Acrylic: Painting with fillers

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. 

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.

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