Acrylic: Painting with fillers
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Mix sand in your paint? Why not! This isn't some uninspired artist's hare-brained idea, it's a frequently used technique for creating a coarse, rather spectacular texture. What you need to know about mineral fillers.
What you need to know
- Fillers are substances added to paint. They do not change the color at all, but give it a grainy, slightly coarse, appearance.
- Fillers are very practical for suggesting an expanse of sand or the surface of a rock, for example.
1. What kind of filler should you choose?
You have a choice from ready-to-use to 100% handmade!
Acrylic painting pastes: Acrylic paint and filler mixes are ideal for beginners, because they come ready-to-use. You have (almost) nothing to do!
- Crushed marble: This is one of the most used mineral powders. It is marketed in various degrees of coarseness. You can mix it by adding acrylic paint to the powder.
- Note: because the powder is very dense, you need a significant amount of paint.
- River sand: remember to collect some when walking along a stream! Wash and boil it to get rid of any organic residue. Mix it with the paint later.
Note: because sand contains various grain sizes and colors, it has a quite irregular texture.
Have fun! You can add… anything you want: wood shavings, newsprint, confetti, glitter, etc.
2. Adding a filler
- Select a firm medium: thick cardboard or canvas mounted on a frame.
- Use a spatula to mix the filler with white acrylic paint from a tube.
- Spread the resulting paste on the medium with the spatula.
- Once the paste is dry, preserve the original texture by using diluted colors to paint over it. Use a pig bristle brush with slightly worn bristles, because they can hold more pigments.
Suggested products
Canson® Acrylic
See also
Acrylic: Creating impastos

Impastos, that is, texture effects, help make your material a lot more original! Plus, they are very easy to create