Mediums to add to your paint

 Ox Gall, Blending Medium, Gum Arabic, Glycerine, and Granulating Medium

Ox Gall

This is usually part of the formula for your water color paints. It is safe to use with your watercolor brushes. It is designed to improve the flow of your paints. It is considered a wetting agent, dispersant, and surfactant. 

 Use only 3-8 drops in a cup of your clean water. You will most likely need it on paper that is highly sized or heavy (300 lb) which resists water. Here is the most complete information that I have found on ox gall:

https://www.greenleafblueberry.com/blogs/news/how-to-use-ox-gall-in-watercolor-painting#:~:text=Ox%20gall%20is%20usually%20in,sold%20as%20a%20watercolor%20additive.&text=Ox%20gall%20is%20used%20in,aid%20in%20wetting%20your%20paper.

You should experiment with it for fun. You may decide it is super useful or that you just don't need it at all.

Blending medium

This extends the drying time to give your paints a little more time to blend and reduce the hard lines you get when the paint dries before you have time to blend or soften edges. It can be used with your regular brushes, and is used either slightly diluted with water or by itself to wet your paint. You can also wet the paper with it, then immediately paint on top of it.

Blending Medium is useful in a dry or hot climate, where your paper and paints may tend to dry too quickly. Like in the winter when the heater is on and the air tends to be dry. Or en plein air with hot dry temps. It is also helpful when you just need a little more time to work on an area. There are also some papers that absorb the paints too quickly and don't give you time to blend.

Gum Arabic

Because this is part of your watercolor formula, it is safe to use with your brushes. Dilute with water, dip your brush in it, then pick up the paint. It can enhance the brightness of your color, and slightly increase wetting time. You can also use it if your paints have begun to dry and crack.

https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-mediums/watercolor/the-secret-of-gum-arabic/#:~:text=Gum%20arabic%20is%20the%20binder,linseed%20oil%20with%20oil%20paints.

You should not use gum Arabic thickly. It will cause the paints to become brittle.

 Glycerine

This is used in so many products, from make-up to candy. I use it to revitalize paints that have begun to dry and crack. Glycerine is a plasticizer, and makes the paint flexible, and sometimes adds to the glow. It serves the same function as adding honey to paint, and makes it creamy and easy to work with. 

While many paints will dry, if they begin to crack, it means they have lost some of its binder and will not spread or adhere to the paper as well as when they were new. I use a dropper with a tiny bit of glycerine to revive them. The video below compares using honey and Glycerine to improve your paint.

 https://www.google.com/search?q=using+glycerine+in+watercolor&rlz=1CATRIY_enUS1088&oq=using+glycerine+in+watercolor&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRifBdIBCTgyMzNqMGoxNagCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:15fa71bf,vid:YMFxHpUoK3k,st:282

I would also use Glycerine on a cheaper paint that doesn't flow as well as an artist grade paint. 

I have never had Glycerine go bad on me. And it's pretty cheap.

Granulation medium

PAY ATTENTION to this : DO NOT mix your paints that you add granulation to in your palette. You do not want to get it into your other paints, so you need to mix it separately.

Granulation medium is used to cause a non=sedimentary color to granulate. Some paints naturally granulate: burnt sienna, French ultramarine, some other blues. But pthalo blue is smooth and staining, sinking into the grains of the paper. Adding a little granulation to the puddle mixed with paint and water will cause it to separate and create texture. See this Winsor Newton video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zlL8NNQx-I

Christmas Cactus project

Today's project is one I've used before, but not to demonstrate the use of mediums. I like it for newcomers especially because it demonstrates several key watercolor concepts:

    Color mixing and blending

    Wet into wet technique

    granulation

    creating shadow

    lifting

    limited palette

Choose 3 basic primary paints, a yellow, a red, or a blue

(I chose a medium yellow, magenta, and cerulean, with later addition of French Ultramarine)

I used wet into wet techniques on each stem. On the left stem, I just wet it with plain water, then added blue, then yellow, then magenta, with some blue on the bottom, allowing each color to blend into the next.

With the next stem I used blending medium in the water with the paint.

On another stem I used ox gall with the paint.

And on the last I tried some gum Arabic in the water. 

