How To Make Texture Paste

I don’t know about you, but I love paintings with lots of texture. In addition to traditional texture paste and heavy body paint, I have used the following in my paintings: crumpled tissue paper, sand, crushed sea shells, paintable textured wallpaper, and leaves. I’ll touch on some of these more in a future post, but for now I’ll focus on traditional texture paste and how you can make your own. Making your own is SO much cheaper and you can create exactly what you want. Below you will find the recipes for two different pastes that I use. One provides a course/rough texture that reminds me of brick mortar. The first time I used it I wasn’t sure I liked it because I had trouble blending my colors on it. I found that if I put a thick gesso layer on it and used some glazing medium with my paints, problem solved. It can provide some beautiful effects. The other paste recipe is more like what you might purchase and provides a slightly softer effect. There are many recipes “out there” that call for baby powder. I use plaster of paris instead of baby powder to eliminate the smell.

Course Texture Paste:

3 Parts Ready Mix Stucco Patch - I purchased SIKA brand from Amazon

1 Part Elmer’s Glue (or other PVA glue)

Mix and adjust to desired consistency.

Smooth Texture Paste:

1/2 Cup Gesso

1/4 Cup White Glue - I use Elmer’s Glue

1 Cup Plaster of Paris

Mix all ingredients together and adjust the amount of Plaster of Paris to achieve your desired consistency.