Using Texture Paste
Ok, enough of the boring details, let's put our paste and gel to use.
First we can play around to see the differences for ourselves.
I have scooped up some texture paste with my finger and put it down on the canvas to form a ball and two swirls around it. As you can see the surface is nice and rough giving us an interesting texture.
Next I have wet my finger in some water and smoothed the paste to show how it can be tooled the same as putty. You just have to work reasonably fast as the paste starts drying immediately.
Using Texture Gel 
Here I have scooped up some texture gel, again with my finger, and added some squiggles onto the canvas so that you can see the difference.
After leaving the canvas to dry in the sun for an hour or two, you can see how transparent and flat the gel has become.
I have now painted a wash of Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber over the canvas. I could have used any colour with the same results, but I needed contrast for the photograph. You can now see that the texture paste has covered with paint perfectly. On the other hand an interesting effect has been created with the texture gel. Why?
The gel forms a smooth surface which means that the paint doesn't grip as well to it. Thus a thinner layer of paint is over the gel and gives a lighter colour than the rest of the canvas. Interestingly, the thicker the gel, the lighter the colour. This can be used to created wonderful effects in your paintings. Some examples are to create clouds or fields using only one colour of paint. In the example shown below Amelia has applied the texture gel using a stencil to create this wonderful watermark effect.
If you don't want this effect and only the texture, simply let the first layer of paint dry and repaint it again. This technique along with dry brushing to 'highlight' the texture was used in the painting below.
Texture gel can also be used to apply all sorts of mixed media to your canvas before painting. Some of these include serviettes, sand, buttons, etc.
Just remember that both texture paste and texture gel are water based so if you are using them with oil paints you need to do ALL your pasting and gelling BEFORE you start to paint. If you don't do this the gel and paste will peel off eventually.
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