Making Absorbant Gesso With Marble Dust

Traditional gesso is not flexible and so is not suitable to paint onto canvas.

Making absorbant gesso with marble dust.

1 cup cheap white glue 1 4 cup water 4 to 5 heaping tablespoons of powdered marble or marble dust or marble. I ve gotten a bag of marble dust to try but it just comes out like really thick gesso. I m planning to play with hairy brushes and acrylic paints starting a painting class soon. Is there a good recipe to make a pastel ground using marble dust.

Traditional artist s gesso is made by mixing whiting which is powdered chalk or marble dust with rabbit skin glue to form a base to paint onto. Add 1 teaspoon glycerin or honey and stir. The most common use for marble dust in painting is creating traditional rabbit skin glue gesso a surface primer for paintings. I m currently making the pastel ground primer using a mixture of gesso pumice powder and water.

I ve been looking for a diy recipe of gesso using marble dust and pva glue. 10 pigment 90 whiting calcium carbonate gypsum and or marble dust the easiest way to get the percentage is to use 1 ounce pigment to 9 ounces whiting. The flexing of the material will make the traditional gesso crack and flake. Mix 3 4 cup of solids.

I bought a few cheepy canvases from michaels and want to smooth and stiffen them. In addition to creating a painting primer you can also mix marble dust directly into your paints to create interesting textures and to fill your paints with body. This will help make the gesso spread more easily and reduce causing air bubbles. There are lots on youtube but generally so gagingly goofy i can t finish them.