrylic primer vs. the artist types who recommend ‘gesso’.
What I don’t understand (the purists never explained) why or how the artist gesso is different. After all, it is acrylic as well and as far as I know, they must buy ‘acrylic’ from the same manufacturers that make Home Depot style acrylic primer. If it is different somehow, I would like to know. Just the facts please. Oil paint gets past the acrylic primer and rots the canvas? Really? How come Rembrandt’s paintings did not rot? Please show me the pictures where the canvas has rotted. Thank you.
Jay Babina on Tue, 6th Apr 2010 10:56 am
Gesso has a harder ground and more of it than regular acrylic paint. Regular acrylic house paint will leach oils through whereas gesso will not. House primer will leach too unless you use Bin or one of those that specifically state they will not leach. If you paint on Gesso with oils, you can use a paper towel and wipe away to a white surface. If you use common house paint it gets absorbed and you cannot. If you’re painting with oils on canvas you want Gesso so no oil infiltrates to the canvas. With Acrylic you don’t have to worry about that but the Gesso surface will be harder if that’s what you like. There’s really not much price difference of any between Gesso and a good house paint.
I paint oils on Masonite with a coat of Gesso and a 2nd coat of house paint. I like the absorbing quality when I paint plein air because my thin oil sketch dries fast but I have the protection of Gesso too.
Trisha on Tue, 27th Jul 2010 12:01 pm
What about oil-based primers? would these be more effective on canvases?
wes on Thu, 19th Aug 2010 2:17 pm
I used to use drywall primer, but my painting instructor made me try gesso. It lets the oil paint move allot better, and I feel it doesnt soak the paint up as much as drywall primer. Also, for acrylic paint it never made a difference to me.