Oil Painting materials | DON'T THROW AWAY THAT CANVAS!!! 

As a rule , any water based gesso or acrylic over an oil base medium is ill-advised , However , it also may depend on the thickness of the oil applied . For instance , If the oil was thinned to near "water color" consistency , you would probably be alright to sand and gesso over it . Another thing to consider is regardless of the quality of the materials used and their proper application , you may still have a crackle effect over time . I personally love the crackle effect in older paintings , It adds character and indicates time and use . " I wouldn't have that Dali painting anywhere in my home , It has too many cracks " - Said no one EVER ! Any professional artist worth His/Her salt would advise against gesso over oil , but is it a deal breaker ? Not a chance . You do you , and create . God bless.

Water based gesso over oil paint . . . NO NO. But you could certainly put another coat of oil paint over it. Many artists like flake/lead white as a painting base. If you like a toned base, you could add a little raw umber to your white. Lead white is great as a base because lead paint cross links to other oil paints building a strong bond with succeeding layers.

To reuse a canvas I have used Rust oleum spray over unvarnished oil paintings for years with no problems. One coat knocks most out, and two coats covers completely. A light sanding to knock off thick paint before beginning and a light sanding after final spray helps with the surface being wonderfully smooth again. So easy!

Turn it upside down to eliminate interference of the old painting when you start the new one. Add a touch of any colour to the white gesso to cover the old image more effectively.

This is great.. I have so many canvass that I’m not happy with. Great tip thank you Chris

Be careful when sanding down canvases with cadmium paints on it. Breathing in cadmium is toxic or something

I was told you can’t use acrylic gesso on top of oil

An old trick I have used is to spray it with easy off oven cleaner. It will lift a lot of oil paint. You can sand a little and then gesso.

Thanks again, when I get a chance I do watch your videos. This was very helpful.

Thanks for the input. And GO Steelers!

Absolutely useful information.. thankyou so much..❤

Wow. A lot of angered people talking about not using acrylic primer over a bad painting... ok- my first thought is: if you aren't good enough to do a great painting from start to finish and this one is bad enough to start over, then you aren't good enough to worry about delamination 50+ years from now... LOL. But here are my technical thoughts, some correct those that are screaming, and their stereotypical mistakes about why acrylic is bad, and some explains the why/for of what is going on in this case. When using Liquin, this isn't so much a problem, however, you are correct when talking about thicker oil layers if you aren't talking about years of dry times, then its back to normal. If you use a PVA primer, then this is less of an issue all around. Not a lot of people know about the tolerance of oils and the exact reason the oil delaminates from the surface of acrylic, it is for the overall differences of the lifetime and specific movement rates between one medium and the other, VS the tolerances of the flex of the two. As oil ages it becomes less flexible, and so does the acrylic, that is the problem. they retract from one another at different times, and the acrylic becomes thinner under the oil. Oil will form a weak residue inbetween as it ages and the bond will weaken for that, and after the acrylic has hardened this will push away the oil layer, once that dries, the oil falls off. This happens over a couple years, or maybe 150+ years, depending on the content ratios of medium in the oil vs the quality of acrylic. Point is, if you paint one over the other this will eventually lead to an issue archivally, but it really doesn't matter which one is on top or bottom, if you use acrylic gesso at all, this can happen. What matters is the porosity of gesso or the oil surface, and how well it is going to initially bond with the oil. By sanding, and if the oil is dry enough to sand at all, is the determining factor in whether or not you can get a good bond from the gesso in this case. Edit: Even the old masters works which are done over rabbitskin glue gesso have these issues, the glue hardens and cracks underneath the oil layers, resulting in delamination and archivists have methods of resolution for the glue layer and flattening out the oil and glue layers before removing the glue altogether, then replacing the gesso layer with a new one, then replacing the canvas as well.

YOU SHOULD NEVER PAINT ACRYLIC OVER OIL - ACRYLIC GESSO CANNOT BE USED IN THIS WAY.

Thanks for the information

Great video.

Nice. Thank you

This is okay as long as the painting you are covering is not oil paint a simple neutral oil color is perfect for covering oil paintings

Very helpful cheers

Thanks!

Thanks

I am taking all the acrylic paintings that I don't care for and painting over them with oils...the same painting, but impressionistic style of oil painting.