After it dried, I worked on the pot. I created a puddle of paint - burnt orange--and added granulation medium to it. I washed over the entire pot (using a flat brush) with the granulated paint. On the right side I added some French ultramarine (it is self granulating) to create a bit of shadow, while wet. I dried it completely.

When finished I did the table. I made a puddle of red (non-granulating in most circumstances) and added the medium, just a few drops. I painted the table, then added some blue near the pot to create a shadow.

To finish, I wet the dirt area, dropped in burnt umber, then dropped in French, and while wet, I added salt.

I LIFTED the light around the top of the pot edge. Lifted the vein that goes through the centers of the stems. And then I created a small hard dark on the far right blue leaf to separate the two leaves. I also darkened the shadow beneath the pot and added a thin dark shadow 

Watercolor mediums: Masking Fluid & other whites

 Masking Fluid

Water colorists depend on the white of the paper for any whites in the painting. 

This is why I began this series of lessons with preserving the white of the paper. 

Not all, but many artists rely on things like masking fluid to protect the whites. Masking fluid comes in several forms, but most are latex based. They are applied, dried, then painted and removed to reveal the saved whites.

I found this very good article that explains most of the points of applying masking:

https://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/how-to/watercolour/9-tips-for-working-with-masking-fluid/

Jackie Hernandez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKgcnlRnqhA

Here is a wonderful printable guide from Jackie Hernandez.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e18bd7024a1fb747d90ab1f/t/64ac3a2d70c1977e37b3a7fe/1689008686931/Masking+Fluid+Magic.pdf

Another method for preserving whites is wax. You can rub the side of a white crayon or wax over the surface of the paper, and it leaves a sparkle effect which some use to show light on the ocean.

One method which is not mentioned much is using gum Arabic for soft whites, such as a moon, sun, or clouds.( Gum Arabic is one of the main ingredients in your paint. It is usually the binder for watercolors. So you do not need a special designated brush to apply it) You paint the gum Arabic on the area you wish to save, dry it completely, then paint over it lightly. Over-painting or scrubbing will erase it. Once the paint is dry, you go over the area with water on your brush, then dab it off with a tissue. 

Some people use contact paper to protect areas they want to keep white. But this article is mostly about mediums, so I will just include a link about using contact paper.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/317577037081853522

We began by taking small - 4x6 or 5x7 -- rectangles of paper and doing an example of each method. I keep a collection of these cards to remind myself what each medium will do. Left side is practicing with mask; right top is gum Arabic.

In a short project to practice these methods, we drew some mountains on a horizon. Cover the mountains with masking. Apply gum Arabic over clouds and sun, let it dry. You can rub some of the foreground with wax.

When masking was dry, I used my finger to rub some of it off to create a bit of texture.

After everything is dry, make a wash for the sky. (for a sunset, wet the sky, start at the top with cobalt blue, then magenta, then yellow, and allow them to blend)

When the sky is dry, use a damp brush to gently remove and blot the gum Arabic, leaving some soft clouds.

clouds before removing gum arabic

after removing gum arabic--note soft edges on clouds and sun

Final painting after painting in foreground grass and stream, and removing masking fluid.

You can remove masking with the sticky side of tape, your finger, or a rubber cement eraser made especially for this. Regular erasers are useless for this.

There are some way to retrieve any whites that have been lost, either through damaged paper or over painting. One of them is Bleed Proof White. It is a lot like gouache, but you can paint over it after it is dry. For larger areas, you can use watercolor ground, which can cover large mistakes. For tiny details, you can use a white gel pen, white ink, or Posca pens (which are acrylic ink.)

The purpose of this series of blogs is to try different mediums and see if they are useful. It is not to make people go out and purchase a lot of stuff they probably don't need, but to prevent that. To weed out what you will really use on your watercolor journey.

When it comes to masking fluid, though, I do use it often enough to suggest that people have some, but to use it intelligently. It's easy and cheap to keep a little wax or contact paper in my kit. As for gum Arabic, I have some, but I don't use it often because I don't really do a lot of cloudy skies, and there are other ways to create that effect if I choose. Gum Arabic is also used to reconstitute dried up paint, create special effects, or to make your own paint with dry pigment.

Results from Cutting Up

Some results from our cut up paintings

This was a fun class. I wanted to post some of the results because they are each so different.

