Ok, this will probably be old news to many of you, but I hadn’t heard of this thing until recently and as I’ve been experimenting a little I figured I should share my results.
Gesso, if the name is new to you, is a type of primer used by traditional artists to prepare canvases. It’s available from many brands and usually in white or black, but some also offer grey and clear versions. The thing that makes it special is that it’s applied very thick, and then it shrinks onto the surface as it dries to reveal the detail. And since it’s a primer it clings to low-porous surfaces and gives great tooth for the following paint layers.
The reason I decided to try it is because the weather is giving me unpredictable results from spraying, and this time of the year making it completely impossible. So when reading about what brush-on primers were available, people on various forums talked about gesso, the pictures of gesso-primed minis I found looked really good and the price was reasonable. Winsor & Newton was the brand they had at my local art store, but I’ve also read about Liquitex and Golden gessoes.
Right, on to the experiment. I found a sprue of some unused demon heads to use as guinea pigs, and decided some different application techniques I wanted to try. Gesso is very thick out of the pot so my first impulse was to dilute it, and that’s what I did for head number 1. I used about 1:1 of gesso to water. Then I tried it straight out of the pot, which most people on the internet recommend. That’s the middle one. Next, I used it undiluted again, but “stabbed” it into the recesses and stippled away the excess paint with a stiff old brush, a technique from when I painted some larger scale minis with oils which are of similar consistency. And on the last one, a bit of a combination of 1 and 3, slightly diluted (maybe 3:1 of gesso to water) and pushed around more gently with a very soft brush. Here’s what the heads looked like wet:
And here they have dried:
I was quite disappointed here. It certainly shrunk a lot more than normal acrylics would, but quite a bit of detail was lost on number 2, and there are even some air bubbles. 1 has very patchy coverage and 3 shows brushstrokes. 4 looks the best to me, pretty much no detail loss and ok opacity. I decided to give them all a second, very thin layer.
That is still wet, I forgot to take a picture of the dry. Coverage was a lot better but still patchy. A third layer would have improved it more, I guess, but at this point I put some normal paint on the heads:
Number 1 is still a total failure, in my opinion. 2 gave the most brilliant color, but too much detail is gone and the air bubbles of course ruin it. 3 looks pretty messy to me, some brushstrokes still show. And again, I think 4 is the winner, with good detail and not far behind 2 in color strength. So diluted 3:1 and pushed into recesses with a soft brush is the method I’ll use.
I should mention also that when painting over the gesso, all four test subjects had better tooth than any spray primer I have tried.
Ok, that’s all I have… I hope somebody finds it useful!
Gesso, if the name is new to you, is a type of primer used by traditional artists to prepare canvases. It’s available from many brands and usually in white or black, but some also offer grey and clear versions. The thing that makes it special is that it’s applied very thick, and then it shrinks onto the surface as it dries to reveal the detail. And since it’s a primer it clings to low-porous surfaces and gives great tooth for the following paint layers.
The reason I decided to try it is because the weather is giving me unpredictable results from spraying, and this time of the year making it completely impossible. So when reading about what brush-on primers were available, people on various forums talked about gesso, the pictures of gesso-primed minis I found looked really good and the price was reasonable. Winsor & Newton was the brand they had at my local art store, but I’ve also read about Liquitex and Golden gessoes.
Right, on to the experiment. I found a sprue of some unused demon heads to use as guinea pigs, and decided some different application techniques I wanted to try. Gesso is very thick out of the pot so my first impulse was to dilute it, and that’s what I did for head number 1. I used about 1:1 of gesso to water. Then I tried it straight out of the pot, which most people on the internet recommend. That’s the middle one. Next, I used it undiluted again, but “stabbed” it into the recesses and stippled away the excess paint with a stiff old brush, a technique from when I painted some larger scale minis with oils which are of similar consistency. And on the last one, a bit of a combination of 1 and 3, slightly diluted (maybe 3:1 of gesso to water) and pushed around more gently with a very soft brush. Here’s what the heads looked like wet:
And here they have dried:
I was quite disappointed here. It certainly shrunk a lot more than normal acrylics would, but quite a bit of detail was lost on number 2, and there are even some air bubbles. 1 has very patchy coverage and 3 shows brushstrokes. 4 looks the best to me, pretty much no detail loss and ok opacity. I decided to give them all a second, very thin layer.
That is still wet, I forgot to take a picture of the dry. Coverage was a lot better but still patchy. A third layer would have improved it more, I guess, but at this point I put some normal paint on the heads:
Number 1 is still a total failure, in my opinion. 2 gave the most brilliant color, but too much detail is gone and the air bubbles of course ruin it. 3 looks pretty messy to me, some brushstrokes still show. And again, I think 4 is the winner, with good detail and not far behind 2 in color strength. So diluted 3:1 and pushed into recesses with a soft brush is the method I’ll use.
I should mention also that when painting over the gesso, all four test subjects had better tooth than any spray primer I have tried.
Ok, that’s all I have… I hope somebody finds it useful!
