Colored Gesso

[Alessandra Kelley]

Is anyone else experimenting with colored gesso? I developed a black chalk gesso that I'm having a lot of fun with.

[RobM]

Alessandra
As the result of some research (which turned out to be false) prior to the Botticelli project I was involved in, I had heard that the gesso under 'The Birth of Venus' was blue.
I mixed up some gesso, added some ultramarine and when applying the gesso I found it got very 'claggy'. ( Wot a wonderful word.... :grin: )
The gesso just seemed to drag and it did not work for me, thank goodness 'cos a few days later I had to gesso up a 10' x 6' canvas!!!!!
Rob

[dakini_painter]

Hello,

I just joined the forum, though have been aware of the STP for a few years. I've just started getting back to painting in ET. I just saw your post on colored gesso.

I've used a 'red' gesso made with chalk and pozzuoli earth (4:1 by volume). I like the results compared to a straight chalk ground, but I'm having difficulty expressing why. The absorbancy is a little different than straight chalk. Yet given the way I paint I can't say whether there's any optical difference in the end results.

it is said that later in his career Braque (an oil painter :-) used a black ground as he felt the resulting colors were richer.

Regards,
cheryl

[Alessandra Kelley]

There might be a slight difference in absorbency between the black gesso and regular white. The black gesso seems a bit softer, needs a little more rabbitskin glue. I'm using Mars Black, because it's so intense. The gesso looks silvery when mixed, and when dry and sanded gives a surface which, if not pitch black, is at least as black as black drawing paper.

I'm not surprised ultramarine blue gave a weird texture to your gesso, Rob (I agree that "claggy" is a great word, but what does it mean?), when you consider how weird the texture of ultramarine can get on its own in water -- I've had ultramarine vary from gooey like Elmer's glue to squeaky-hard like cornstarch and water. It is definitely one of the stranger-behaving pigments.

[dakini_painter]

From the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Revised Tenth Edition:

claggy * adj. Brit. dialect: tending to form sticky lumps


Now I'm curious. With the dark surface, do the colors appear richer?

[DLH]

Most of my paintings have multi-toned gesso grounds, medium gray in the shadows, bright white where appropriate. I found that if I used only black and marble for the gray the tone would change depending on glue strength. By adding titanium the tone is more consistent. The first time I tried it, I found large white specks (up to 2 mm) in the sanded gesso due to unmixed clumps of titanium. I now make my basic white by combining ten parts (by weight) of marble dust with four parts titanium and working the mixture through a “gold” coffee filter with a painting knife. It’s a pain but results in a beautiful ground that can be left bare in white passages. The mix makes a creamier gesso that flows out better during application and resists cracking better than marble alone. I’ve made blue grounds using phthalo blue. Because of its high tinting strength not much is required and it doesn’t seem to affect the working properties of the final gesso. I use the coffee filter method to combine the color with the basic white mix.

Doug

[turlogh]

Most of my paintings have multi-toned gesso grounds, medium gray in the shadows, bright white where appropriate.
I don't understand. You make the gesso different colors in different places, according to the design of the painting? If so, how?

[DLH]

David,

On top of a panel covered with 2mm plain gesso I apply about 1mm half tone gray and sand it out. Using diamond grinding pins between 1 and 8mm diameter I route areas that are one quarter gray. I strive for a depth of .7mm, .5mm minimum. I apply one quarter gray gesso to the routed areas with a bristle brush, taking care to scrub into the edges. I don’t worry about getting gesso on unrouted areas. I apply two more coats with a large painting knife. When dry I sand these areas, stopping when the edges start to show through. I repeat the process for one eighth gray, then one sixteenth, and finally pure white. I find that having the very light areas pre-modeled is important because white and very light gray oil paint has poor covering power in the thin smooth film I strive for. In the final sanding I remove the last traces of overflow. The result is incredible. Each tone is perfectly even, and the edges fuse. I executed this painting, http://higden.net/painting-wcs/5-news-wc/news-sliced.html using the gesso technique alone. I used nine distinct tones. I employed the method in my one egg tempera, but I’m thinking that because ET has superior covering power and can be over-painted soon after application, it may not be worth the trouble.

Doug


This is a picture of my routers. The accordion pleat hose goes to a shop vac. Good dust collection is essential.

http://higden.net/forum-pics/routers.jpg

[turlogh]

Thanks. That clarifies things a lot. I've never heard of anyone using this technique before. How much time does it take?