The main focus of this is to look at your paintings in a different light; then reassemble them using the basic elements of art to create focus and unity. You can use color, line, shape, texture, and movement to create harmony in your collage work. 

                                              

Vicki's: Still working on it, but it's a great start. She's also used some Brush-O too. I think the center of interest is very effective.

Emily's. Working on making purples More dominant. It has a light spring feel, super fun to look at.

Carol hasn't glued hers down yet. She framed each square with some print scrapbook paper. That was a very effective way to create harmony.  Then used a punch to cut hearts out to bring it all together. Perfect for the granddaughter's room.

Francis---I love the moons pulling it all together with repeated shapes and colors. And it's good to cross over the boundary of each square to add more interest.

Mary: Making a "window" effect. More realistic. Not finished yet,

but a great start. And a good way to take some muted colors and

make them into a picture.

Sylvia's: not finished, but it has a wonderful fall feel. Makes me feel like

I'm camping in the woods.

Judy: Tied a lot together with some gold stenciling. Almost done.

Barb did hers at home. The green dominance and the gold make it very unified

and fun to look at.

Mine--I still have some work to tie it together. Prob going to use some bits of collage. But liking it. Got to break up that black square a bit and find some way to connect things without getting too busy.

What to do with old painting you don't like

 
A fun way to use your old paintings:

First, cut up your painting into 3" or 2" squares. I did 3". Don't be too precious, trying to save some small part that you like. You want to be able to look at each piece like a new painting. (This picture started life as a woman fishing at night. ) When we do this in class, we are going to combine all our pieces, using bits of our own and bits of others' paintings.

Pick out the ones you think go together and arrange them in a grid. I used an 11 x 14 piece of mat board, because it is sturdy enough not to buckle when gluing the pieces on.

I used some Aqua colored gouache to add some "moons", and bits of color to tie the pieces together. Then I used some stencils with gold paint in areas. I was using repetition of color and shape (from stencils) to create some unity within the piece.

When putting together your own, be aware that you will use some element to repeat to pull the artwork together. It might be color, a shape, an object, or some texture that repeats itself. 

I used a watercolor black pencil to outline all the pieces that are not black. I watered the border down some to give a softer, almost burned look, to the outline.

There is still more I can do: collage, stamp, etc. 

Here is a YouTube of Lindsey, the Frugal Crafter. It is almost an hour and a half. She did a similar project, only began with a grid that she painted with watercolor and gouache first. 

https://thefrugalcrafter.wordpress.com/2024/09/13/a-way-to-test-suppies-and-make-beautiful-art-yes-please/

The video is an hour and 23 minutes, but there are some good ideas in there.

Heron on Crescent Watercolor Board

 Heron on Crescent Watercolor Board

First draw the heron onto the watercolor board. You should be able to erase as normal, but gently.

Go over the edges with a candle or wax crayon. This is to prevent too much water from getting onto the sides and warping or separating the paper from the support. Take care not to get wax on the painting area.

Use masking fluid on the areas you want to remain white, especially the delicate feathering on the outside of the body. Don't go heavy on the masking fluid, as it can tear the paper when removing.

When the masking fluid is dry, you can paint in your background.

Painting the bird will be a lot like painting on regular paper, so you will be able to glaze color over color without lifting the underpainting.

For the sunset background, I wet from the horizon up. Be sure your paint is completely dissolved or you can get streaks such as the red on the left, and it can't be lifted. I painted yellow at the horizon line, then magenta, then cerulean blue for the top of the sky. I wanted it to blend better than it did. I should have kept the paper wetter. This board does not seem to  blend well. I could also have covered the board with lifting Prep or sizing to make it more cooperative, but didn't think of it at the time.

For the water, I began at the horizon line and worked down: yellow, magenta, blue. While it was still wet, I tried some plastic wrap over the color to create a watery look and allowed it to dry. (Not the masking fluid is still on the bird)

I began painting the heron's body with a gray made from French ultramarine and burnt sienna. I darkened the patch on the head and underbelly.

I removed the masking fluid on the legs and wings. I painted the bill with warm yellow and orange. I used the same color on the legs. I shaded the neck with blue on the right side. 

I painted in the eye and created some volume in the legs. I still have a bit of finishing to do. I'm going to spatter Miskit into the yellow, then paint some greens over it. The I'm going to quiet down the water a little bit. 

