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Should I gesso fabriano pittura 400gsm paper?
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Message
Posted
Hi I have just been painting in acrylic on fabriano pittura 400gsm paper a portrait, I found that I had problems with it,. its a textured paper, anyway now I have decided to paint in oil, I have hardly ever painted in oil so pretty much a beginner, I want to use the paper I bought to paint in acrylic, it is 400gsm fabriano pittura paper, has textured one side smooth the other so normally I would paint on textured side. Do I need to gesso the textured side to paint on oil, or is the paper ok as it is without, the paper is dense, almost like card. Any help please.
Posted
Yes, I would apply a coat or two of gesso before applying oil paint. I’ve found in the past when painting directly onto watercolour paper, the paint is sucked up by the paper and the end result is quite a dull and uninspiring finish. The linseed oil in the oil paint leaches into the absorbent paper which is not what you want! Fabriano is an excellent paper more suited to watercolour.
However, the down side of using gesso, oil paint and flexible paper together is that it needs to be kept flat at all times - any flexing could, and probably will crack the paint over time.
Robert will I’m sure be able to add more technical detail on this…
3mm MDF boards are a better alternative in my book!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
Yes it is indeed a cellulose paper, I was thinking Fabriano Artistico which is what I use for watercolour.
So, it shouldn’t really be necessary to add any gesso as the paper is tub sized on both sides anyway.
However, it won’t do any harm I suppose.
Have a play around with it and then decide if it needs a coat of gesso! But it shouldn’t!
I’ve got a block of Fabriano Tela oil paper which I use occasionally for rapid plein air oil sketches… I paint straight onto the surface, no gesso.
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
Any help please.
I'm recently back to oils myself.
The very first (warm up) paintings I did on Pastelmat 360gs (170lb) paper.
I did cover the surface with 3 x acrylic gesso.
It worked out in my case.
After each thin layer of gesso, I did gently sand it, before applying another layer.
I hope it helps.
Art.
Edited
by PogArt AsS'er
Posted
I'd gesso it - if I used it. That's a big 'if', though. Acrylic 'gesso' is a primer - most canvas/canvas boards come ready-primed with it these days, and it performs well on those surfaces. On paper, it will still perfom the basic function, but compared with most surfaces used for oils, paper is flimsy stuff, not all of which is intended to take acrylic priming. Cracking shouldn't be a problem for the priming itself - but oil paint dries (ultimately) much harder than acrylic, and can really do without sitting on acrylic paint priming a flexible surface. That imposes strains on the oil paint which could provoke cracking, or even delamination (i.e. peeling from the support) especially if you use any paint containing Zinc in the lower layers particularly. Bear in mind that there's nearly always a quantity of Zinc in Titanium White, and in the cheaper versions of Naples Yellow - much research is currently going into this, but it's wise to assume that any amount of Zinc in oil paint is problematic.
In short, a) if you're going to do this, mount the paper - glue it - to rigid board; b) there are oil painting papers available, which are quite pleasant to work on: they should ideally be glued to rigid board as well, if intended for exhibition purposes or sale: and they have the advantage, generally speaking, of being a lot cheaper than pastel paper or watercolour paper: and you don't need to prime paper marked as suitable for oils.
Edited
by Robert Jones, NAPA
Posted
Thanks to all for the advice, I actually primed the paper today, but its got roughish areas and smoother areas after paint brushing it over so it shows areas of the textured paper more in areas., losing the will! I wonder if I should paint on the smooth side instead, not the textured side of the fabriano pittura 400mgs paper, and after reading some above advice, maybe not even prime with gesso? In case of cracking later as its strong paper as in fairly rigid, but after painting in oil I dont want any cracking as advised on previous messages..
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