Applying Paint to Texture
Once you have made your texture and have applied it to the canvas, it is advisable to leave the texture to dry overnight so that all of the thickest parts of the texture have dried out.
If you have created the texture using my texture recipe then you can apply this to the canvas really thickly and it will not reduce or shrink back too much. You can also just apply it to parts of the canvas or use masking tape to mask off areas for different patterns. Stencils can also work well to give a raised effect of a particular shape.
In some cases it might be necessary to leave the texture to dry for longer than 12 hours but this is really only if you have applied it extremely thickly. (I usually just leave it overnight).
Make Marks and Patterns
The more patterns and marks you make in the texture, the wider the variety of paint effects you can use to apply the paint on the texture.
Pick any household implements to use to make marks in the texture, like forks, spoons, sticks etc.If you stick masking tape to the canvas, you can use a craft knife to cut out patterns and this should not cut into the canvas.
Apply Many Coats
I can’t stress too much how much better the painting looks when you apply many layers of paint.
To start off with I always apply a watered down coat of a neutral colour to the textured base.
Use about 1 part paint to 1 part water and make sure that you cover the whole canvas and get into all the cracks in the texture. Let this initial coat dry before adding any further paint layers on.
When applying paint to texture, the paint has a different translucence than it does purely on the canvas and you can get more vibrant colour effects if all the texture is initially covered with paint.
One thing I recommend that you do before creating a painting with heavy texture is to create a trial piece on a small canvas, perhaps marked out into squares with different types of texture in each – perhaps some scraped marks, some added swirls, some deliberate cracks etc, then you can test out applying different thicknesses of paint.
Apply Paint in Different Ways
Try applying paint in different ways to the texture and in many layers. Some examples of ways of applying paint to texture are:
- Apply the paint straight from the tube/bottle(i.e. in its original consistency) but leave it for about 30 seconds before wiping some of it off with a cloth or tissue. This enables some of the paint below to show through.
- Use a very watered down version of the paint to create a glaze – this can be quite useful to apply over the top of your colour and will show in the cracks of the texture particularly if you use a dark colour. You can just do this in some areas where there is deeper texture or else apply it all over the painting. You can also rub some of this off with a dry or wet cloth to get different effects.
- Use some dry-brushing on the textured surface so that it only covers some of the higher texture. Make sure you really don’t have much paint on your brush and that the brush is completely dry before you use it. This is quite a good thing to do as a last layer and I often use white, silver or gold to do this.
Use these techniques in lots of layers and it will enable you to build up a texture painting with different colours showing through. I can often apply between 6 and 10 coats of paint before I am happy with something. And don’t be afraid to keep going if you are not happy with what you have – you can just keep painting over it.What to Use to Apply the Paint
At the end of the day there is no right or wrong and you can use whatever you have available to try and create different effects on the surface.
Comments List
adminJune 22, 2020 9:41 pm /
Hi Renee, I'm trying to picture exactly what you did! I think it would be quite difficult to remove all of the dry texture once it has adhered to the canvas. You may be able to sand it down once you have got most of it off but if you used PVA with the texture then it should be pretty much stuck to the canvas. I think you will need to work with the texture that you have. Maybe you can gesso over it again and then add tissue while the gesso is wet, that would give some nice patterns, but only paint it once it is dry. You need to let the wrap dry on the paint and then peel it off I think to get much of an effect with that. You can also use different layers of different consistency paint (as above) to get different effects which might help.
Cheryl AtkinsonMarch 16, 2020 8:00 pm /
Hi, i have started my canvas with the white textured base. Now i am just stuck. I don't really know what to do now. I want layers and layers and then i want to put a raised stencil. I don't know what order to put the paint. I over think things and that is my downfall. Help?adminMarch 17, 2020 9:53 am /
Hi Cheryl, yes overthinking can be an issue! I would say if you have done all the texture you want then just start adding some paint! You can always overpaint it if you don't like what you have done. I would do all of the texture first though e.g. the raised stencil, and then paint afterwards. Try some of the different methods above with different consistencies of paint once you have applied a neutral coat of paint over all the texture.
Brigitte WhittinghamMarch 1, 2020 11:21 pm /
i am going to do some testing with caulkin. a building material in england. thick layers. i want to stamp into it as well. so drying process. timing. see if it works on big canvas too. i'll keep you posted. brigitte xadminMarch 2, 2020 10:16 pm /
Hi Brigitte, I have used caulk from a squeezy tube before and it has worked really well - got some nice patterns which I then painted over. Be interesting to see how it turns out in thick layers.
Jane MacNeilNovember 6, 2016 10:58 am /
Can you tint or color your homemade texture paste with acrylic paint and paint similar to impasto paintings?adminNovember 6, 2016 2:03 pm /
Yes you can although you will only end up with pastel colours because of the nature of the texture.
AngelaJanuary 24, 2016 2:25 am /
Could you add food coloring to the texture before you apply to the canvas?adminJanuary 24, 2016 8:55 am /
I'm not sure if food colouring might have some kind of shelf life to it. You could add paint to it which is something I have done in the past but because the texture is white it does tend to end up pastel coloured.
Elizabeth FreedmanJune 16, 2016 7:15 am /
Do I have to use your recipe, i.e. a homemade one, or can any of the textures on the market okay? I love this process and can't wait to try it! Also, what type of canvas or board should be used? Thank youadminJune 16, 2016 8:00 am /
Hi Elizabeth, you can use any kind of texture for this. I just find my recipe gives a thicker base which works really well with lots of layers of paint but any of the others are fine too. You can use it on a standard stretched canvas or on a canvas board. In fact you can use it on primed wood too and probably a bunch of other surfaces I haven't even thought of. I think the key with this kind of stuff is just to experiment and almost think that there are no rules!
biancaNovember 16, 2015 12:06 am /
can you create a texture as your background and then do a image transfer into it then paint it?adminNovember 25, 2015 10:15 am /
With this texture you can just use it as your medium for doing what you would normally do with a canvas or a board so I would think you can do whatever you like before painting it. Feel free to share any results if you try this.
Mary Mauro JardineSeptember 2, 2015 3:05 pm /
Hello....I was hoping that you could let me know what the recipe is for your texture.....Thanks so muchadminSeptember 2, 2015 3:59 pm /
Hi, yes you can find it here https://www.painting-texture.com/make-your-own-texture/ :-)
sheralJune 14, 2012 3:55 am /
hi, thankyou sooomuch for sharing your art tips!! i have tried your recipe for texture and when i tried touse oil paint over it the texture completey absorbed the paint immediated and i was not even able to spred the paint over again. it this normal or did i go wrong somewhere. please let menknow what kind of paints you use. i used winsor newton oil paints mixed with liquin/linseed oil. please help coz i am craving to create my own painting:). thanks once again.adminJune 14, 2012 10:48 am /
Hi sheral and thanks for your comment. I mostly use this texture with acrylic paint but I have occasionally used it with oils. If I do then I will add a coat of acrylic on top of the texture before I start using the oil paint so that might help to stop it absorbing so much.
ReneeJune 21, 2020 3:51 pm /
Hi I applied texture paste to my canvas and then i applied some acrylic paint. i put down some Saran Wrap and moved it all around to try and get some patterns in the paint. It did not show up at all. Is there a way to move around the paint with a plastic bag of some sort as I do on my smooth canvases? I also had a hard time spreading the paint. Is there a way to remove some of the dry texture and maybe put gesso on after removing some of it? I now gessoed over the whole thing thinking it would get rid of some of the texture but it didn’t. Any suggestions? Thank you.