[DLH]

David,

Painting #7 took 26 hours, #8 took 31, #13 took 23, and #11and #12 took 15 hours each. This includes panel preparation. Other than the total gesso picture, the most time consuming was the painting the routers are photographed on. It took 58 hours. It may seem like a lot of time but it averages only 16.5% of the total painting. Besides setting local values, the technique provides a detailed drawing that doesn’t get lost under subsequent paint.

Doug

[jeff]

I realise this topic is a year old but I've been using some coloured gesso lately with success. Still I'd like some feedback on easier and secure ways of making coloured backgrounds. I have been known to use acrylic to create the rich colour areas under different parts of the picture, but I'm not convinced that this is a good idea in terms of adhesion of the tempera. I can't say that it seems to have a bad effect though. I have also been thinking of using gum tempera underneath. Is that OK ( the gum would be probably gum arabic)? It produces a beautiful deep transparent colour which you can't get with coloured gesso. Or perhaps I should use egg white underneath or even glair. Can anyone offer some further advice on this?

jeff bryant

[Dennis H]

OK, this isn't quite the same thing as colored gesso, but often, after I make a monochromatic underpainting on white gesso, I wash over it with a transparent color before working it up with local colors.
Couldn't this accomplish the same thing for you? I.e., glaze or stain whatever color you desire atop a white ground? Then you'd have a lot more control over the intensity and value of the colored ground -- plus, it would have a nice depth of color and transparency instead of homogenous opacity.
D.

[jeff]

I suppose really I should just use a glaze of egg tempera when I think about it. It is just that I would then have to leave it dry for perhaps a day before it is more or less immobile. Is that the sort of glaze you mean, Dennis?

jeff

[Dennis H]

I use casein or egg tempera to lay down a colored ground over my ink or casein underpainting. I prefer casein for the wash because it spreads out in broad areas fairly easily and dries quickly. Then, I usually come back in with white casein (and black or burnt sienna) to further model the underpainting. Afterwards I apply a dilute egg wash and start in with ET colors.
D

[jeff]

That's interesting. I haven't used casein - how do you make it?

jeff

[Dennis H]

Jeff,
I'll look for my recipes for you when I get back to the house. There may be some information on the Kremer site. Or Sinopia's. I've used Kremer's components (casein powder and borax) to make casein emulsion. I also have emulsions made (or sold) by Zecchi and by Shiva. Each of those is different than the other and have a longer shelf life than the kind you make yourself. Shiva also makes tubes of casein paint.
I've never tried to make it directly from milk or sour cream, but that might be a fun experiment. When I stayed in Germany years ago, I ate something called Quark. I think you can make casein paint by adding borax to that.
A casein house paint, once widely used in the U.S., is called milk paint. When interior walls here were still made of actual lime plaster, they were often painted in milk paint because you could paint the plaster much earlier, before it had completely "cured", than you could with oils. It was sometimes just straight casein emulsion, pigment and water; more frequently it contained lime as well. Milk paint also makes a great paint for furniture, especially if you don't want a hard plastic varnished look. I like casein a lot. If you don't want to mess with a warm pot of skin glue, you can make casein gesso. It's probably only slightly less durable than RSG gesso. Like egg tempera and rabbit skin glue, casein is brittle, so use the same precautions as you would with them.
D

[dbclemons]

Re: casein

There's a recipe at the Sinopia site, as Dennis mentioned:
http://www.sinopia.com/casein.html
and Kremer:
http://www.kremer-pigmente.de/englisch/notes.htm

also Kama has a recipe and they sell powder (check their demos section: )
http://www.kamapigments.com/

Larger sizes at a slightly better price (Google "milkpaint")
http://www.milkpaint.com/prod_mp.html
http://www.realmilkpaint.com/products.html

Here's a site that demonstrates how to make it from scratch:
http://www.angelfire.com/yt/modot/painting.html

The pre-mixed liquid brands (Schmincke is another) add preservatives for the shelf-life, possibly ammonia or some such and possibly wetting agents, which I don't like to use in my ground; although it's fine for painting. I also like to add a little alum to make it stronger. A lime mixture is fine to use for ground, but can make the paint pale in tone.

[jeff]

Thanks, folks. Looks like I've more experimenting to do.

Jeff