Re: Is Acrylic gesso crappy?

In Reply to: Is Acrylic gesso crappy? posted by Warren Betanko on 08/12/00 at 10:54 PM:

: If I paint with oil paint on acrylic gesso will it fall apart in a few years? Oil gets more and more brittle and acrylic stays flexible, I've heard.

Aside from the issue of the problem of the differing degree of flexiblility of the acrylic priming versus the oil overpainting, there is another issue with
acrylic gesso. Some grades of cheaper gesso and many types of "latex" house paint are not sufficiently "open" in their film structure. To my understanding
this means that there are not enough microscopic voids to allow the oil overpaint to grab onto the ground; this could lead to adhesion problems with the
oil paint layer lifting off the priming. If you wish to use the less expensive acrylic house paint then you might wish to add a small amount of some grit such
as diatomaceous silica (you can buy big bags of it at swimming pool supply stores) or pumice. This should provide some "tooth" for the paint to grab on to.
 
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