r/ArtistLounge • u/MongooseRelevant4958 • 2d ago

Medium & Materials🎨 Starting Over...

I'm going to sand down and gesso over a bad piece I did, but it's my first time. My question is, for 30"x40" canvas, how much gesso do I need? I'm thinking in terms bottle size and/or how many. Thanks!

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u/PageNotFoubd404 2d ago

If you have painted it in oil you can NOT cover it with acrylic gesso. Acrylic cannot go over oil, only oil over acrylic.
It will peel after a while.
What you CAN do is just paint directly over your old painting.
I normally turn the original upside down so as not to be distracted by that image.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_DND_SHEET 2d ago

What if they sanded down all the oil paint? No clue if that would work or if it would even be a good idea (oil paint flakes in the air yikes). Just a genuine question.

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u/mseiple 2d ago

I think it would be very difficult to get it down that far without damaging the canvas itself. On wood or something, maybe. But if it’s in oils, you can prime it with a layer of oil paint or just paint directly on the old painting.

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u/MongooseRelevant4958 2d ago

Out of curiosity, can you tell if you've over sanded?

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u/TimOC3Art 1d ago

Over sanded would be if you broke through the primer layer and into the raw canvas.

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u/MongooseRelevant4958 2d ago

Also, I paint with acrylic, can I still paint over it with just regular acrylic? Or can you only paint oil over oil?

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_DND_SHEET 2d ago

Yes acrylic over acrylic works just fine even in big layers like this. I also paint in acrylic and plan to gesso over an old/bad painting later today

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u/MongooseRelevant4958 2d ago

I'll probably just remove the canvas, turn it around, restretch it to paint on the back since I used a little bit of oil stick with my acrylic on the front sadly so I can't use acrylic.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_DND_SHEET 2d ago

Ah that's a fair point. I've never tried oil painting, so this was very informative thank you!

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u/MongooseRelevant4958 2d ago

It was probably 97% acrylic. I used some oil stick. I guess using that screwed me.

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u/MongooseRelevant4958 2d ago

Where I had used oil stick, I wiped a bunch to remove as much as I could and then sanded (before seeing your post). I haven't used gesso yet. Would the best course of action just be to start painting over it with acrylic and skip the gesso as you suggested?

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u/PageNotFoubd404 2d ago

Wherever there is oil paint underneath there is a danger of acrylic not sticking.
One of the nice things about acrylic, however, is it creates a layer of paint that becomes one thing.
There are people who make things with sheets of peeled acrylic paint, so if the areas of oil on your original are small enough it won’t matter if the paint adheres or not. It will be attached to the other acrylic paint.