QUESTIONS CORNER 

Question:
I paint mostly with acrylics and sometimes stretch my own canvas, but I usually can’t get it tight enough. I’ve heard that oil painters use rabbit skin glue to make their canvases tighter. Is that okay for acrylic painting? 
       ----- Mark Jacobson

Answer:
The main reason that oil painters use rabbit skin glue is to protect the canvas from the damaging effects of the oil in oil-based gesso or ground. A beneficial side effect of the glue is that it also shrinks the canvas, resulting in a drum-head tight surface to paint on. 

Unfortunately, rabbit skin glue is too brittle an underlayer for the more flexible acrylic gessoes and paints. But, there are alternatives.

Golden Artist Colors makes a product called GAC 400 Medium. Like rabbit skin glue it tightens the canvas, although the effect is not as pronounced. The instructions assume that the user wishes to stiffen fabric in order to shape it sculpturally, and the user is directed to give both sides of the cloth two coats of GAC 400. For canvas preparation, however, treat only the exposed face of the canvas, allowing the first coat to dry before applying the second.

Another aid toward tighter canvases is canvas pliers. It is a device designed to provide a firmer grip on the canvas than your hands can. In addition, a small projection on the pliers is wedged against the stretcher bar to act as a lever, enabling you to pull the canvas tighter yet.

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