Start with soft, layered colour

Texture can begin with a subtle shift in the way paint moves. GOLDEN Soft Gels have a softer consistency than Heavy Body Acrylics, making them a useful starting point for gentle surface texture, layered colour and collage.

Soft Gel Gloss is especially useful when you want to explore transparent glazes. Try letting an earlier colour show through a new layer, or use the gel to bring paper elements into a painted composition. The Gloss, Semi-Gloss and Matte options let you explore different finishes as well as different marks.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Soft Gel Gloss · Soft Gel Semi-Gloss · Soft Gel Matte

Give your brushstrokes more presence

Once you want your marks to hold more shape, move to GOLDEN Regular Gels. Their consistency matches Heavy Body Acrylics, so you can extend your colour while retaining that familiar, substantial feel under the brush or palette knife.

They also increase transparency without thinning the paint’s consistency. Use them to explore impasto, where raised marks become part of the painting’s character. A broad knife stroke and a short brushstroke can create very different rhythms, even when you use the same colour.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Regular Gel Gloss · Regular Gel Semi-Gloss · Regular Gel Matte

Build bolder shapes with less weight

For texture that rises further from the surface, GOLDEN Light Molding Paste offers a different approach. It holds firm peaks and dries to an opaque, matte finish, with over 50% less weight than GOLDEN’s standard Molding Paste.

That lighter weight is particularly useful when working across larger areas. Try using a palette knife to create repeated ridges, sweeping shapes or small raised details. The paste can be mixed with acrylic colour, while its absorbent surface also invites experiments with Fluid Acrylic stains once dry.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Light Molding Paste

Bring grit into the picture

Height is only one way to change a painting’s surface. GOLDEN Pumice Gels introduce a grainy texture that can suggest stone, weathered walls or rough ground.

Fine Pumice Gel offers a surface suited to drawing and dry media, including pastel. Coarse and Extra Coarse Pumice Gels create progressively rougher, sand-like effects. All three can be mixed with acrylic colour or painted over once dry, giving you a way to connect drawn marks with painted passages.

Try reserving the grittiest areas for a small part of your composition. Their contrast with a smoother passage can make the texture feel more deliberate.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Fine Pumice Gel · Coarse Pumice Gel · Extra Coarse Pumice Gel

Explore texture that catches the light

If you like a textured surface but want a more translucent effect, GOLDEN Clear Granular Gel is worth exploring. Its acrylic granules create a coarse finish that dries translucent, opening up possibilities for textured glazes.

GOLDEN Glass Bead Gel takes the effect in another direction. Made with real glass beads, it creates a surface reminiscent of droplets on glass. Apply it thinly over a light colour to help the beads catch the light; a single layer of beads gives the best clarity.

These two gels offer a useful comparison: one introduces translucent grain, while the other brings a more reflective, beaded surface.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Clear Granular Gel · Glass Bead Gel

Balance texture with flowing layers

Alongside those more tactile effects, fluid mediums give you control over the quieter passages of a painting. They help adjust the paint’s flow, transparency and finish.

Choose GOLDEN Gloss Medium for flowing, translucent colour and increased gloss. Matte Medium extends colour while reducing shine, and Fluid Matte Medium offers a thinner consistency particularly suited to Fluid Acrylics.

Think about where you want the viewer’s attention to settle. A glossy layer beside a matte area, or a fluid passage beside raised marks, gives you another relationship to explore within the same painting.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Gloss Medium · Matte Medium · Fluid Matte Medium

Draw with drips and looping lines

Once you start changing paint’s consistency, the way you make marks can change too. GOLDEN Clear Tar Gel has a stringy, resinous character that lends itself to drizzling and trailing lines across the surface.

Tint it with a small amount of Fluid Acrylic, then experiment with letting it fall from a palette knife. GOLDEN’s demonstration explores lines ranging from broad ribbons to fine threads.

Try a few loose loops on a sample surface before bringing the technique into a painting. It is an inviting way to introduce movement and a drawn quality without keeping your tool in contact with the canvas.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Clear Tar Gel

Let poured colour find its own pattern

For a broader, flowing movement, GOLDEN Color Pouring Medium Matte extends acrylic colour for pouring, pooling and dripping, with a low-sheen finish.

The video pairs it with Fluid Colors in a dirty pour, bringing several colours together and using movement to develop organic patterns. It is a useful next step if you enjoy the spontaneous quality of drizzled lines and want to explore that freedom across a larger area.

Begin with a small colour palette so you can get to know the effect before adding more complexity. Notice which colour combinations you want to return to in your next experiment.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Color Pouring Medium Matte

Create a softer, wax-like appearance

Another direction is to explore the soft appearance associated with encaustic painting through acrylic materials. GOLDEN’s demonstration introduces this approach using matte gels and mediums, with colour helping to adjust the effect.

Soft Gel Matte, Regular Gel Matte and Matte Medium are options in our range to explore alongside the demonstration. Watch how the choice of medium and colour contributes to the overall appearance, then make small samples to find a finish that suits your work.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Soft Gel Matte · Regular Gel Matte · Matte Medium

Bring paper and paint together

Texture can also come from the materials you bring into a composition. A torn edge, a piece of printed paper or an overlapping shape can introduce a different kind of surface interest.

GOLDEN gels and mediums can act as adhesives for collage and mixed media. The range of consistencies gives you room to experiment with how you apply them and how the assembled surface relates to the painted areas.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Soft Gel Gloss · Soft Gel Matte

Know when to smooth things out

After exploring all that texture, it is worth returning to the surface underneath. Sometimes a smoother foundation is what lets fine detail or a delicate mark come through.

GOLDEN Molding Paste can be worked into the weave of canvas with a palette knife, spreader or scraper to reduce the texture of the fabric. GOLDEN’s demonstration shows how this creates a smoother painting surface, with further applications or wet sanding after drying offering additional refinement.

It is a useful reminder that working with texture includes deciding where you want less of it. Your choice of foundation can be just as expressive as the marks you build on top.

Explore at Gordon Harris: Molding Paste