How to Cover Up an Art Journal Page

There are only a few steps to cover up an art journal page with gesso.

SUPPLIES:

Golden’s black gesso
plastic card or wedge
Golden’s white gesso

I don’t believe in tearing out pages in my art journals. I will work on it to get past that ugly stage that some pages go through. But sometimes I just want a fresh start.

White gesso, unless applied in a heavy coat, or in several coats will not always cover up the page.

Used alone white gesso is great if you want to preserve what you already created and make it recede.

What I am talking about is going back to neutral. You won’t get back to a pure white, but it is a fresh start.

Sample with white gesso - one coat applied with a plastic card. — One thin layer of Golden’s white gesso applied with a plastic card.

Sample with black gesso - one coat applied with a plastic card. — Black gesso applied in the same way as the white gesso (and the in same thin layer as the white gesso) eliminates all traces of the previous layer.

ample with white gesso - one coat of white applied with a plastic card over the black gesso. — One coat of white gesso applied with a plastic card over the black gesso.

ample with white gesso - several coat applied with a plastic card over black gesso. — A few more thin coats of white over the black gesso.

The white gesso over the black has a grey cast to it but compared to the side with white gesso only, you can see that the previous layer has disappeared.

(Opaque paints may not need the white gesso over the black as in my first example with the teal brush strokes.)