gesso over oils ????

[lisaastrup]

hi.

Today a made a big mistake, I put acrylic Liquitex gesso on a paiting made with oils....had forgotten it was oils.

I tryed to wash most of it off again and most of it did, can I repaint in oils do you think ???

[shadwell]

buy another canvas !!! it is only advisable to put oils over gesso or acrylics ,

you could use oils over oils but there will more than likely be complications ( the first is lines showing from previous works )

for the price of a new canvas it isn't worth the hassle involved !!

[lisaastrup]

thanks, I think I'll just do that

[artyczar]

You'd have to sand it down and get all the gesso off, then you can continue to cover it in oils. If it was an expensive canvas, I would not just throw it away. I am not the type to do such things. I mean, if it was one of those store-bought canvases, I don't know if it will even be strong enough to take the sanding. Those are usually like a 10 oz canvas, which are not super great, but maybe it's a 12 Oz. Was it from Blick? Maybe their canvases are better quality than I think they are.

Anyway, if you can, don't just toss out a canvas with oil paint on it into a land fill. give it a light sanding, get that gesso off of it, and make something beautiful on top.

Also, if the canvas gives and stretches after you sand it, you can always spray the back with water and it will dry tight again.

[lisaastrup]

Well Artyczar,
maybe I can try that - becurse I don't like to throw things out, thanks

[Bringer]

Where you intending to repaint with oil or acrylic ?
If with oil, why didn't you just used white oil paint ?
Or you could use an oil primer.
Mind that although one usually should not use a water based paint over an oil based one, primers are different. I'm not saying that is the most correct thing to do, but if you had sanded the oil paint and applied the acrylic primer over it, you might not have adhesion problems in the future since a good primer will even adhere (sp?) on naked metal such as steel; light alloys, zinc and so on are a different subjects, but copper is ok too.

José

[robinlb]

I'd cut the canvas off the stretchers and stretch a new one on. Canvas is inexpensive, it's the stretchers that cost the most, and it's not worth the amount of time/work to try to save the canvas.