I’ve tried this many times and I’m not satisfied. Some of my art journals have very thin pages.
What Is Gesso And How To Use It In Art Journaling – A Beginner’s Guide
You’ve heard other artists talk about gesso for art journaling but you still aren’t quite sure why and how to use it and whether you even care about having it.
What I’ve been asked a lot is what gesso is, what to use it for, if it’s really necessary, and many other questions. So, my purpose today is to give you an introduction to this art supply and to answer 17 practical questions about gesso for art journaling.
Disclaimer: Some links in this post may be affiliate links. This means that if you purchase something through that link, I get a small commission, at no extra cost to you.
What is gesso?
Gesso was primarily used for priming canvases before painting with acrylic paint. The word gesso means chalk in Italian. Chalk is one of the ingredients of gesso.
It is mostly and widely used in art journaling for preparing the pages before you put a lot of different media on them.
Gesso tends to “lock” the paper’s ability to absorb, and thus the paint will remain on the surface, rather than bleed through the paper.
When the gesso is dry, the pages become sturdier and the paper won’t soak liquids.
Gesso is a great thing to use in mixed media projects and art journaling because if you do mixed media, you’ll definitely use a lot of paint and other liquid media. I talk more about gesso and mixed media later in the post.
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Different types of gesso
There are different brands and kinds of Gesso. It also comes in white, black and transparent. I haven’t tried the transparent one, but I have it in mind.
White gesso
I love white gesso because I can achieve many different effects with it.
For example, I can use it as white acrylic paint.
Also, the best thing about white gesso is that you can make awesome mixed media pages. It somehow gives the pages a worn-out, vintage look, or you can make grungy pages by applying it almost dry with a brush, like in the photo below.
Black gesso
I just want to throw an idea here. If you want both, the white and the black gesso, but it seems too much to buy now, you can make your own!
Yes, try mixing black acrylic paint with gesso and see how that works. Easily made black gesso, right?
Transparent or clear gesso
If you just want to prime a page without changing its color or background, clear gesso is for you. It might seem white while it’s still wet, but once it’s dry, it goes fully transparent.
The quality of gesso
You’ll find the more expensive artist-grade gesso and the student-grade gesso.
I mostly buy the cheaper ones and use them often without worrying that I’m wasting expensive art supplies.
How do you know the difference? Well, it’s usually written on the packaging, or look at the prices, and it’ll be pretty obvious. The more expensive the gesso, the more quality you’ll get (this is a general rule for all supplies, but it isn’t always so. However, the store staff should know the difference).
But let me tell you one more time, just to give you a tip: if you’re going to use gesso for art journaling only, you can go with the cheaper options.
What is gesso?
Gesso is a primer to get your canvas ready for painting. Gesso isn’t just white acrylic paint. Modern acrylic gesso is a combination of:
- Acrylic polymer medium (binder)
- Calcium carbonate (chalk)
- A pigment (usually Titanium white )
- Chemicals that ensure flexibility and long archival life
Acrylic gesso doesn’t contain glue!
You can buy gesso readymade from any art supply shop or you can make your own, homemade gesso. You’ll find the list of recommended gesso and 3 homemade recipes in this article.
The main function of gesso is to prepare (or “prime”) the surface for painting, making the surface slightly textured and ready to accept acrylic paint. The gesso can be applied to nearly any surface, and then you can paint on that surface with acrylic paint.
Without gesso, the canvas will just soak all paint.
The word gesso is a noun, but many artists also use it as a verb. For example: "You need to gesso your canvas before you paint."
2 gesso grades: student and artist
The difference between the two grades is the amounts and different ratios of pigment vs. filler, which affects price and quality.
Price: cheaper
Price: more expensive
The consistency and texture of gesso will vary from brand to brand. Some brands put “heavy” in the name of the gesso. The only way to find your ideal gesso is to try!
Gesso colors
The most common and traditional color is white. Today some brands also sell colored, black or clear options.
E.i. Holbein Acryla Colored Gesso has 21 colors in its chart:
In fact, you can add some acrylic paint to your gesso and make it any color you want.
Gesso forms
What form is better for you? There is no rule on which forms to use. Feel free to choose whatever is more comfortable for your work personally.
E.i. you can squeeze bottled gesso or a tub directly on your canvas and use a brush to smooth it. With a jar you don’t have to pour it, you can just deep brush into the gesso.
When you use a gesso spray don’t forget to shake it before using. In this case, you even don’t need any brush but be careful and watch the homogeneous layer.
I’m very used to jars and bottles and I love them! In the Recommended product section below you’ll find some of my favorite but also very popular brands.
Why gesso is necessary?
Gesso is useful, easy to apply, dries quickly, and much cheaper than saving your cracked acrylic painting
- it smooths out the imperfections of the canvas,
- and it improves the adhesion between the paint and the canvas. Paint on raw canvas is more likely to crack and flake, it’s also hard to blend onto a raw material.
If you’re reading this after some bad experience of cracking or flaking on your acrylic paintings, don’t give up, you can definitely fix it with my easy step-by-step guide.
When the gesso isn’t necessary?
If you buy a pre-primed canvas in the art store, it already has a layer of gesso on it. It’s easy to tell if the canvas is pre-primed – it will be bright white or black. Normally, all stretched canvas that you can buy in the art store is pre-primed. You can also see sometimes ‘triple primed’ – be sure, it’s a canvas of very good quality.
Gesso is a primer, that's why we call prepared canvas "pre-primed". Should you gesso a primed canvas? No, if you find it smooth enough.
However, sometimes you may feel that the canvas lacks tooth and absorbency, e.i. you start painting and you see that your canvas soaks paint or it’s patchy. In this case, I would highly recommend applying 1-2 coats of gesso.
