On 11/9/20 6:39 am, Stephen Duppe wrote:
Hi,

I am preparing some acrylic-painted artist's canvases for overpainting, beginning by putting on some
layers of gesso. The brand of gesso I'm using is Winsor & Newton's "Professional", which is supposed
to have the best covering power of all the gessos they make. Nonetheless on some of the canvases I
have already put on three coats and may well need more.

Would something like Zinsser's "123" primer do the job better? I've always found it a good product,
although partly this is because my mind is still blown by a paint that you can put on top of oil-based gloss
or varnished wood and then, if you want, put emulsion on top of; and which manages to be water-based
and dry in half an hour. I can't recall ever needing more than two coats of it on anything. I've also found it
knocks Hammerite out of the park for painting ex-rusty metal, even if you don't sand off ever last scrap of
rust. As I understand it, it's basically an acrylic primer and sealant. Well so is gesso. Zinsser 123 and the
W&N gesso smell similar too. Could the 123 be described as "great when used as gesso"?

I'll test it to find out, but wondered whether anyone else had already done this.

Cheers,

Stephen

Ordinary acrylic undercoat,even works under oils.