TESTING GRANULATING MEDIUM

I'm on a mission to try to understand the uses of the watercolor mediums I've seen in stores and in artist catalogs. So each week, I'll explore one new medium. dick blick has them on sale right now, so I figured it was a good time to explore.

The medium of the week this time is GRANULATION MEDIUM. Several companies make it, but the brand I tested is Winsor Newton. 

WHAT IS GRANULATION? It makes the appearance of having tiny GRAINS in the paint, small particles of sediment that separate and sink into the grain of the paper. You usually notice the sedimentary quality in paint with more water in it. TO TEST the colors in your palette for sediment or granulating properties, make a swatch of your colors. Make the swatch big enough to paint from dark to light. If it granulates, you will see tiny particles separating into the texture of the paper.

I made a list of some of the very granulating colors and the staining colors. You  might want a granulating color for creating great textures in things such as trees, wooden barns, a sandy beach. But you might NOT want a granulating (sedimentary) color for a child's face or a shiny metallic object.

SEDIMENTARY COLORS

Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber

Lunar Earth, Burnt Sienna

Cadmium Red medium, Pink Color

Cadmium Red deep, Rose of Ultramarine

Cote d’Azur violet, Cobalt violet

Cobalt violet deep, Ultramarine violet

French Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue

Cerulean, Graphite Gray, Lunar Black

Manganese Blue, Cobalt Teal Blue

Cobalt Turquoise,

Cobalt Green Pale, Terre Verte, Viridian, Bohemian Green Earth

Raw Umber, Sepia, Undersea Green

Rich Green Gold

OTHER SEDIMENTARY COLORS

Earth colors

“genuines”

Oxides and ochres

Contain PBR7 (siennas and umbers), PB29 (FUM), PB 35 (Cerulean)

Some brands don’t granulate as much as others, especially those with honey. Also, student grade with a lot of fillers will granulate less.

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Below is a sample of my experiment. I used French Ultramarine, which is already a sedimentary color, and Quinacridone Coral, which is very smooth. The first rectangle on the left is the color by itself on cold press paper. Rectangle #2 is with salt. Rectangle # 3 is spritzed with water. And #4 is sprayed with granulation medium. (you can add granulation medium directly to your paint instead of spraying it.) The non sedimentary paint granulated; the sedimentary paint granulated even more.

CAUTION: Keep any paints that you mix this medium with in a separate palette or container. If you don't, you will get it into your other paints. Also wash the brush really well before reusing for your normal painting. 

Directions for this medium call for using it full strength with your paints from the tube, diluting your paint with the medium instead of water. But I liked putting it in a small squirt bottle. I didn't have to worry about contaminating my other paints or my brushes. Just squirt onto wet or damp paint.

Granulation does not change the actual feel of the paper. Texture medium does, but I'll discuss that another week.

CONCLUSIONS: I liked using the granulation medium. The results were pretty noticeable. And using it in a spray was easy. I don't like how pricey it seems, but you don't use much, and it goes a long way. This is one of the more expensive mediums. Dick Blick's price this week/month was about $8.48 for 75 ml bottle, much better than the $12 I paid at Hobby Lobby AFTER my 40% coupon. 

How much will I use it? Probably not on portraits, except on beards or hair. But I'll use it on about half my paintings.