Creating texture with mediums
There are so many different techniques for creating interest in your art journals, whether you have discovered you prefer to journal in a style that is closer to scrapbooking, or in a more “arty” style.
By now most of you probably have a pot of gesso in your stash and possibly some gel medium. Both of these products can be used to create texture on your pages. If you haven’t already, now is the time to experiment with them. Grab some scraps of paper (watercolour, card, scrapbook papers), or a few tags to use. Have a play with your mediums, don’t expect greatness, and leave them to dry...thoroughly! Once they are dry go over them with paints and watch the textures leap out at you. Some you’ll like, some you won’t, but you will have had a lot of fun trying them out.
Gesso is a great product for creating a light texture. Apply it a brush, and if you’re quick (or more organised than me!) use a lid to stamp into it.
Try applying gesso through a stencil , for best results use a palette knife.
I’ve applied paint to both of these tags with a baby wipe once the gesso is dry, and to make the dots pop I gently wiped off the paint over them before it was completely dry. You can of course just leave the paint where it is so the texture forms part of your background rather than stands out against it.
My very favourite medium for creating texture is Liquitex Modelling Paste. Modelling paste is extra heavy body and very opaque. It's a marble paste made of marble dust and 100% polymer emulsion. It can be used to build heavy textures on rigid supports and create three-dimensional forms. It dries to the hardness of stone and it can be sanded or carved when thoroughly dry.
You may not want to carve it, but, you can stamp into it, but PLEASE spritz your stamp first and immediately clean.
The texture really stands out once paint has been applied. Again I’ve just used a baby wipe, and lifted some of the paint off. As you can see the stamp slid a little so this may not be a technique for you if you want a crisp stamped image.
I also like to use modelling paste under and over paint through a stencil.
In addition try using modelling paste to embed items into your pages. Here’s I’ve used some plastic screening. You could go over it with gesso to hide the colour and let it become more a part of the background if you wanted to. I quite liked the contrast.
Items used in this article:
Liquitex Modelling Paste & Gesso
Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics in Cadmium Orange, Medium Magenta & Cadmium Yellow Light Hue