Thank you, I have been wondering how to do it right. Go Steelers (I mean Rams).

Have you ever worked on lead oil primed linen?

Sand it well - sand off the varnish - and apply a thin coat of titanium white. It is super opaque. Mixing medium with the white is ok, but then you have to use medium on every subsequent layer. If you like to block in with turpentine and paint wash, don’t use medium because of the fat over lean rule. Don’t put gesso over oil. Not a good practice if you plan to keep the painting. For practice it’s fine.

I avoid putting gesso back on old oil paintings because there's a risk the gesso will flake off if the oul underneath hasn't fully hardened. I've been painting over old paintings with titanium white and leaving for months which creates an interesting ground I'm not sure I'm fully happy with. I believe Monet used to prime his canvases with white

Thank you for the tutorial, but I have a doubt: is the acrylic chalk on top of the oil paint not in danger of crumbling?

I think using acrylic gesso over oil is perfectly fine for practice work, or a quick study before doing some studio work. Probably the wrong idea if you are creating something for sale. I prefer to just turn the canvas upside down…or wipe it down with mineral spirits right away if it is a scrapper from the get go.

A china hair 6" deck brush from home depot/lowes makes a great smoothing brush for gesso- not the greatest for spreading, it takes a LOT to clean it, so I keep it only for the last strokes of smoothing.

I used this gesso over a very old oil painting and after two coats, some of the color bled through, is this because I should use and oil based gesso product rather than a water based gesso?

Hello sir big fan of your work I have one question . I have a old oil canvas I want to repaint so can I use white acrylic colour, Looking forward to your reply

Just got some primed canvas on a roll. It's so stiff and it curls. Do you have a hack to get it to lay flat? Thanks

Question: when knocking out 2-3 paintings a week where or how do you store your wet masterpieces until they dry?

I have a existing oil with a finish on it how do I get a canvas ready to except a new oil painting and can I put gesso over oil witch I have heard you can put over acrylic but not acrylic over oil

It will crackle up In 6 months time. You need to reactivate the oil painting by 1. Using retouching varnish or 2. Linseed oil/turps on a cloth very wet and wile the canvas until saturated. Let rest for 24 hiurs and then paint over

I'd like to cover acrylic then either use oil or acrylic. Can I cover with gesso?

Dear Paint Coach - I've been told that you need to remove varnish from an oil painting before you can paint over it......and also warned against using Gesso to cover an oil painting that you want to paint over.....your video doesn't say anything about whether the painting you covered was varnished or not - can you clarify these questions?

Did you use acrylic gesso over a oil painting?

I bought an oil acrylic painting from Denmark that I just received and I do not like the color of orange they used. They did put some type of Schlack over it, I emailed them and asked if I could add to the picture if I use oil base painting and they said yes. However, I did not ask them if I could paint over what is currently there and change it. Do you think I would be OK if i painted over what is there and changed the color? Also, as I am not an artist, how do you think I could find someone that could help me do this? Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Can be I gesso a small area on the canvas?

Sennelier colored acrylic gesso in the color Red Ochre is sold out everywhere. I need to tone my ampersand boards for a 4 day workshop. How would you tint this, with straight oil paint or acrylic paint?

Hi there, I know that you can’t put gesso on oil paint. But i was wondering if it will stick on a varnished painting? I bought some old paintings in a thrift shop and i would like to ‘reuse’ the canvas ;)

What are you thoughts on using thrift store / garage sale printed canvas as new art canvas? It involves printed canvas being reused for new art. There is no texture at all.

If I have an old oil painting that's not finished how do I go about step by step being able to oil paint on top of

I'd like to see you paint a WWII aircraft.

I paint used canvasses white then when dry start something else!

Do an abstract painting of your choice if you feel like doing it.

what grit sanding paper/sanding block do you use?

No one has ever told me you can sand canvases 😅

Can you put gesso on top of oil paint?

Is it necessary to use gesso on your canvas for oil painting?

I painted a part of a picture with oil paint, now I want to finish the rest of the picture with acrylic. If I paint over the oil with acrylic will it peel off? If so, any tips on what I can do?

