Cool Glue Effects

Today I am still working in Surface Treatment Workshop book.  This experiment involves using regular white craft glue as a "resist".  It's basically a crackle technique with something you always have on your art desk - plain old white craft glue!  This piece is called "River Dreams" and involves using the technique on two different types of surfaces.  The background was on cheap old acrylic paper.  I underpainted with ultramarine blue and stenciled some gold polkadots on it.  Once it was thoroughly dry I coated the paper with a thick layer of white craft glue (I used Elmer's Craft Bond All-Purpose Glue).  While the glue was still wet I over painted with viridi acrylic very gently so as not to work the viridi color into the glue.  Having little patience for air drying, I used my heat gun on low.  Once the whole piece of paper was cracked and dry I glued a sculpey baked face onto the front.  I undercoated the face with ultramarine blue, let it dry, applied glue and viridi as before.  The face didn't crack as much as the paper, probably because it was harder to get a thick even coat on the face, but I think the look turned out ok, and what an inexpensive alternative to crackle medium!

NOTE:  Well, since Blogger won't let me comment even on my own post (what the...???) I'll add my comment here.
To clarify, on the background after I applied the glue and paint I dribbled water on it which caused the cracking to feather here and there making it much more interesting.
Hope that helps!