Thursday, June 24, 2010

And Back To Watercolor

I belong to a group called "Paint My Photo" and Rich, one of the members, posted a photo of a Chickadee that I couldn't resist attempting to paint. 

Of course, after being away from watercolors for ages, I would decide to paint it on watercolor canvas (in a pad from Fredrix)!  The canvas buckled as badly as unstretched watercolor paper and it was difficult to paint on it.

However, paint lifts wonderfully from the canvas so any mistakes wipe right off and can be re-painted.  The canvas also makes for great texture so I guess the good and bad of it are about equal.  It would just depend on how you paint as to whether you would enjoy this support or not. 

I'll know to stretch it and tape it down if I ever use the canvas again and I don't think I'd use it for transparent watercolor in the tubes/pans.  I've used it before with watercolor "crayons" and that worked fairly well.  And I think gouache might work with it ok. 

I've had this pad of canvas for years though and it may be a long time before I use it again.  The idea of a canvas that will accept watercolor is a good one but, for me at least, the reality doesn't work as well as the idea.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Well Jan it was well worth the try and it turned out just lovely.

Great job.

Sue Clinker said...

Beautiful delicate painting Jan. I can't see anything wrong with this at all and wouldn't have known you struggled if you hadn't mentioned it :o)

Teresa said...

It's a lovely painting, Jan. For someone who's "been away from watercolor for ages" you certainly haven't lost your touch!

Christine Perry | Graphite Art said...

That's wonderful work!
I still fear watercolors for some reason, but want to give it a try one of these days.

Bella said...

Love it! What a lovely bird, my Mom would cherish that. I can't seem to get the same sense of detail with watercolor. Great work!

Jan said...

Thanks, Dors, I was pleased with it considering the struggle.

Thanks, Sue, it's just that the paint sort of pills and smooth strokes are difficult.

Thank you, Teresa, maybe it's like riding a bike?

LOL, Christine! I know you'd be great at watercolor. There's really nothing to fear - give it a try!

Oh, thank you, Belle, your compliment warmed my heart as I know Moms can be hard to please sometimes. Oh, I wanted to let you know that I still can't post any comments on your blog. You might want to change the type of comment box you have as that one seems to cause problems for a lot of people.