Ground Preparations

Grounds are products used to prepare a surface for acrylic painting. Effective grounds should have good adhesion to the painting surface, particularly for canvas boards. They should be flexible, have suitable “tooth” for overpainting and create a good sealing barrier between the painting surface and subsequent layers of paint.

Painting Grounds for Use with Atelier Interactive

The substrates chosen to paint on and the grounds used (usually gesso) are the foundations of successful paintings. Naturally, if you want longer wet working time a non-absorbent ground is important. Atelier offers thick, textural gessoes, a liquid gesso and several coloured gessoes. Atelier Binder Medium can also be used to seal surfaces before starting to paint.

There is one exception to this rule: watercolour paper is very pleasant to paint on and it depends on its absorbent qualities for the effects it can offer. The paper can be dampened before use or more water can be used as you paint to offset the suction effect into the paper.
The paint will not dry immediately, but will become tacky and unpleasant to work with until you add enough water to compensate for moisture being absorbed. Eventually a balance is reached and the paper starts to act as a reservoir for retaining moisture.
Watercolour paper presents no great problem for painters who are used to it, but if you want to get on with your first ‘Interactive experience’, with longer working time, it is less confusing to paint on a well gessoed surface.
‘Prepared’ canvases are now cheap and widely available. Most of them are greatly improved by one or 2 coats of gesso before starting a painting of any kind.

Read More on Preparing a Surface for Painting

Atelier Binder Medium

Can be used as a medium when needed to toughen paint for conventional acrylic techniques like scratching back. When added to paint it speeds drying and increases gloss.

Other uses:

• As a binder for collage.
• As a sealer to prepare porous surfaces either before using gesso or as a somewhat slippery ground preparation in its own right.

Gesso Primer

Is a flexible acrylic ground with a high grit content. Designed to provide a stable white surface on which to paint. Atelier Gesso may be used directly from the container for all over thick textural effects.

Liquid Gesso Primer

Has a thinner consistency, which spreads more easily for a smoother painting surface.

If you are interested in more comprehensive information about how artists’ paints can be used, email us for a free copy of our “The Artists’ Pocket Guidebook”.