FWIW, the acryllic gesso is absolute garbage for any serious painter. I prepared canvasses all day, every day for 15 years using rabbit skin glue to seal the canvas before making gesso. I had 2 sorts of gesso, hard and soft - each day would make up 1 gallon of hard gesso and 4 gallons of soft gesso. 2 coats of hard gesso (allow 24 hours between coats) and 3 coats of soft gesso. Do NOT sand between the coats - total waste of time. Sand under running water with 600 grit wet and dry paper until smooth. I used a 6" paint brush on the canvas - oh, the average size canvas 10' x 5' - four of these each day plus 200 or so sundry stretched off canvasses ranging from 12" x 10" through to 36" x 24". Morning spent on gesso, afternoon on sanding and late afternoon on stretching. Last thing at night was to prepare glue for morning - half gallon rabbit granules, 1 gallon water. That is HARD gesso and cut to 4 parts, one part for hard gesso - put each part into a 1 gallon container, add water to half way mark and whiting to brim. Leave to absorb. One of these is a straight hard gesso the others are soft gesso as they are further cut by chucking into a 4 gallon bucket adding 2 gallons water and adding whiting to the brim. So..... 25kg rabbit granules each week, and 2 cwt whiting. Forget about acryllic stuff it is simply plastic and more likely than not will simply "ping" off the surface. Not condusive to a masterpiece
Please help me.. I just finished a commissioned acrylic painting and need to know if I can gesso the back of the canvas without damaging the painting 🙏
Thanks for the video. I bought two expensive paintings canvas and I would prefer someone more experienced to do the stretching for me. How do I find one?
@Agrekori748 Yes, although they told us that acrylic sizing was the same thing as thinned gesso. I was taught to use watery gesso for the first layer. Then increasingly thicker layers. In furniture finishing I would scuff between layers. The idea of the watery layer being to saturate the fabric as deeply as posssible. By the way, why don't we just paint on polyester or acrylic canvases? BTW: We should be priming or sealing our wooden supports otherwise they will discolor from behind.
@@KaterinaLanfranco1 oh thank God you're ok! I thought the worst, since you hadn't published anything in a while i'm just a curious person living in ozark arkansas, taking care of my mom and uncle i watched you stretch and priming videos well done I'm looking for something to get into after mom and uncle "go home" I thought I might get into making premade canvas' for local artist in canton texas at a monthly bazaar called first Monday trades day lots of artisan live there and sell their wares I dont know maybe glad you're still active thanks for responding be well!!!!!
Canvas needs to be sized before you apply the primer, either with rabbit skin glue or pva sizing - you don't put gesso straight onto raw canvas. I don't know if this was mentioned anywhere, if it was I missed it.
This is an ambiguous issue, if you are going to use an Oil ground it is mandatory to size the fabric first, however if you use acrylic gesso in 3 layers it already acts as a sizing and priming, this is not my opinion, it is based on research by Golden, Google "Golden Paints Tests How To Prepare an Oil Paint Canvas".
Thank you. I do my own canvas. I usually mix the gesso with some water so I can cover it quicker and then I give a second coat. Do you use the gesso directly from the container?
Thanks so much Katerina. The very first thing I learnt is that its not canvas on a frame but on a stretcher bar...never heard it called that before. You were very easy to understand eg your explanation was simple and to the point. Merry Christmas from Western Australia 2023
Another video on the subject recommended to paint plain water on the canvas as step 1. This dampen the whole canvas first. I don't know if it's worth mentioning.
I'm making an extra large canvas, 3 metres square and I need to remove it from the frame and roll it up for storage. Do you have any suggestions for that? I guess it would be similar to making a floor cloth. I was going to add eyelets around the edges too so I could tie it to the frame again
Someone told me to paint the back of the canvas with water to get a tighter stretch - what do you think? You have to be sure to get the canvas underneath the stretcher bars wet, too. I've only done this once and it seemed to be good.
Hi Katerina Please forgive my ignorance. I need to get some Stretcher Bar Cross Braces for stretchers I just purchased. The stretchers I bought are to assemble Four 28X40 & Four 26X40. Here is my question: Do I need to get Braces exactly the same size as the stretchers? I mean for the assembled 28 X 40 get Braces 28 & 40 Or would it be okay to use Brace size 27 instead? Why do I think this is a silly question?
