You can achieve beautiful texture with various degrees of body and finishes by using modeling, fiber and structure pastes. All three pastes are water based and dry white. They can be colored with pigment pastes or painted over. You can also layer them and apply textiles and other items embedded in the paste for interesting mixed media backgrounds. All three products can be used through stencils as well. The three products are very similar and can be used in similar ways, but they do have notable differences.
Modeling paste is a creamy thick paste that dries white and somewhat shiny. It does remain somewhat flexible after drying. You can use modeling paste in lace type moulds to create soft flexible castings that can be applies around curved surfaces. I like using modeling paste in my backgrounds. I apply it with a palette knife, sometimes applying several layers, drying in between. Of the three products, this one will have the least amount of body / stiffness for creating tall peaks.
Fiber paste is thick and contains pulpy paper fibers. The paste will dry white and porous, with the texture of paper, which will allow it to absorb watercolors or watered down paints, where as structure and modeling paste are less porous. Many artists use fiber paste to create sculpted flowers and other 3d items on a canvas or board. This is the stiffest of all three products and will retain the shape however it is applied.
Structure paste is white and somewhat gritty. The finish dries to a hard, matte, stone like surface. This is quite stiff, more than modeling but less than fiber. I like it to create the look of concrete or brick.
If you missed Episode 3, you can watch it here for the full product demonstration:
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