Homemade Gesso, the good and the bad plus Link Love Friday

A couple of weeks ago I started to run out of gesso.  To some, this would not be a catostrophic event, while others (like myself) starts to freak out and want to go buy a five gallon pail of it.  I use it *ALL* the time.  If my background is too bright....throw a wash of gesso on it.  Oh that picture I just slapped on doesn't fade well into the picture....throw some gesso on it.  I messed up and HATE what I just did....put some gesso on it.  You get the idea.  I *heart* gesso.  BUT.  Yes, there is a but. But it is not in my budget.  We are on a crazy strict budget, tight is NOT the word for it.  But I do pretty good with getting artsy things with it.  I get twenty dollars a month right now for me, for whatever I want to use it for.  Now picture Gollum from Lord of the Rings....that is me holding my twenty dollar bill, saying my precious, my precious...and I am NOT kidding.  Ask my sister, she saw it first hand. I milk that twenty for all it is worth.  I buy cheap acrylic paint, even though I drool over Golden Fluid Accrylics (someday....someday!!!).  I have even made my own alcohol inks because of the price of a tiny bottle of the beautiful Ranger inks.  I am limited and I still make me  some arty happiness in my art journal.  So I went to Hobby Lobby and looked at gesso, by the way, can I live at hobby lobby?  Anyways I digress, nothing against Hobby Lobby, but it would have blown my twenty bucks down to fifteen.  So I went to Walmart.  Again, I hesitated because it was ten dollars for a bottle that wouldn't last me that long.  I was frustrated. I asked an online group if they had ever made there own gesso and this is a reply of two recipes from a very nice lady!

"There are two recipes you can use I haven’t as yet tried the second one as I have decided I really like using the drywall compound recipe because it can double as modeling paste. You can buy a gallon bucket or a quart tub at wal-mart I paid $5 for the gallon bucket which will last forever even if my husband digs into it when we turn the daughter’s bedroom into a guest bedroom ;) lol

Gesso Recipe 1
3 Parts Drywall Compound.
1 Part PVA (Elmer’s) Glue)

You can a little extra glue or a bit of water if you want to thin it down some I have to mixtures because I like it thick so it can be used as modeling paste.

You can add a bit of paint if you wish to color it just an FYI adding white really isn’t going to help much with this compound recipe unless you add a whole bunch if you’re going to cover your page with another color don’t waste your paint. I added about an 1/8 of a cup and still it had more of a clear grey tint about it. My tip if you just put your gesso on your page dry and then paint over it with white you get the same white gesso look and don’t waste your paint. But if you want black or grey gesso go for it.

Gesso Recipe 2
1 Part PVA (Elmer’s Glue)
3 Parts Water
6 Parts Baby Powder (or any kind of powder this adds the tooth)
White (or any color you want) paint just add until you get the desired color.

If you are unsure try the mixture on a test sheet before your project to see how it will look."

Thank you Theresa Lisiecki-Pillow!  So I decided to try it. I did recipe number two with the baby powder.  I have mixed reviews on it. I will not be throwing out the store bought gesso yet.

I did a LOT of testing (playing) with the homemade version I made and took a lot of notes.  Here is what I came up with!

Homemade Gesso-the good

• CHEAP
• It is toothier and grabs on to the paint more
• works well on a more porous surface
• Charcoal sticks to the page better
• Watercolor (tubed) on a rough surface grabs on to the page better
• Can achieve more of a transparent glaze like look

Homemade Gesso-the bad

• Waterier
• Smells like baby powder (I do NOT like the smell of baby powder
• Takes longer to dry
• Takes more coats to fully cover words and images 
• Does not scrape well onto the page for texture
• Does not stay put for a heavy texture, especially on smooth surfaces
• Do not like how fluid acrylics work on this surface

Store Bought Gesso-the good

• Smoother
• Less coats for full coverage
• Scrapes better for texture especially on smooth surfaces
• Fluid acrylics work much better, flows onto the page better
• Oil pastels smudge better
• Water color crayons work better

Store Bought-the bad

• More expensive
• On a more porous surface it seems to "suck" it up more so you have to use more of it
• Isn't always as transparent as I would like
• Charcoal doesn't grab onto as well
• MORE EXPENSIVE (I know it was at the top of the list but it is the ONE thing that deserves to be doubled up!)

Both had almost the identical work-ability with regular acrylic paint and when covering bright colors like this...

It was very similar.  I applied with a paint brush. on both sides.

So, I have come to the conclusion that the homemade gesso definetly is worth the small effort of making.  I will use it on larger applications and on porous surfaces.  I still will have to buy gesso though.  It adheres to smoother and gloss better, which is one of my altered book journals surfaces.  I think with the addition of the homemade version that I will be able to save quite a bit of money in the long run.  It cost  $.34 for the glue, $1.00 for the powder, and a trivial amount of white paint that I already had.  Compare that to the price of bought gesso....I think it is a good way to use my money to the fullest extent.  I will have to try recipe number 1 when I get a chance to get drywall compound.  It may have that thicker quality that the store bought has that I miss with the current recipe.  We shall see!!!

Now, onto spreading link love.  Tammy over at Daisy Yellow has a mission, and as I said before, if Queen Tammy needs a little help count me in!  So here are the fab 5 blogs of my week.

Roxeanne Padgett is an amazing artist, she gave me a great idea on a new way of using hole re-enforcers! It goes along perfectly with my budget  mentioned above...

Kelly Kilmer left me in tears on her post about her dad.  I am a serious daddy's girl, so it was very touching!

The Graphics Fairy has a continuous supply of copyright free images. I can spend HOURS looking at them all!  

Seth Apter *sigh* He.is.AWESOME!  Go there RIGHT NOW...I am not kidding....between Tammy's and his blog I could be lost for days in arty goodness.  Why are you still reading this??? GO!!!

Last but not least by any means is Anna Sender I love her style, her drawings just everything about her work!  Inspiring to me!

Thanks for dropping by!  Now spread a little love to each to each other!