GOLDEN Crackle Paste

GOLDEN Crackle Paste is a thick, opaque cracking material, designed to develop deep fissure-like cracks as it cures. The size and extent of the crackle pattern is dependent on many factors, including the thickness of application, and the environmental conditions (temperature, relative humidity and air flow) during drying.

Golden Crackle Paste has a consistency similar to cake icing, easily manipulated by a palette knife. Peaks will maintain their height and appearance. It is a harder film than the GOLDEN Light Molding Paste, yet still retains an absorbent surface. Films dry to an opaque, matte finish to which subsequent layers of acrylic paint and mediums can be applied. Crackle Paste can be easily tinted with GOLDEN Heavy Body, Matte, High Load and Fluid Acrylic Paints.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

While it’s possible to apply Crackle Paste onto a wide variety of surfaces, the extreme shrinking can warp flexible products like paper or canvas. Therefore, applications onto rigid supports such as wooden panels, sheetrock (decorative/faux finish applications) or hardboard are recommended. If an application on canvas is desired, pre-stretch the canvas before applying the Crackle Paste. This minimizes the warping of the canvas during drying. If paper is the desired substrate, it may be glued to a rigid support with an acrylic medium [such as Soft Gel (Gloss)] and allowed to dry to before applying the Crackle Paste. By securing the substrate or using a rigid support, the Crackle Paste has the greatest opportunity to develop the best possible pattern.

Inflexible Support — Shows how canvas will warp if this product is applied.

Below are a few student examples using Crackle Paste, the sgraffito pear was created by drawing directly into the wet paste, then allowing for it to dry, painting with thin washes of Golden Fluid Acrylics.

On the above panel the crackle paste has been spread out using a palette knife. The thickness is about that of a coin. The panel background was painted yellow to highlight the cracked areas. Generally the thicker the product the larger the cracks and the thinner the paste the smaller  the cracks. You can use a variety of tools to apply the product to a number of different surfaces, a rigid surface is the best.

Here I’m demonstrating to students the application of crackle paste and how to achieve different looks.

On this panel I used QoR Watercolors by Golden to paint the surface of the crackle paste, the surface is fairly absorbent and can create a number of different effects when using water to flood the surface.

You can also use Fluid Acrylics and High Flow Acrylics on Crackle Paste. You can apply multiple, thin, watercolor-like layers of fluid acrylics or thicker applications of paint. The more paint you apply and the more successive layers the more you can reduce the absorption of the Crackle Paste.  And if you use traditional heavy body paints you can even begin to fill in some of the cracks and smaller fissures.

On the panel below we used the Iridescent Bronze (Fine), one of the cool things about Golden’s Iridescent Bronze is the effects you can achieve when you flood it with water and the Phthalo Green pigment starts to separate out.

Crackle paste can be used to create traditional landscape paintings or abstract work, and as it dries you can allow the shapes in the paste to dictate what it is to become or the individual cells (mosaics). The Crackle Paste can be painted like a mosaic.

Notice how the paint is wicked from one cell to the next driven by the waters capillary action.

Here a student is using both Fluid and High Flow Acrylics by Golden to create her landscape painting.

Below are a few sample boards created for a lesson I  do on Crackle Paste in my mixed media painting class. The idea came from a book titled “rethinking acrylic” written by Patti Brady. The image is based on a similar work created by Golden working Artist  Bonnie Cutts (page 39 in the book “rethinking acrylics”). It's a fun and fairly easy lesson that students really enjoy.

A quick how to: 1) apply Crackle Paste, allow to dry, 2) Apply paint in thin watery washes, and step 3) repeat until happy.

First layer of paint, you could use Fluid Acrylics, High Flow Acrylics or QoR Watercolors all made by Golden. Just remember to keep them juicy wet with water to take advantage of the absorbent nature of the Crackle Paste.

Building up the "wash" layers of paint to add interest. 

There’s nothing like a few candid photos of yourself while teaching to make you look a little goofy and a little crazy, but aren’t most artist supposed to be a little goofy or a little crazy…haha.
To find out more about my classes and workshops check my calendar page.