You can just prime the board directly. I use a clear acrylic gesso

I don’t like the texture that PVA sizes give me, so I skip that process entirely and apply an acrylic gesso directly to the tempered hardboard or birch panel, sometimes thinned sometimes not, sometimes with a brush, sometimes with a roller. I give the back and sides one or two coats and don’t sand them. I have never seen any color bleeding through the gesso when using the tempered hardboard from Lowe’s.

Lately I am attracted to the flatly ground fine grit sandstone like texture I get from rolling on 3-4 coats with a small foam roller, then lightly wet or dry sanding with 220 grit sand paper when dry. The longer you roll, the more gritty the texture seems to get as it partially dries, so if you want it smoother, work fast and let it self level while still pretty wet.

You will save on wasted gesso and clean up time and mess, if you apply it to the roller directly with a pallet knife or wood mixing stick, rather than using a pan to get the gesso on the roller. Spread it out on the panel then work it in for an even coat.

I spritz the roller with a water spray then remove it from the handle and put it into a tightly sealed plastic back with the air forced out when done without cleaning. They are ready to roll weeks later. This also saves on a bunch of wasted gesso. While doing multiple coats, don’t remove it, just wrap the roller while still on the handle with a thin plastic bag or plastic wrap to keep it wet until you come back for your next coat. A spritz of water helps here too.

I bought some “sandable” Golden gesso but didn’t find it any easier to sand down than the other brands I have tried, they warn you about cracking with the sandable, and it costs twice as much as my most used gesso – Joe Miller Signature. Joe’ Signature has been my go to brand the last few months, about $13 / quart vs $31 for the Golden Sandable and $26 for the regular Golden.

If you don’t use a wet sanding method, make sure the gesso is completely cured and don’t press down too hard or you will get gesso chunks sticking to your sandpaper.

Delofasht,
Really I just follow a traditional hide glue gesso method. As you will no doubt find gypsum and gesso refer to the same thing. My understanding is that Calcite and Gypsum have both been used in deep history as grounds for various types of painting. To prepare the plaster I put it in a bucket with excess water and stir every few minutes for an hour. this prevents it setting into a block. I drain off the water and wash the gypsum a couple of times. Then after it has settled and most of the water has been drained off I tip it into a cloth and squeeze out the excess water. I then allow the powder to dry for future use. I still end up with clods of gypsum but it melts away when added to water. On the advice given in Mayer’s book I put an extra coat of glue size on after the final sanding/float blocking. I have found this to be necessary and entirely satisfactory treatment to prevent over absorbency. Being able to control the absorbency of the ground is really nice in tailoring it to suit my under painting style.

The real advantage of gypsum over calcite for me is how easy it is to sand. If I intend to do silver point, then it has to be calcite, gypsum is simply too soft. Oh, I also get a kick out of being able to make grounds for 1/10th the cost of what a commercial product would cost. And on that point, the food grade gelatin I use is a hide based gelatin that the company states has a bloom rating of 250. Food grade gelitins range from the low 100s up to 300ish. Perhaps the poor quality ones would not be suitable for this process. I also use the gelatin to glue the bracing on the board face. The glue is much stronger than PVA.

I started to make my own gesso grounds after being inspired by Koo Schadler. I started collecting my own earth pigments and grinding out tempera paints. In retrospect this was a very important phase in my artistic development. I learnt that I was really struggling to deal with the high chroma of commercial paints. They overwhelmed my senses and confused me. Most critics would find my paintings very dull!

there are a few out there in google land that simply use geletin like me. I was using a gelitin glue to do woodwork and realizing that it was more than strong enough to hold furniture together (wood will split before the glue gives way) so I don’t feel the need to get the most flexible, strong, ultra pure white rabbit super hide glue. Traditional gesso is more robust than some would have you believe. the only failure that I have had when i first started was due to way too strong a glue base and drying in front of a fan heater! it cracked! Please note that I do not claim to have any real expertise at any of this. I am self taught…..

Great stuff!
Yes the materials sure are cheap. Which is precisely why you can’t buy them from the art store!

Collagen glue/Gelatin is quite variable stuff. Unfortunately a lot of traditional knowledge doesn’t translate well into modern usage because the practitioner lacks the thorough working understanding of the materials. For example rabbit skin glue is often recommend for purposes where its flexibility is necessary but it is not clear to me that modern rabbit skin glue is indeed more flexible. You see modern methods of production result in lower oil content which was traditionally high. This oil acts as a plasticiser. Adding to this is the fact that most rabbit skin glue sold actually doesn’t come from rabbits at all! Then there are issues like open time of the glue, although counter intuitive, a weaker glue with a longer open time may actually give a stronger bond. This is in part why something like PVA is so good. It is virtually fool proof and in many cases stronger glue than hide glue. Because most wood workers and gesso makers are not familiar with the differing varieties of glue, they are not in a position to be discerning about products offered. The thermal conductivity of hard woods can be an order of magnitude higher than soft woods. This means that heat is conducted away from the wood surface rapidly gelling the glue. This limits penetration of the glue. Yet you see woodworking magazines comparing hide glue to other glues without proper preparation like heating dese wood.

For one example with gesso, common advice is to apply subsequent layers of gesso to the only just touch dry previous layer. This is said to “ensure good adhesion”. Well yes, I have read Cennino Cennini (translation) and he does say to follow this practice. But he does not give the adhesion explanation. I am personally convinced that adhesion is not so much the issue as that of greater absorbency of a completely dry ground. This would draw that glue out of subsequent layers resulting in crumbly gesso.

Because of this disparity in modern knowledge and homogeneity in materials you need to test your system. When I first started making gesso the way I do I was worried because the gesso gets over 1mm thick. I thought that a panel dropped might get cracks through the thick relatively inflexible layer. To test this I made up a small hardboard panel and put thick gelatine gesso on. When dried, I through it against a brick wall 20 odd times. The only place that the gesso had troubles was where the hardboard was pulverised. Another test I do is to cut slivers of gesso from the edge of the panel. If I can get a curl of material coming off and not crumbling then in have a fair amount of confidence in it.

When I was young I dealt with all the historic stuff. What was done centuries ago. A quarter century ago I moved to Central Florida, home of Disney, Universal, etc. Worked for them a lot. Most of it for outside stuff, in the sun & weather. Compared my earlier learnings to what they did. Since then, come to realize that the old ways were mostly due to not knowing much. Not having the experience generated by decades of try, fail/succeed. That’s why I now longer use art acrylics. They fail. I don’t use wood boards… They warp & split. I use prime grade, multilayer furniture plywoods for panels & exterior rated primers such as Kilz. The plywood has very few gaps & are very well made. The primers are sandable & are made to last. My advice: The old ways were fine for their very limited knowledge. We are not so limited. I’ve made outside works that have been in the Florida sun & rain for over a quarter century that are still without any sign of problems. Proof’s in th’ puddin.