Gesso, pronounced 'jesso', was traditionally used to prepare or prime a surface so oil paint would adhere to it.
47+ How To Prime A Canvas For Oil Painting
Gif. Traditionally rabbit skin glue was used as the sizing for oil paintings on canvas. The refined glue is made into a powder or chunk.
Preparing Supports For Oil Painting Old Masters Academy from oldmasters.academy
You cannot apply an acrylic ground to this surface. Priming the canvas material will make it ready for acrylic or oil painting. Many acrylic gessos can be used with both acrylic and oil paints, so you're probably safe to stick with an acrylic primer for your project.
Priming also gives the canvas a smoother surface, allowing your brush to flow much better.
How to prime a canvas. If a size like rabbit skin glue is used, problems like cracking can happen down the road, as the rabbit skin glue, will absorb moisture from the atmosphere and. Artists would then add water to the glue and heat it. Primer also makes the canvas rigid and it is unlikely to yield no matter how hard you tug at it.
