Chris Campbell Watercolors

Friday, September 18, 2026

YUPO

Yupo is a polypropylene plastic non-porous surface. The paints slips and slides and never soaks into it like paper, so the color remains on top and is very intense.

There are several techniques, OK LOTS of techniques for yupo. First, there are 4 things to remember about painting on yupo:

1. It gets fingerprints easily, which make it hard for watercolor to adhere to the paper. So clean your paper with alcohol and a soft cloth that has no lint in it. You can clean it with soap and water also.

2. Generally, you will paint with a thicker consistency than you normally would. You have more control over it.

3. If you don't like something, just apply water and erase it. Some colors will stain it and leave a "ghost" print, but generally, you can paint and erase all you want.

4. Try to used a watercolor pencil for your drawings. You don't want to erase on this paper.

5. When painting one color over another, just paint lightly with one stroke. Two strokes will move the paint underneath.

I painted these peppers I found at a local farm down the road.

First I applied some yellow paint to the entire page, and then used a 3" sponge roller to spread it and flatten the color. Then I let it dry. You can see it has some spots in it. That is from lint that got on the paper and in the paint from paper towels and tissues that I'd wiped it with.

I used a colored pencil to draw some of the pepper shapes, beginning with the red on the left. I used a warm red and a cool one. When it was completely dry, I pulled out some white highlights with water on a brush...not super wet, just damp. Too much water causes problems.

You can either pull the background color off with a damp brush to paint in your shapes, or you can paint right over it.

You can use lots of tools, some you find in your kitchen, like small spatulas, or squeegie, or color shapers used for pastels. Alcohol , plastic wrap, paper towels, spray bottles.Credit cards and other sharp edges tools will work, but they will also leave scratches on the paper. You can do a certain amount of stamping and stenciling.

When finished, you can use a workable fixative to set the work. I usually frame tthem under glass to protect the paint from moisture.

Here are a few (mostly not finished, but looking good) that students did in class:

Jackie