So this is a quick post this week but I have been soon busy! As I mentioned in another post, I’m trying to jump into more mixed media painting, so of course that means buying more stuff, right?
Wrong!
Well, not buying expensive stuff at least. Have you ever seen the prices of gesso, texture paste, crackle paste, etc? They’re pretty criminal, so of course it’s Pinterest to the rescue. Here I have hunted down the most popular recipes for some painting mediums. Enjoy!
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DIY Gesso
There’s a lot of good recipes out there for this one. I haven’t personally tried them because I have a massive container of gesso left over from before I discovered these recipes, but when I run out, they are definitely going to be used.
Earth Pigments – This is a classical recipes using traditional ingredients.
Xengraphicx.com – This is a recipe for clear gesso which is really great if you want to see what’s under the gesso. The artist used it over a book page so she could write on it without bleed through. Smart!
Such a Pretty Mess – This recipe is the one I see the most, the baby powder recipe. Also this is Gabrielle Pollacco’s website. She has absolutely stunning mixed media work and tutorials.
I have also seen recipes using plaster of paris as the dry ingredient. It seems to be close to chalk paint recipes with the addition of glue. To make texture paste, just adjust the wet and dry ingredients to make it thicker.
2. DIY Texture Paste
I have noticed that a lot of recipes are the same as gesso recipes except to increase the dry ingredients to make a thicker consistency, but I did run across one that sounded interesting.
Such a Pretty Mess – This is another recipe from Gabrielle Pollacco. She uses baking soda that reacts with the other ingreients to puff up a bit. This sounds really neat, I need to try this!
3. DIY Crackle Paste
Well, there really isn’t a recipe for this since it only calls for one ingredient, but there is a certain way to use it. Its just plain old glue. Elmers all purpose glue or some equivilant. Don’t get washable glue. I did it not thinking and when I put my next layer on, which was water based, it made the cracks sticky and wet again. It wasn’t the end of the world, I just put a thin layer of acrylic paint over it, but it was an extra step that wouldnt have been necessary if I’d used the all purpose to begin with.
Any way, the way you use the glue to make it crackle is to put down a pretty thick layer of glue over whatever surface you’re using and then before it dries, put a coat of acrylic paint over it. Don’t mix the two together. The thicker the layers, the bigger the cracks. If you want all your cracks to run the same way, keep all your strokes in the same direction. If you want random, swirl the glue around with your fingers before pointing on the acrylic and keep your strokes random. This works really well! If you would like to see a youtube video about using glue as crackle paint, click here.
4. DIY Fiber Texture Paste
Gauche Alchemy – Here is youtube video they made on fiber texture paste from toilet paper. This stuff looks like it would be fun to play with.
So there ya go! Have fun trying some of these recipes out and tell me how they work. How did you use them? I would love to hear from y’all.
Thanks!
Angie
Tell me all about it!