Join us in welcoming guest artist, Heather Kindt, to Somerset Place! Heather is a talented mixed-media artist who has been featured in several of our magazines including Art Journaling and Stampers’ Sampler. We’re excited to have her here on the blog today to give us insight into the best kinds of texture media to use for various projects!

I have a lot of media (media is the plural form of medium when it comes to art talk). Let’s make sense of the products we use when it comes to acrylic paint and texture media.

The Products

1. Paint, acrylic from craft to fine art grades

Acrylic paint = pigment + acrylic polymers + moisture + filler

(Acrylic paint = color + plastic + water + chalk/talc etc)

*specifics depend on the brand, the higher the price is usually the greater concentration of pigment

 

2. Gel medium

Acrylic polymers + water = gel

 

3. Texture medium

Gel medium + mixative = texture medium

 

Acrylic Paint

Paint comes in different viscosities or forms. Check out the forms of acrylic paint.

Heavy body paint is usually in a tube, metal or plastic. Quality varies by brand.

A telling characteristic of heavy body paint is the peaks that can be formed with a pallet knife.

Heavy body paint works well with stencils. It leaves a crisp image with clean lines.

A softer paint, but also considered heavy body, is open acrylic.

With a longer drying time the paint formula has more water and does not have the ability to dry with sharp peaks.

It works well with stencils but is not as sharp.

The next type form of acrylic is called fluid.

It is a liquid thicker than water.

It is thick enough to use with a stencil, but can easily seep underneath the edges. Using a small amount of paint with a sponge prevents seepage.

The final form of acrylic is very runny and has many names: paint ink, high-flow, airbrush paint.

Any color that is pastel must be shaken because the pigments with settle at the bottom in a fluid so runny.

(The bubbles are from all the shaking.)

High flow does not work well straight on a stencil. For sure use a stencil brush or sponge.

Compare the high-viscosity to an ink that is compatible with dip pens but has many uses. Inks vary in permanence, some are water soluble.

This is a permanent ink called an India ink. The color is very dense.

Both look great when spread by a pallet knife.

 

 

 

Acrylic Gel Media

Next are the gel mediums; gels vary in thickness and shine. For example Golden sells all these options.

Extra heavy gel medium

Heavy gel medium

Regular gel medium

Soft gel medium

And each is available in three sheens:

Gloss, Semi-gloss (Satin), Matte

While they all dry clear, a little bit of white is added to the gel to knock back the shine from gloss to make semi-gloss. More white is added for matte.

My Soft Gel Matte is old enough to have dried into a stiffer gel, such as heavy gel medium. These dry really fast.

If you forget which heaviness does what, Golden explains it on the label.

Works well with stencils. Also my favorite for image transfers is Regular Gel Semi-gloss. Similar to this one.

Another brand that is like Golden’s actual Soft Gel is Prima’s 3-D Matte Gel by Finnabair.

It reminds me of the open acrylic paint since the peaks are soft.

Works well with stencils.

 

Texture Media

Gel medium + tiny clear balls, similar to sprinkles = Bead Gel (sometimes called glass bead gel).

If you take gel medium and add pearl or mica powder you will get an iridescent medium. They vary by brand.

 

This brand has a pretty thick gel that works with stencils and makes really cool image transfers.

There is a unique medium called Light Modeling Paste or Light Molding Paste or Ranger’s Texture Paste Opaque Matte. It is light and fluffy like marshmallow cream. I think that it is whipped, it has a surface that is porous. Much different from a gel, that has a consistency like paint, light pasted absorb liquid readily.

Thick moldings pastes hold a peak better than heavy body paint.

 

Perfect for stencils, go over them 2 or 3 times so you don’t waste paste.

Give extra drying time to thick applications.

Below is Ranger’s paste.

Regular Modeling Paste or Flexible Modeling Paste is much heavier than the light version. Trust me, it will make your journal heavy. It does make impressive texture.

Also brilliant with stencils.

I believe in dirty stencils, but you need to clean them after using pastes or they will mess up the clear lines.

Other texture pastes have a gel base with a particular mixture. Cement Paste and others mix sand with the gel the texture is very gritty. Mine dried out in the container (after a few years of neglect), but it is still flexible and you can see the gritty texture.

Another example is a black texture that can be made in different ways. This one is iron and a very heavy paste.

Now the formula is simple to understand. When you meet a new stencil consider what thickness of gel was used and what was the mixative. What it mica? Glitter? Metallic paint? Or you can make your own with gel and whatever you want! Yea us!

To keep up with Heather, you can visit her website and Facebook!

Website: https://heatherkindtart.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heather.kindt