Could you paint a transparent wave on beach with Sunset reflection!!🙏

That's a cool way to reuse a canvas but you'll have to wait for the paint to dry on it, The way I reuse a canvas is to use a thin coat of white spay paint that has no gloss and let it dry and put another coat till the old oil painting is gone,......

Can you sand a canvas that has a big amount of impasto?

Found a painting in yard sale. How do I know if it's oil or acrylic? I want to make change to just part of it.

I do the same for practice and practice over the same canvas. But practice only...

Can we repaint an oil painting

I thought you shouldn't put gesso over oil paint because it'll crack over time??? ive always been told by professors to never do that and under no circumstances to ever paint acrylic over oils? I have 2 big oil paintings I found and planned on reusing but for acrylic paintings and after doing a bunch of reading my research has led me here and left confused lol

Hey @Paint coach I thought u weren't able to put gesso or acrylic primer over oil paint, that oil sticks to gesso but not gesso to oil. Thanks appreciate all vidoes to help us home painters.✌🏻

If its a bunch of bumps i have used a razor to shave them off. The kind you shave with,

Thank you! I've just recently wondererd if gesso could be applied over the oils. I suppose you could now paint in acrylics after covering the oil paint?

if you've gone oil , stay oil....old (house painter's) saying. Paint in acrylic over the TOP of OIL paint layers is the typical mistake house painting newbies make. Walk around and scrape the acrylic paint off with your fingernail EASILY - even years later . HOUSE paints/FINE art OILS all SIMILAR chemistry..... sort of. Exception of ; *THIN layers of either OIL/ACRYLIC, though may still wrinkle , *a study which you don t care about, and *ALKYD resin thinned oils which MAY not be a problem with acrylics .... stick to the rules - NO PROBLEMS; Just use OIL based Primers...... ,or paint over with a number of OIL titanium white layers or the underpainting WILL show through - 100% guaranteed after a few years. In defence of Paint coach - he did nt say WHAT he was painting over. Great videos from a good source is the norm for this guy 😁

can this be done on an old oil canvas

Transparency and opacity, what's the difference, and how do you use them, thanks

I'm confused. Can I use acrylic gesso over dried oil paint, then repaint the canvas.with oil? I see different thoughts.

I have always heard that you should not use acrylic gesso over oil paint, do you not have any problem with that? Thanks!

what about fat over lean?? isn’t gesso acrylic? over oil paint? sounds like peeling down the road

I have a question for anyone who can answer it: how can I tell if an old canvas is oil or acrylic? I have some quite large canvases covered in random abstract impasto. I'm guessing they're probably oil because the paint seems quite hard, but I don't know for sure... And I'm not even sure if they've been varnished over either.

I recently “inherited” several large canvas oil paintings that my grandma painted like 30-40yrs ago. Are the canvases salvageable to reuse for an acrylic pour or are they too old? I don’t want to keep the originals because quite frankly they are UGLY but if I could use the canvas for another project that would be awesome and very easy on the wallet, if I had to replace canvases that size (24x36 - 12x36 - 22x28). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx

Also I don't use brushes,try miswak.

Is it ok to add the acrylic gesso on top of oil?

I knew I could gesso over an acrylic painting, but I didn't realize I could've been reusing canvas after using oil paint.

I ruined 3 canvases with acrylic pour... I don't even think it can be fixed

what is your e-mail? because I sent you one e-mail and it did not send.

Gesso? thats is putting an acrylic over oil. That is breaking the big rule we have all been taught.

Acrylic like gesso should not be painted over oil. Use only oil on oil!

Your painting bis real good...just work around the background.My art just keeps getting worse

This is bad advice I'm afraid. No water-based Gesso over an oil painting. Won't stick for very long.

Hey, I've used acrylic gesso to prepare my canvas for oil paintings, and purchased canvas that has been prepared that way, intended for "oil paints". If paint sticks on it one way, why not another? I also heard about all of the "great masters" paintings that had multiple paintings underneath.

I use white acrylic paint over a bad painting, after it dries of course. Then paint over it.

NO NO, you CANNOT put water based gesso over an oil painting

you put Acrylic Gesso over an oil painting? That's WRONG!

hahahah That is not THICK paint...

I don't know, but i would be so grateful if anyone helps me, the question is 'can i use acrylic as gesso?' Like i know it's different.. But u kn, i would be grateful if u can help my '2'year old question🗿🤍