I have a couple of small wood (Balsa) panels for painting (3"x3"). They need to be primed and I am wondering if using heavy duty white acrylic paint wouldn’t work just as well as gesso? Since it is now 12 degrees outside, sanding 3 coats of gesso is out of the question. I will probably use oil for the actual painting.
I had used acrylic gesso on wood panel and then painted oil on it and after a time iI discovered cracks in the oil paint. Here is the discussion I started about this topic: Cracked oil paint
@Jacqueline_Davis replied to me:
Sunny on that subject I actually wrote to Gamblin a few weeks ago. For oil painting they recommend this oil painting ground, which can be used on both boards and stretched canvas.
Thanks Sunny and Jacqueline,
After looking at your painting Sunny, I think I’ll stick to Ampersand or canvas. My
3x3’s of Balsa wood will be useful for ‘what if’s’ and not selling. Thanks again.
Here’s an idea for the little 3x3s - I used them for Christmas ornaments one year and
all sold well. (You may need to drill a small hole for hanging before painting and sand
edges smooth).
I painted them with black gesso; painted some Christmas scenes…
dressed up snowmen, holly with berries, a little pup in a stocking, small church in the snow,
and etc… On the backs of all, I painted string lights in different colors. Then I sealed them with a couple coats of polyurethane. Used embroidery floss through the holes for hanging.
Sold them at $8 each…not a lot, but they were fun to do!
One nice thing is that the ornaments are “non-breakable”…heh
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Oops, should have mentioned I painted with fine art acrylics…
Priming is so very important, but can differ depending on the surface (substrate) and the materials you’ll be using to paint. While I haven’t watched the entire video and am not sure if your specific surface is addressed, here’s a link to the Jerry’s Artarama YouTube channel, where this topic was recently discussed and demonstrated:
Thank you so much Dana for posting this!!! I was having some issues with my wood board and this answered it! I went out today and bought the Gac100 like the women in the video suggested and I think it will solve my problem!!!