Acrylic medium makes an excellent glue for this purpose. Gloss medium is “stickier” than matte.

Debra

“There are a number of adhesives that can be used to apply canvas to the board. I have tried Elmer’s Glue…but, it dries unevenly, and haven’t had much luck prevently the canvas from shifting and buckling in spots.

I have had no such problems using Elmer’s glue for this purpose and find it much more useful than acrylic medium for the purpose. I do soak my canvas first, saturating it with water, before laying it onto the board coated with the Elmer’s (or similar PVA products) glue. And making a sandwich and weighting it with heavy weights (full gallon cans of paint will do it) is essential. My panels are dry and ready to gesso in 24 hours.

NOTE: I pre-shrink the cotton canvas I am going to use to avoid the shrinkage causing the board to warp after gluing it down. I do that by soaking the piece of canvas in water and letting it dry out, before re-soaking it for glueing it down.

Hi all. Sorry for this ‘stupid question’ but what is acrylic gel medium? I mean, there are several listed at ‘Art Supply Warehouse’ but I don’t know what one to buy for the adhering stuff to supports thing. One that is listed as a heavy gel says it holds peaks in paint but not sure if it could be used as a glue.

Somebody tell me the brand name and exactly what to buy rather than just saying acrylic gel medium. Would any acrylic gel medium work? Is that why the term is used so genericly? :confused:

Sorry, new to all this but I want to try to use watercolor paper instead of canvas. Anything I should know about wcpaper?

Thanks

Somebody tell me the brand name and exactly what to buy rather than just saying acrylic gel medium. Would any acrylic gel medium work? Is that why the term is used so genericly? :confused:

For the purposes of “gluing” you need not use the gel. Plain old acrylic medium (varnish is another word for it) will do the trick.

The term “gel” tells you it is a thickened acrylic medium which has no extra benefit when used as a glue. The “gel” allows one to paint in an “impasto” technique similar to how one paints in impasto with oil paints.

In addition to the gels, there are also even thicker acrylic “mediums” marketed as “molding pastes” or alternatively “modeling pastes.”

I’d like to clear up some things which sounded confusing to me. Acrylic medium is very different from “varnish”. A true varnish for artist use should be a reversible coating used as the final layer in a painting. Called acrylic medium “varnish” only serves to confuse people.

The term “acrylic gel medium” is a very broad category meant to include the entire range of products, from thin, pourable products to thick pastey ones. Molding or Modeling Pastes are gels with a filler added, normally marble dust. Molding Paste therefore is opaque and more rigid than thickened acrylic medium because of these added solids.

Attaching canvas to panel can be tricky because you want to apply enough product to act as a glue, but not so much that it’s squishing around and causing an uneven surface or dripping all over the place. IF you don’t use enough, you run the risk of not getting a good bond or having an air pocket.

My process is as follows:

First, coat both the panel and side of the canvas to be attached with an acrylic medium. I use a product called Soft Gel Gloss because it’s almost pourable but not as messy as a liquid medium). This is my personal preference. Others may use something like Polymer Medium or Matte Medium, or even use a thicker Gel for this purpose, but the Soft Gel seems easiest to me. Be sure to either tape to staple the canvas down because the acrylic will shrink the canvas as it dries and cause a permanent warping if it’s not secured. By sealing these surfaces first, it means the two substrates will be much easier to be attached with the actual layer of “glue”.

Second, lay down a piece of heavy plastic (polyethylene plastic is what it’s officially called, but it’s the common construction plastic from the hardware store). Then lay the canvas down on the plastic, with the side to be attached facing you. Apply the gel evenly and quickly. Use a water mister bottle to spritz water if the canvas is large to keep the gel from drying until you’re ready to attach the two objects.

Third, place the panel onto the canvas and assure it’s smooth and even. Wipe excess gel from the edges. I put weight on the board to keep them pressed firm. Then LEAVE IT ALONE for as long as you can, at least for a couple of hours. Once it seems pretty dry, I’ll flip the canvas and panel over to let it dry more. You have to be careful because it’s most likely that all of the water hasn’t left the film yet.

My method is a multistep process, because I want the surface to be perfect first, and then I’ll repeat the process to fold the edges back, like I was just stretching any other canvas onto bars. I glue the flaps, then use the board to even it out and place weight on top of it all until it’s dry like before. Some people will just cut the canvas at the edge, but I think this leads to a corner peeling up later on, so I fold the edges over.

Then the surface is ready to be prepped with gesso and painted.