Re: gesso for watercolor?

[Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>]

On Mon, 16 Mar 2009, phritz phantom wrote:

> is this stuff the same as acrylic gesso/primer?
> i've used acrylic before and the results were ugly: flaking, very greyish... 
> allover not pleasant. at all dilutions.also sometimes the emulsion seems to 
> go very deep into the size, so the prints could really take a strong brushing 
> without the emulsion coming off.  mixing it with gelatine helped a little, 
> but still not as good as pure gelatin or no size at all.
> now (i still have almost a whole bucket of acrylic gesso left...a 500ml was 
> the smallest size) i've found out that acrylic primer is not suited fot 
> watercolor pigments. i should read labels before buying. but i found a gesso 
> which is suited for watercolor, it's lascaux gesso. but before i spend money 
> on half a liter of stuff that doesn't work either, has anyone ever tried this 
> product?
> here's a link to the datasheet:
> http://www.lascaux.ch/pdf/en/produkte/malhilfen/impraeg_grund/52305.02_grundierungen_.pdf

Phritz,

A fellow named Bernie Boudreaux did absolute miracles with combination 
gesso sizes, and shared that info with Post-Factory... It's in one of the 
middle issues & when I get a chance I'll look it up.  (And when I die and 
go to heaven, an angel will make a P-F index for me.)  From memory though, 
it's combined with gelatin, -- and his gum prints were extraordinary.

J.