Watercolour Effects through other substances - Experimenting!

Last week Tuesday the Hangar Aquarellistas worked with all kinds of materials (arabic gum,  ox gall, salt, soap, alcohol, watercolour pencils, cling film and bubble wrap - and much more) discover new effects. It was meant for backgrounds There were people who wanted to try everything and others who found a great way to play with just one material - we definitely need to repeat this!

Roxane was delighted to discover the candle-wax. If you draw with it on the whitish paper you don't see what you are doing, and as soon as you add the wet watercolours, it appears. Note that these three paintings are pretty big. 

I love you my love - so much better in French...
Also by Roxane, with candle wax and then bold brush strokes! Beautiful 💖

Denise worked with masking for the moon and then a straw for the capricious branches (a blob of dark fluid and then blow through the straw). As we were experimenting anyway, she used dark purple acrylic ink for the branches! Not half bad - and super effect!



This could and just may be a page in a book. Martin had a more scientific approach and tried out a lot of different effects. I am sure some of them (Ox gall on the paper, let dry, then blue paint - so deepening the colour) will be used in later paintings.
Click on the picture to enlarge so you can read the descriptions.

Martine started with a huge abstract with candle wax and scratching colour- watercolour pencil on sanding paper to get rough pigment, that either dissolves or stays. To be developed! She also did some research (pic below) with Arabic gum, candle wax, colour pencil, salt and Ox gall. All super interesting and to be further researched.

Effects of Cling Film and bubble wrap.

General conclusions: Ox gall improves the strength of the colour and makes it harder to lift

Arabic gum improves the flow of the colour, makes the paint dry slower and easier to lift.
Salt, colour pencils, cling film and bubble wrap can give wonderful effects - but you can't count on them -and you have to be more patient than I was 😃.

A lot of other interesting stuff was going on too:

Sandra finished her Lotus leaves; There is a little handwritten poem about them on the right side. I absolutely love the colours and shapes, getting them out of the 'ordinary'

 

Brenda put the chocolate in it's place on this endearing naughty boy portrait, that is now finished and already in the hands of his parents...
She also started her invisibly-finish-the-magazine-clipping! Very very promising...

Brenda

WIP 'Let the mystery be the mystery' by Ingrid. It is going to be a mysterious, dreamy, darkish landscape. To achieve that n watercolours you have to start with the under-colour and that is what you see here. Exciting!
And she finished her magazine-clipping Very well done, hard to see where the clipping ends.