Preparing Your Canvas for Acrylic Painting

Most painters find that using acrylic paints are easy and simpler than oil paints because they mix with water and eliminate the need for hazardous, odorous solvents. Preparing your canvas or wood panel for painting is also a lot simpler. There’s no need to apply sizing as when using oil gesso for ground preparation for oil painting. Acrylic gesso is applied directly to the raw canvas or wood.

Note: While it is possible to use acrylic gesso in ground preparation for oil painting, the opposite is not true. Acrylic paint will not adhere to oil gesso.

Applying Acrylic Gesso: Use broad, regular strokes, in one direction, to apply the gesso evenly. Allow to dry completely – several days is normal. When gesso is dry, use sandpaper to remove fabric strings or bumps in the surface. Repeat the gessoing process brushing across the first layer of brush stokes.

At this point your canvas is ready for painting. For a smoother and less textured surface, the sanding and gessoing processes can be repeated, as often as necessary to achieve the desired surface – several applications, with sanding in between applications, are required for a surface that is conducive to the fine brushstrokes required for photorealism.

Modeling Paste for Impasto Effects: Use modeling paste to add dimension to your painting surface – mix modeling paste with acrylic gesso and apply to the surface to achieve the desired effect.

The Acrylics Book: Materials and Techniques for Today’s Artist

Unrivaled in scope, this encyclopedic reference on the most versatile of all painting mediums is an excellent tool to help both beginning and seasoned artists produce their best work in acrylics. With its great flexibility, acrylic paint can mimic the appearance of oils, tempera, and watercolors in unique ways, each method pictured in a separate step-by-step demonstration. The author also examines the use of acrylics with airbrush, sculptural, and printing techniques – even three-dimensional relief painting and collagraphy printing methods are included—and how several of these different creative processes can be integrated successfully in one composition with ink, pencil, charcoal, and pastel.

How to Prepare Your Canvas

Incoming search terms:

• acrylic canvas painting
• art canvas preparation acrylic
• fine art canvas preparation

Related posts: