What does gesso do please?

[Craftdee]

Hi there, I've recently become interested in art journals and mixed media canvases. I see that many people use gesso as a base coat on pages and canvases. Can this be substituted by normal white acrylic paint. I don't really know what gesso is or what it's real purpose is and I'd be really grateful for any advice offered please.

[onlyme]

Hi Dee,

Gesso simply gives you a base coat to work on for instance: If you were painting on canvas, you would gesso it first to prevent the paint (usually oils or acrylics) from soaking into the canvas. It just makes life easier for the artist IMO. Hope that helps?

[itsamistry]

Gesso used to be made of chalk and animal hide glue traditionally called "rabbit skin glue" though most of the time it was not of bunnies) that gave oil paint and egg tempera a clean white base and an absorbent one, too. The surface was sealed with the same "glue" and then coated with one or more layers of gesso. Gesso could be sanded down to an almost slick surface, perfect for high detail paintings like some of the ones from years back.

Nowadays, many if not most people use an acrylic gesso, which is acrylic medium with an overload of chalk. Good gesso should be fairly thick, very opaque, cover well

A good Gesso is totally excellent in making textures on your painting surfaces!!! You can layer it on thick and then swirl, stroke, and swish to your hearts content. It makes an excellent snow, and the bright whiteness of it can't be beat when doing transparent layering.

You can use it on the back of transparencies for that ghost look. Also as a light coat then wiped off so that only part of the background shows thru (like on a text background)

[Craftdee]

Thank you very much - that's told me exactly what I wanted to know. I feel confident that I will be able to make the most of it now. Many thanks to you all :)