Acrylic gesso is a key ingredient to any painting. Artists spread the material across their canvases before applying paint to prime the surface and ensure that the work will have a long life. Put simply, gesso makes a canvas more hospitable for acrylic paints. There are white and transparent gesso products, and we’ve got the rundown on the best options available.
1. Grumbacher Gesso
Most acrylic gessos today have a plastic-like finish, but not Grumbacher’s, which is formulated with marble dust, or calcium carbonate, which dries to a more natural-looking finish with a good amount of tooth. It’s our top pick for this reason, but also because it offers what we’d consider a perfect middle-ground consistency: thick but still flowy, and it thins well with water if you want a smoother finish. It’s also properly opaque and can be used as a solid substitute to titanium white.
2. Winsor & Newton Professional Acrylic Gesso
Clear gesso has a number of advantages over white: For one thing, if you have sketched out your painting on your canvas, you can use clear gesso over the top without losing visibility. For another, it allows the natural tone of raw canvas to show through. Finally, you can also use it to create different-colored primers using opaque paints. Windsor & Newton’s gesso is made with a clear resin that has balanced absorbency. Note that it also has a strong tooth, which makes it a favorite for pastel artists, though it can be sanded to create a smoother surface. The relatively small (7.6-fluid-ounce) jars of this gesso are costly, but the quality is worth the price.
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