Acrylic over latex?

[Ander]

Hi everybody,

A mundane technical question for you:

I'm starting a canvas with a flat, uniform base colour. As it happens, I recently painted a room with the same colour and already have a pot of interior latex I could use. Would I then be able to use water-based acrylic colours over it? It seems fine, as everything's water-based, but I thought I'd better ask before possibly wasting a canvas. Thanks!

[CarlOwen]

Personally I wouldn't do it. Basically you are painting plastic on rubber. They do not expand and contract at the same rate. Over time the acrylic surface will crack and some of the really small pieces will actually pop off. When I was making my own canvases I used an acrylic water based primer paint with crushed marble mixed into it. I double primed the canvases to make sure that no cloth surface was allowed to not be covered with the paint. I think it has worked out pretty good. The oil painting I gave my brother-in-law is 47 years old and still looks like it did the day I painted it. Smart move on your part to ask the question before just jumping in.

[Ander]

Thanks for your advice, Carl. It's interesting how much of art involves chemistry. Cheers!

[CarlOwen]

Isn't it though. You are welcome.

[MTH]

Just wanted to chime in my agreement with Carl. You can tint your gesso if you want to work from a colored ground, or you can buy colored gesso too. I also agree w/ carl about the importance of laying down a couple of coats of your ground to make sure you get good coverage on your support.

[annie45]

I prefeer acrylic

[yuli455]

acrylic, no doubt