How To Make a Great Homemade Pastel Surface for Winter Landscapes

'Traveling Through the Snow'.           8x10        pastel            ©Karen Margulis
available $150

I love texture! I have an easy and foolproof way of creating a textured surface. I just use clear gesso. For this winter landscape  I added a few drops of liquid acrylic to the clear gesso  and applied it to a piece of Canson Mi-Teintes paper with random brushstrokes. The paper did buckle a bit but flattened out after I placed in under a heavy book. 

I like to tone the clear gesso because it allows me to easily set the mood for the painting. I selected yellow for this painting because I wanted some warmth in my cold winter landscape. I could have selected a cooler color if I wanted a really cold icy feeling!

I have written about other homemade surfaces on my blog. Here are some links in case you missed them:

http://www.kemstudios.blogspot.com/2013/02/friday-featurethe-secret-formula-for.html

http://www.kemstudios.blogspot.com/2012/01/one-way-to-loosen-up-your-painting.html

http://www.kemstudios.blogspot.com/2013/02/using-homemade-surfaces-to-spice-up.html

Clear gesso mixed with liquid acrylic makes a great ground

The start to my winter landscape

TIP: I use Liquitex Clear gesso. It has a slight grittiness to it which gives any surface a bit of a sandy feeling. You can add pumice if you want a rougher grit. You can tone it or use it over watercolor allowing the color to show. Regular white gesso does not do the same thing so be sure to use clear gesso!