Friday 20 January 2017

When watercolour disappears into the paper....

This is something I've covered in my Useful Painting Tips blog, but thought I would add it here too.  This happens particularly with cheap sketchbooks, the paper just isn't up to the job of handling watercolour, it tends to soak into the paper and fade.  That's not to say the sketchbook is no good, it just isn't up to the job of handling watercolour.   It is good enough to use for quick sketches with graphite or pen....here's the link to my Useful Painting Tips blog and the post I did about it

www.usefulpaintingtips.blogspot.co.uk


and here's an example using watercolour in the cheap sketchbook.





Watercolour sort of fades into the paper and doesn't stay clear and crisp, I had to go over this several times even to get it to show up at all.  Plus the paper felt like it had a 'scratchy' surface to paint on.  Why did I buy it - well the obvious is it was cheap in the first place.  So why didn't I avoid it - trouble was it was packaged up, so I couldn't feel the texture of the paper before I bought.

With this next sketch, you can see how the paint fades...



There is always an upside to these things however.  I get to use this sketchbook now for ideas, quick sketches and warmup work....win win.





10 comments:

CJ Kennedy said...

Good that you're able to find a use for the inexpensive sketchbooks so the money spent isn't wasted.

Marie Smith said...

Ann, your faithful pooch looks great. I especially like the second one. My untrained eye does not detect the fading.

Christine said...

That's a great tip and no waste either.

Judy said...

I am glad you made a win win out of it. I have some useless papers lying around somewhere too, very annoying.

robin cox walsh said...

Sometimes it can turn out to be a good thing. I like the second sketch with it's 'faded' appearance. And of course we tell everyone we MEANT it to look like that! :D

ann @ studiohyde said...

Yes, and they are small sketchbooks that fit in my bag, so quite handy.

ann @ studiohyde said...

I know, it's difficult to see the fading, but the colour is more transparent than usual :)

ann @ studiohyde said...

Thanks Christine :)

ann @ studiohyde said...

I know what you mean, I've got odds and ends here too. In fact I have a Zutter for making them into wire bound sketchbooks.

ann @ studiohyde said...

LOL....artistic license aye :)