Preparing a Canvas: Prepare Gesso

Video Transcript

"Okay, the next thing you are going to want to do is get out the gesso. And gesso is actually a really important medium for a painter. You use it for lots of different things. You know, starting from the canvas, you are going to be using it to paint on top of the canvas to using as a medium when you are painting to mix your other paints in. It just makes paints last longer. It kind of can thin them out, but it has a thickness to it, a kind of starchiness to it. It can be really nice when you are painting to add texture to your paints and it is water based so you can be mixing it with water to thin it out and it is really easy to clean off of your paint brushes. You would not want to use it with an oil paint, but you can use it to cover a canvas that you will be painting on top of with oils."