Sunday, December 27, 2009

How to create texture on a canvas with gesso?

I would like to use a thin cloth over the gesso so that the texture has more depth. Would the cloth stay in place if I use enough gesso?How to create texture on a canvas with gesso?
Certainly. Sand, carboard, thin strips of wood, paper,saw dust and other such material can be added as well. Weight being the only real concern. In fact there was available at one time and maybe still is Gesso that had various materials,sand,very tiny glass pellets added for texture that was being sold.. There is also modeling paste,which I think is just a thicker form of gesso, that can be used to create an ';impasto'; effect before applying paint. Now doing what you plan to do will require that you allow the materials to dry sufficiently to stay in place. Probably working on your canvas while it is laying flat and not propped up. LOL.Do know that it will be a mess to work with. I use to attach string to the sides of the stretcher bars in straight lines across some canvases before applying layers of gesso. To be ripped out later once the gesso had dried. This made for some straight lines or rather shallow channels in the gesso purely for texture as a part of the design. Fresh gesso will be a bit runny and may want to spread somewhat on it's own, as any liquid might. Leaving an amount of gesso exposed to the air will thicken it up,but has to be paid attention to so that it doesn't dry out too much. Artist will use gesso and even acrylic paint as an adhesive when doing mix-media collages..


As a side note I have heard that acrylic paint came about originally ,decades ago, in an attempt to develop a glue. However the problem was that it didn't set-up or dry fast enough to be of practical use as a glue. So,I guess, going with the idea that when given sour lemons,make lemonade probably took hold and it became a new type of waterbased paint instead. Eventually leading to latex paints as well.

No comments:

Post a Comment