“Gesso brands: Liquitex vs. Golden – Which is better?” Topic
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Which brand of Gesso is better for priming hard and soft plastic figures, Liquitex or Golden?
Liquitex is perfectly adequate. I have never used Golden’s gesso, but I see no obvious reason why it won’t work.
Decent brands like these and W&N are all going to work well enough. With quality gesso, you probably can’t get a cigarette paper between brands, and “best” is largely going to reflect what you feel comfortable with and suits your style.
Liquitex. I do like some of Golden’s acrylics for certain things, though.
Liquitex. I do like some of Golden’s acrylics for certain things, though.
Why is Liquitex better than Golden? Can you please explain?
It is “better”, obviously, because *I* prefer it.
It’s also less expensive.
Which is why I prefer it. Otherwise, there is dammall difference.
I hate TMP “better/best” threads. I should know better than to offer an opinion. I shall try to control myself in the future.
I will be switching to Liquitex soon,as I have been using Ceramcoat for years,but now I cant find it anymore.
Liquitex gesso is what I use. I don’t know if it’s better than Golden. I can offer these facts, observations, and opinions:
Liquitex invented acrylic paint and acrylic gesso (or says they did anyway).
If you search TMP for “gesso”, you’ll find many many posts. The people who report unequivocal success, generally use Liquitex. The people who report quality problems, or other issues using gesso as primer for miniatures, often turn out not to be using Liquitex, to which someone always replies “I’ve done exactly what you’re trying to do, and it works great but I use Liquitex gesso, I don’t know about your brand.”
The guy that got me started using artist paints for miniatures, uses Liquitex. As I’ve gradually experimented with the same thing, I’ve stayed with that brand and not found any reason to question that decision.
Thanks for the responses everyone.
The overwhelming majority of people who use gesso to prime figures use Liquitex. Just search the old threads on this, and that will be pretty obvious. In fact, the people new to gesso who have problems with it are usually the ones who try a brand other than liquitex.
I’ve never tried Golden, if its more expensive, maybe its of a similar high quality, and would work. But if everyone agrees that Liquitex works really well, and it’s cheaper, why get Golden? If you already have Golden, go ahead and try it. Otherwise, go buy some Liquitex and don’t worry about it.
I have been using Golden fluid Acrylics to paint, so when I ran out of Liquitex black gesso I bought Golden. I have a slight preference for Golden. My bottle of Liquitex gesso had a slightly less desirable consistency, but it may have just been older. Really, they are almost exactly the same.
I have both. I prefer Golden’s white and black gesso because I find the coverage better. It shrinks without leaving a lot of missed spots, which I find with Liquitex. That being said, I use Liquitex gray because Golden doesn’t make any. I find Liquitex to separate a bit more. It needs more agitation before using. I also find the bond a bit greater on Golden’s products.
I don’t find the cost difference that great. It’s about $1.50 USD or so. A tub usually lasts me over a year.
I would agree that I have had less need for second coats & touch up using Golden gesso.
FWIW, I’ve never found bare spots after drying with either W&N or Liquitex. I have a preference for W&N because I find that it doesn’t form bubbles as much as Liquitex does when I use it. This is, I suspect, entirely a function of MY technique, not the product. I suspect most differences arise more from the user than the product itself. On this basis, the only thing to do is try a few and see which suits YOU best.
Reviving this to offer my two cents.
I live in an apartment so sprays of any sort are less than ideal, so when I first read about using gesso as a primer I decided to try it out. I have a jar of white Golden brand gesso and I’ve got to say, it is awful. My minis are all now soaking in a bag of 409 so I can strip off the stuff tomorrow. Even thinned I still ended up with loss of detail and saw none of the ‘shrinking’ that people talk about with gesso.
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