 |
| A fresh coat of Golden absorbent ground on canvas boards. When it dries it is matt. |
 |
| When adding acrylic medium to watercolor paint, the medium makes the paint dry hard so keeping the moist watercolors seperate is useful. Left over paint can be kept in a bag with a wet sponge. When painting outside the paint palette will go into an airtight box. |
 |
"From my Studio Window" is on a 14x 11 inch canvas board covered with
Golden brand absorbent ground for watercolors.
This is my first watercolor in which I mixed my watercolor with diluted Liquitex gloss medium,
1 part medium to 2 parts water. Most of the paint was stable when brushing on the the medium to make the colors permanent, but some darks smeared.. I suspect I didn't get as much medium in the dark colors that ran into the light colors.
The watercolor mixed with dilute medium has the same quality as translucent watercolors with some advantages. Watercolor paints is lighter weight and requires less space in a suitcase. Painting on a personally prepared absorbent ground means the water media can either remain transparent or take on the appearance of other media. Gouache white or acrylic white can be mixed in to make it more opaque.. Then more acrylics or oils can be built up over the watercolor. Finally the permanence of the surface does not require the protection of glass or Plexiglass. |
I like the glassless presentation of watercolors. Gone are the distracting reflections and all the fuss with framing and cleaning the glass.
3 comments:
Does this process mean you do not need glass to protect the painting or is this just a preference on your part? I finally ordered a downloadable course for water colors and will probably begin simply with the basic...when i find some time. I have been procrastinating a lot these days.
My aim is to have the translucency of watercolor and not have to cover the watercolor paintings with glass or Plexiglass. My second aim is to make watercolor painting more workable by having the option of restoring the white surface if the painting has problems. White can be restored in several ways. First, paint over the problem with white absorbent ground. Or scratch through the watercolor exposing deep layers of white absorbent ground. The third way to redo watercolor areas that are dark is to draw over the textured painting with white conte crayon or pastel. These crayon marks will cover the ridges leaving the valleys the original color until coated with fixatives. The brushed on varnish will make both the ridges and valleys milky and partially lighten the paint.
Tabor, wishing you an exciting painting time.
Let me get this process straight in my head. When you are ready to put watercolor to canvas that you have brushed with absorbent ground which has completely dried, you FIRST mix the watercolor with some premixed water/liquitex gloss medium, and THEN you put the watercolor onto the canvas. You do that with each color of watercolor. When your painting is finished and completely dry you brush over the completed painting with the water/medium mixture to make sure it's completely sealed. If you haven't mixed enough into one of the watercolors, that watercolor might smear when you put the final coat over the finished painting. Have I got it? I've been looking for a way to not have to put glass/acrylic over my watercolors so I'm going to try this out. Thanks so much for posting this.
Post a Comment