Prima Marketing – Craft With May

You may have heard the term “Traveler’s Notebook” or journal and wondered what it’s all about. About eighteen months ago I did a post (here) about my delight of the rise of these little notebooks and their fancy covers. Today I want to explore a beautiful one from Prima Marketing and explain not only several of the possibilities, but how I intend to use this particular one.

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What the heck is it? Small notebooks that can be bound (usually with elastic) in a traditionally leather cover designed to be very portable hence the name. The notebooks come in several sizes meant to coordinate with different sized covers. The one I use and show in this post is “standard” size which is about 4 1/4 x 8 1/4. Continue reading “Traveler’s Notebook: A blank world of possibility”

I get a lot of questions about pastes and paints and things – today I want to take a moment to chat about gesso. Think of it as primer or thin white paint. You’d put it down before you got working, or use it when you want a very smooth blendable white paint someplace. Generally speaking, I don’t like it for anything that has me wanting significant texture or full thick coverage. Generally speaking, white paint will work just as well.

I use gesso for:

primer/base layer on art journaling pages
primer/base layer on canvas projects
base for watercolor projects where I want to be able to blend a ton
cover metal and plastic embellishments I want to re-color
in small amount for a streak/bit of white paint effect without a lot of wet medium
to mix with mist/color medium for a loose color wash paint

When doing side-by-side tests I could really see a difference in quality and effect for what I do with different brands. There are two stand-out favorites that are my recommended choices:

Art Basics Heavy Gesso (Prima Marketing)

This product is heavy, meaning it is quite thick and works great with stencils – the only gesso that I like with stencils. It is great mixed with color mediums, but because it is thick it is not a great choice for a thin primer layer in my art journal.

Dina Wakley Media Gesso (Ranger Ink)

This is my go-to for my art journal, and of the thin/traditional gessos it was by far and away the best. Love that it is small, and in a little tube for easy use.

Here are links to videos of my two favorite gessos:

link to YouTube

Got questions? Ask away! I’m happy to chat with you about this or any other medium. I will continue my mixed media explorations on YouTube as well.

Tag: Prima Marketing

Traveler’s Notebook: A blank world of possibility

Gesso: what is it and what are my favorites?