Priming a canvas

Last week I talked about stretching canvases and that they are primed. It’s a lot like priming bare drywall before you paint the actual desired wall color. Priming puts down a surface that takes the final paint well. On canvas, priming can protect the cloth and make it last longer as well.

There are basically two types of priming: acrylic gessos and oil priming materials which include oil gesso, rabbit skin glue, oil painting ground. Acrylic gessoed canvas is more flexible than oil gessoed canvas. These usually result in a white surface.

Here’s an article on the subject: “How To Prime a Canvas For Acrylics or Oils”