How To Prepare Your Canvas For Painting With Acrylic Paints

The common types of canvas used for painting are cotton and linen. Painters often buy unprimed canvases and prepare them themselves as they can play around with the primers to achieve the effect they wish. However, primed canvases are also available at the stores. If you are using acrylic paint, it is always important to prime your blank painting canvas to avoid using up too much paint as the unprimed canvas is usually very absorbent. You need to know the right type of primer to use as some are only suitable for oil paint. The most common type of primer used for acrylic paint is acrylic gesso.

The steps involved

You will need water, a sponge, acrylic gesso, a stirrer which can be either metal or plastic, some paper towels, a plastic container and stretched canvas. You will also need a flat brush with 1"-2" bristles. Start by dipping the sponge in water then use it to wet the blank painting canvas. Using the stirrer, stir the acrylic gesso in the jar then pour some of it into the plastic container.

Add some water to the acrylic gesso in the plastic container to make it thinner. This makes it more viscous and it will therefore spread with more ease and penetrate the blank painting canvas more easily. You can also add acrylic paint of any color you want if you wish to achieve a different effect from the usual white. Use the paper towel to wipe any spills and clean the stirrer.

Using the brush, apply the gesso on the fabric in parallel horizontal strokes. You should then leave the gesso to dry. You can give it an hour, but the longer you let it sit, the better. If the fabric feels cold, the gesso is still wet and you need to give it more time. Depending on the level of detail you wish to achieve, you can have more than one layer of gesso. But you should always let one layer dry before laying another and lay them perpendicular to each other.

Final Thoughts

You need to be very careful when working with acrylic gesso as it dries up very fast. Therefore, keep the jar closed when you are not using it and pour just enough gesso for the job to avoid having too much leftover gesso. You should also wipe any spills as soon as they occur because when the gesso dries, it is not water-soluble and can therefore be very difficult to wipe off. Do not pour any leftover gesso down the drain as it can cause serious blockage in your pipes.You should only start painting when you are positive that the blank painting canvas is dry.

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