I have been painting on watercolor canvas for about a year now and these are some of the problems I encountered.
Because the paint lays on the canvas rather than be absorbed into it, it takes a lot of practice as well as care if you try to paint over certain areas.
For instance, if you try to shadow, the layer of paint beneath will come up. Therefore, I put a light wash of acrylic on first so the white of the canvas doesn’t show thru unless I want it to.
Also, you have to spray the finished painting with Blair matte damar varnish (about 4 or 5 times). That way, since the painting doesn’t require glass, if it gets wet later on down the road, the paint won’t come up.
This canvas takes a lot of getting used to, but with some of the textured things I do the effect can be quite nice.
Look at the photo. To get that texture I used Masa paper that is in the rice paper family.
When you get it, it will be a smooth piece of paper and do not appear to be rice paper at all. You put it in a sink of cold water, wad it up into a ball, this breaks the sizing of the paper. It is now VERY VERY fragile so be careful when you spread it out. Take a roller and roll over the paper, otherwise it will dry puffy. After the paper dries, I adhere it to the top half of the canvas using Acrylic Matt Medium (diluted).
I again let it dry and then with a large brush with a good bit of water, wet the top half of the canvas. Next step is to have a lot of paint on the brush, most of the time I have two colors on the brush, one color on one end and the second color of the other end.
When you put the paint down, and with all that water that you put down, it just explodes into all the creases that the paper now has. After a bit, when your frustration levels off, you will enjoy working with it.
P.
Hi Paula
On the light acrylic wash….do you use white or any other colors? How does that blend with the watercolor? I have done acrylic over acrylic of course. I have heard about oil over acrylic, but never tried it. But watercolor over acrylic?
First thing—never mix oils and watercolors. I’m not sure about the oils and acrylics, but seems like in some of my art magazines they have said that the chemicals in oils don’t mix with other things over a long period of time. I’d have to really check that out since I haven’t used oils for many many years.
Back to the washes, I use a wash that goes along with the colors that I am using in the painting. I do this so that when I go to shadow or layer if the watercolor pulls up as it does a lot, the white of the canvas doesn’t come up. However, if I want white, such as rocks, birds, etc. then I use the maskoid just as you would on paper. In fact, I use maskiod more on the canvas and hardly ever of watercolor paper. I will say that watercolor on this canvas is very frustrating so will probably use a lot more acrylic.
Does this help???
P.
Paula thanks for showing us this technique last Thursday. It looks great on canvas. I am surprised how well it works.
Hi Paula: Some of us were unable to be at this meeting, but this synopsis of your technique is so good, I can’t wait to talk to you about it. Thanks for the blog.
Rita,
I didn’t do this at the meeting but talked with several other members about it afterwards. We’ll certainly talk about it whenever we are together. See you at Kanuga if not before.
P.
Pre-primed canvas has an acrylic coating which oil-painters are using everyday without realizing that perhaps sometime in the future there may be paint separation issues. If the artist elects to add additional gesso, then the new gesso surface should be sanded to give the gesso sufficient tooth or bite, for paint to adhere.
Ron,
I have not painted in oils in at least 25 years, but have used watercolors on the watercolor canvas and just used the primer that came on it new. However, and I keep meaning to call Fredrix about this, the watercolors on the painting are now cracking. The effect is really cool, but I wonder if somewhere down the road the paint will just fall off even tho I sprayed it with Blair matt varnish several times.
I heard watercolor does not adhere to dry acrylic surface. is there any body have an idea to solve this problem?
Andrew,
I haven’t painted on the watercolor canvas in a long time as I have really enjoyed mixed media. When I did I don’t remember having any trouble with it. What are you painting on? In my collages the watercolors adhered very well and the surface was Crescent Illustration board and I had used acrylic mat medium then the w/c over it.
I paint on thick hot pressed watercolor paper bonded on top of a rigid foam board, so the bending is not a problem. I do very fine lines of design in miniature painting. acrylic is ideal for overlaying for see though effects, such as material over the clothes of a character. In addition, acrylic does not bleed or mix into the lower layer. However, doing small designs and flowers, needs water color with a fine brush and a lot of time. Acrylic just doesn’t cut it due to it’s fast drying time, etc. I am wondering to lay acrylic down first (as you said), then spray a matte acrylic media for adhesion and then lay water color over it. is it possible? I just want to make sure that the water color won’t peel off over a length of time.
I have only used the watercolor canvas once and find that the process is so different from paper that it is not my preference. I may give it another shot when I have more free time to just experiment.
I have also taken a failed watercolor painting (on paper) and used gesso, acrylics, pastels (oil and chalk), graphite and the addition of more watercolor to make a lively successful mixed media painting; it may not be archival quality, but it still looks nice.
In the comments above there was some reference to oils and acrylics. You CAN paint oils over acrylics, but you cannot paint acrylics over oils and unless you are extremely meticulous with cleaning your brushes, you should have two sets of brushes, one for oils and one for acrylics.
Remarkable issues here. I’m very satisfied to look your article. Thank you so much and I am having a look ahead to contact you. Will you please drop me a mail?