Cracks in Gesso?
 

Help! What happened.? Several months ago, I started this, and put it away, I only got as far as starting to sketch it, I pulled it out to start this morning and noticed there is one spot on the canvas about 2" square where the gesso looks like it wants to "crack" I have held it to the light and it hasn't actually cracked yet but has lots of fine lines in it that look like they want to crack. I TRIED to take a picture of it, but it was hard, I will post it and depending on the angle of the monitor you may be able to see.

Any ideas what this is?, I have seen this one other time on another linen canvas I painted a landscape on years ago, I just painted right over it and ten years later nothing has happened to it, but if you look you can see that "pattern" under the paint.

What can I do to fix this before I start painting?

Is this a commercially prepared canvas or one you primed yourself? If so, what did you use to prime it with?

Question: Did you gesso the canvas yourself? And if so, did it bleed through the canvas to the other side?

Preparing a canvas with gesso is something that needs to be done with care. The first layer you put on should only be a fine dusting. Only after a few of these "dustings" when the weave is filled can you begin to put it on a bit thicker.

Gessoing is one of life's more tedious activities, prompting many artists to paint over existing works to save time.

Too thick
 

Yes, it was put on too thick. If it's on fabric you could have trouble. On panel you should be fine. Just do as Scott says.

No,
 

This was a commercially prepared linen canvas, I have had in the closet for a while, I was going to practice some today since I haven't played in the oils in so long, but I tried to sand it and paint a little over it to see what would happen. I think this could end up being a major problem, the paint went over it fine, but after about 10 minutes the pattern became very obvious. I'm not going to waste my time.

What brand was it?

Michelle,
 

I think it was a linen canvas by "Creative Mark Centurion". Im not sure, it has been probably a year since I ordered these, I get alot of my paint and pastels from Jerry's Artarama Catalog, and I ordered several brands of canvases at one time a while back to see if I liked any of them. I really hate stretching my own. But this one is AWFUL!

It was a 30" x 40", I wonder if I could sand it down and put another coat of gesso on it?? Not for a commissioned piece obviously, but to experiment on for myself?

Sanding
 

Sanding of cloth can be trouble as you may reduce the thread as you sand. I'd start over.

It's not worth your time to work on this canvas. I'd try to return it. If you paint on it and really like what you've done, you'll regret using this inferior support.

I think you could successfully remove the canvas from the stretchers, resize (crop) the canvas to exclude the damaged area, then mount the smaller canvas to a board.