Can you paint with gesso the same as you do with white acrylic?

Answer 1

First of all, I'll presume you mean acrylic polymer ground (commonly but erroneously referred to as 'gesso' - traditional gesso is made of marble dust, pigment and animal glue and provides a rather inflexible but toothy surface primer that is only usable on surfaces such as wood). Secondly, I'll say 'yes' you can do that - the acrylic paint and the polymer ground are both suspended in the same (or similar) medium and will dry and bond together. Acrylic ground usually has titanium white pigment in it which will make it appear nearly the same color as the titanium white from a tube.

There's a pretty big difference, though, and if you're doing professional work (as opposed to student projects or hobby painting for yourself or family or friends), you owe it to the work to consider that acrylic ground, like traditional gesso, is mostly calcium carbonate ('marble dust') and only partly titanium white. This probably accounts for the difference in cost (I'd imagine that the pigment is more expensive either to purchase or suspend, making the tube of color more expensive per volume), and I would bet that if you painted a patch of each (titanium white from the tube and acrylic gesso ground) next to each other on the same bare surface, you'd notice that the ground dries very matte and has a noticeable difference in texture (it's designed to have tooth so your paint adheres to it more readily).

The difference in pigment saturation will mean that it mixes with colors differently and the difference in tooth and surface will mean that it creates a different texture in the dried surface. I'd advise you do a quick test to be sure the compromise is acceptable.

Answer 2

I can't honestly say I've ever tried it, but my instinct says no. Obviously, never having done it I can't give you a solid explaination, but it would seem to me that the working properties of gesso would be substantially different than that of the acrylic paint you're working with also. Even the difference in gesso and acrylic straight from the container are enough to make me wonder. I guess you could try it and see and enlighten me!

Answer 3

yes,you can,but have in mind that GESSO gets you colours a bit gray-shaded after drying.also the paint becomes more matt and thick,but those are only tiny differences and if your out of white you can go on with the GESSO.the highlights will wait till you get a new white.thus the picture will become richer in nuances.and just one more thing:the softer(liquid) the GESSO is,the more gray it will add to the final shade,after drying.

Answer 4

I gesso. Sorry, I guess so.

Answer 5

yes