Poppies and Broom - Clear gesso as a pastel base?

[MurrayG]

I tried again the idea of using clear gesso as a base for soft pastels. It has good tooth to the finger. In practice it is a bit coarse for my liking, quite a lot of texture. I used Rembrandts for this test on some pretty ordinary Canson sketch paper coated with the Liqutex clear gesso. The Senneliers would be used up in no time.There are clear brush marks on the gesso coat. On some paintings, that would be ok.
When i look without my glasses, it's ok, when I'm wearing them, i see patchiness. On a photo when zooming i can see the white paper showing through the gesso texture.
The painting is small, loosely based on a reference photo of poppies and broom bushes in flower on a wintery spring day.

So what is your impression, worth persevering with gesso? The reason for testing is i have a large work planned and the only option is preparing a large sheet of watercolor hot pressed and prime it for the pastels with a "gesso".
This test is 20x30 cm and the picture 16x23cm. Also, Has anyone tried "sanding" a gesso surface for pastels?

 

[laika]

Nice work, Murray! Yeah, I can see the white of the paper looking at it on a little tablet, so it must be pretty pronounced IRL. I used the same clear gesso with oil pastels a while back, and I remember it being toothy like you describe. With the oil pastels, a layer of student-grade can go on first, so the tooth could be tamed that way to some degree before laying on the good ones. It's easy to imagine it devouring money by way of high quality soft pastels! Never thought about sanding it, though, so i'd be curious if you try it. If I had any softies i'd try a sample patch myself (i had a primary sampler of Schminke soft pastels, but ground most of that up for the pigment). Anyway, seems like hitting the surface with some fine sandpaper might work.

 

[Donna T]

I can’t believe you could use clear gesso on Canson paper without a lot of warping. It’s a nice piece, Murray! The areas of paper showing through always seem more noticeable to me in photos than in life but that could be my eyes. I like Liquitex clear gesso and I think you’ll be happier with it on watercolor paper. I lightly sand my surface with one of those foam sanding blocks because I don’t like quite such a toothy surface either. Plus, with watercolor paper you have the advantage of doing some sort of wet underpainting which will take care of the white paper showing through. Best of luck with the large painting!

 

[Marc]

What if you tone with a single acrylic colour first; and then, use the clear gesso?

 

[MurrayG]

Thanks Laika, Donna and Marc.
I think i will use a hot pressed 300gm watercolour sheet and do a light underpainting. I will stretch it first to minimize any buckling from the two base coats. Then gesso and a light sanding with a fine emery. I may do another test on some watercolor paper just to get the feel.

 

[Bartc]

I tried Liquitex Clear Gesso on a piece of masonite board and had the same result as you, Murray. Hated how grainy it turned out, so sanded it down and that helped, but it's still pretty grainy. Yes, it will eat your softer pastels, and frankly, I didn't like it at all.

Was quite shocked - after so many recommendations online - at how gritty it actually was. For what it's worth, I've used sanded papers but am more a fan of the less gritty PastelMat texture, so maybe I'm not the right kind of judge. Some wonderful pastelists love heavily sanded papers.

Two thoughts for you: 1) mix it half and half with clear Matte Medium, 2) don't use Liquitex Clear Gesso; instead use either Golden's Pastel Ground or one of the other pumice mixes for pastel.

 

[CaliAnn]

I don't use gesso at all, so I can't comment on that. But I did want to chime in and say what a lovely painting you ended up with!

 

[Bartc]

Not sure what's available where you live, but on this side of the pond there are commercially available pastel "boards" that work quite well. They're sanded type surfaces bonded to a matt board or foam core substrate. Easy to handle and easy to pastel on, but they ain't cheap!

I tried the clear gesso on masonite (hardboard, MDF would be similar) since I had those around and always liked painting acrylics or oils on them. What I was seeking was additional ease of handling that paper won't give you, and you know how finicky handling pastel on paper can be. If the clear gesso (not regular white or tinted gesso) worked, I thought I could even use it on birch panels for showing the wood grain behind the pastels. And buying masonite at the hardware store and gessoing it is a cheap way to go if you do larger paintings and/or a lot of them. Had even thought it would work well for colored papers like Mi Teintes or Fabriano in tints that PastelMat doesn't carry.

Sadly, the clear gesso experience was disappointing from my perspective.

 

[Artyczar]

This is such a gorgeous piece...I just wanted to say. I have no advice on the gesso though. Sorry.

 

[MurrayG]

I don't use gesso at all, so I can't comment on that. But I did want to chime in and say what a lovely painting you ended up with!

Thanks CaliAnn. Appreciated

 

[MurrayG]

Hi Bart. It's hard to get anything that is not student stuff here. Online imports cost arms etc. I'm with you on Pastelmat, i would love to get big sheets but meh....
My best option is the WC paper. Going by the Canson sketch paper sketch, it may work but i will test on a small piece first before stuffing up a sheet of Fabriano hot press.
I'll update on progress.

 

[Terri]

I love this painting. I can't comment at all on the gesso base issue, but I will say I find the end result very appealing. I like both the texture and the scattered-light kind of feeling I'm getting from this piece. It's delightful!

 

[MurrayG]

I love this painting. I can't comment at all on the gesso base issue, but I will say I find the end result very appealing. I like both the texture and the scattered-light kind of feeling I'm getting from this piece. It's delightful!

Thanks Terri, i appreciate the encouragement. Oddly, it found a new home today. Folk were here and admired it, so they got lucky. Just shows, one person's test piece is another's showpiece.