I wanted this to look more like the wetlands near me. In the spring yellow flowers pop up, and when the area gets flooded, it looks like the flowers are growing out of the water. So I painted in some greens along the horizon with some yellow spots for the wildflowers. 

For the foreground, I calmed down the water a little bit and put some cat tails in the foreground. I also used some white gouache on the feathers.

OOPS!!! There were some unexpected issues in class. A lot of the boards developed a spotty mottling as soon as the watercolor paint touched the paper. It looked like granulated paint over the page. I've been trying to communicate with the maker to see if it is a mold problem or something else. 

Besides the mottling, the paper tears with a lot of Miskit. Maybe the paper is not as heavyweight as it should be. And you just cannot lift. I put a little lifting Prep on the bird's body, which made it easier to paint. These issues caused a lot of frustration. We had to use gouache to help cover up some of the mottling.

Here is an example of the discoloring of the paper.

Some things I learned:

1. If I did this again, I would put lifting Prep or gum Arabic over the entire board before painting, then dry it. This would make the paint flow and blend better and lift. I could also have used a blending Medium, which would have slowed down the drying time so that the paint could blend better.

2. I think this board would be good for pen and ink. The surface is much smoother than most cold press I've seen. 

3. I think I would not use masking fluid on the feathers, but paint them in with gouache at the end. I would mask out the neck and face if doing a wash over the background. Just not every tiny feather. For one thing, it is hard to soften the edges. For another, I don't like how the masking seems to pool at one end of a line.

Using Crescent Watercolor Board

CRESCENT WATERCOLOR BOARD

What it is:

Arches used to make a watercolor board, but has discontinued. CRESCENT now makes one. It is cold press watercolor paper that is adhered to a heavy 1/8" thick board. The crescent brand is smoother than most cold press, though. 

Advantages:

There are several reasons you might want to purchase this. One is that it does not need to be stretched or even taped down, since it is rigid and does not warp. There is no real "learning curve" to learn how to use it, because it is so similar to the paper you are accustomed to. It takes most of the techniques we love--salt, masking fluid, Saran wrap, mediums, etc. Like cold press paper, you can glaze without disturbing the bottom layer of paint.

I was pleasantly surprised the first time I used it. The colors seem very vibrant, similar to hot press paper. And the brush seems to glide over the smooth surface. 

It is lightweight to travel with, and you won't need any hard surface to put underneath or any clips to keep the wind from blowing it away. 

I would recommend, however, that you should PLAN the size of your finished product for framing. For example, if I want my frame to be 16 x 20, and want to mat this to a 12 x 16, I will use a 16 x 20 piece of board with a 16x20 mat and an opening of 12x16 (a 2" mat). This makes framing much simpler. Otherwise you have a heavy piece of board you are trying to adhere to a lighter weight mat in order to fit the larger frame. 

Disadvantages:

Cost is more than a sheet of paper. Crescent watercolor board is available from art supply stores such as Dick Blick, Jerry's Artarama, and Cheap Joe's. It costs about $11.50 for a 20 x 16. You can buy 3 packs of 8x10, (about $12) 9x12, (about $17) and 11x14. (22.46). You can purchase singles up to 30 x 40 size.

I bought one 20x16 and made it into 4 8x10's. I wouldn't recommend this, though, because the board is 1/8 thick and difficult to cut. 

I had some trouble lifting the paint. That can be remedied with lifting Prep.

Be careful that what you buy says "Watercolor Board." Crescent makes many kinds of paper AND boards, some for colored pencil, some for illustration, etc. 

Here is a short video with Steve Mitchell testing the watercolor board:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svhn3vnaYno

Finishing the 2nd version of the Heron on Canvas

 

Here is the finished version of the heron by the shore instead of in a marsh.

Since the background is light, I had to make adjustments to make the head stand out.

So, in addition to shading the neck, I made the beak darker and lightly outlined parts of the white head that touch the lighter sky.

I made a distant shoreline with small white marks to indicate islands where they congregate and have their nests. I added some reflection of the islands in the water. I found some references for some flying herons and added them to the sky to add some interest and improve the composition. 

I also added some pale pinks to the sky. Some ripples in the foreground water around the leg.

Here they are side by side. Two different moods, same reference.