NEED MUD

[Dakimbrell]

Do you need good mud? Try mixing tile grout (pick the color you want) with clear gloss polyurethane paint. The more grout you add tends to make it flatter. However, you can coat it with the gloss polyurethane.

Dak

[Mark Deliduka]

Interesting idea! Never thought of that, even though I've worked  with tile grout before. Wow, nice work!

[Ron Bell]

I'm old school, I guess. Just get some garden variety dirt, put it through a fine tea stainer to get the extraneous organic matter and lumps out, mix it either with dullcoat or gloss coat, depending if you want wet or dry "mud", and apply. An option is to mix it with diluted white glue to avoid any possible damage to undercoats of paint/wash, although this may necessitate some gloss and/or dull coat after it dries. Finish "dry" mud with a dusting of appropriate pastel chalks.  

[Dakimbrell]

All that works if you have the right kind of dirt. Oklahoma has a heavy clay content that doesn’t take water well. That’s why I went to tile grout. Lots of colors, mixes well, and doesn’t shrink. 

Dak