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Possibly a stupid question about gesso


claireliontamer

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Sorry in advance for the newbie question, I have tried googling but don't seem to be able to find a definite answer.

I understand that gesso is used as a basecoat under acrylic paints?  Do you use it every time you use paint?  

My question really stems from me trying to find a colour combination to paint my roof tiles with.  They are made of air-dry terracotta clay but I want to paint them a slightly darker red-brown colour than the terrcotta they are.  Clay is obviously porous so should I gesso it first?  How does it affect the overall finish?

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I've used gesso to prime mini canvases (like you would in real life) and to prime foam used in landscaping and brickwork.  I haven't used in painting furniture or otherwise.  For your tiles specifically, do you have a piece to sample or are they already attached?  I would think think a thinned paint wash (or a few coats) would stain the tiles yet keep the clay appearance.  Gesso will make them look painted.  I would thin paint with water and use a rag to wipe the excess.  Or, I would mix it with Americana Staining Medium -- it's a colorless ointment like material that makes paint behave like a stain, again wiping up the excess.  Hope this helps.  :D

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Try painting right on an extra piece of the terra cotta and see what happens. You probably don't need gesso. I'd use a thin wash of the darker color and let it soak into the porous terra cotta to produce a slightly irregular color surface that will be darker in the low spots, lighter on the ridges, just as real life weathered tiles look.

Traditional gesso is a mix of animal glue binder, chalk and white pigment used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden painting panels as an absorbent primer coat substrate for painting. It is usually applied in 10 or more extremely thin layers. It works with all types of paint -- water-based, different types of tempera and oil paint. An emulsion of gesso and linseed oil is used to prime flexible canvas.

Modern acrylic gesso, which is what we find on the shelves now, is technically not gesso at all (as it has an acrylic polymer medium latex base rather than hide glue) but so far as our use in minis is concerned, it acts the same way. It is not water soluble once it has dried. It provides a chalk white substrate for the application of paint, and is useful as a base for surfaces that wouldn't normally take paint well.

While I was typing this, Brae weighed in with her suggestion to use a wash. That's two votes. :)

Holly must be out working in her workshop or she would have logged in with her "There are no stupid questions" speech. There really aren't. Something that is challenging one member is probably challenging others or will be useful in the future. All newish members need to be advised that all questions are fair game!

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Well holly & her DH were out looking at cars today, as my PT Cruiser will be 15 years old nest month and the cooling system began to go wonky a year ago October.  We're looking specifically at SUVs, as eventually we hope to become a one-vehicle household and we'll still need something to haul our kayaks, bikes, hiking gear and RV camper or tent camping stuff.  As KathieB said so much more nicely than I usually do, there are no stupid (or dumb) questions.  If your tiles are air-dry clay, you can probably paint them directly.  If you have any scraps of the clay still pliable, roll some out and cut it into sample sizes and experiment.

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11 minutes ago, havanaholly said:

Well holly & her DH were out looking at cars today, as my PT Cruiser will be 15 years old nest month and the cooling system began to go wonky a year ago October. 

Holly, Mine PTC is also 15 years old and we just replaced the cooling system...I have to keep her alive until September.

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We have to replace mine before then, we haven't been to see his mother since after her 91st birthday and we have to practically hog tie her to get her out of her building; she'll never get into his F-250 again, so a car is the only way we can do it; and staying in a motel means only staying to visit a couple of days.  It's at least a two and a half day drive each way if there's to be anything left of us once we get there, so we pull our camper and stay in the nearby state park campground.  We also take our kayaks and bikes for thing to do between visits and on the way back home.

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Our F-250 has a cap.  DH's mom has trouble climbing into it even when we brought our Pullman stool last time.  An SUV is closer to the ground, plus far comfier for shuttling people to trailheads or launch sites (like the last group paddle we were going to do), and everyone crammed into the truck bed that didn't fit in the cab (crew cab); in FL it's illegal for nyone to ride in the open truck bed so having the cap makes us very popular.  Having third row seating, even more so.  While DH is looking at room for our bikes and tent camping gear, I am also checking height for holding two-story dollhouses.

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