Textures with Watercolour
With water-soluble colours, such as watercolour, ink or tempera, you can achieve a variety of effects. Some artists work more dynamically and expressively, others rather filigree and detail-lovingly. I am probably more of the latter, but I also like experimenting with techniques. That’s how I have been dealing with textures lately. Sure, “simply” painting fields is already great, but really exciting and vivid is a painting in my opinion, especially by different surface textures. A great role model and inspiration for me is Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, one of my absolute favourite artists. She works very much with textures that dynamically flow into the composition. Some of them are random, while others are hand-painted stroke by stroke.
Here I painted a design for a tea cup with watercolour paints.
For whom this is still new territory, but also for those who would like to learn even more tips and tricks, I have created a freebie:
This is a 9-page PDF document, in which you get six techniques presented clearly. These techniques are absolutely suitable for beginners! I mainly worked with watercolours here, but the techniques are useful for other painting materials as well. You can print out the pages and, whenever you like to paint, look at it and let it inspire you.
This freebie is a welcome gift for the readers of my free newsletter. If you sign up HERE, you will receive the gift immediately (Please confirm your subscription, please check also in your spam folder, if my e-mail got lost there.) I look forward to the common exchange with you!
If we are already penpals and you have not received the freebie for any reason yet, feel free to send a message to design@lena-tamshii.com
I present two of these techniques to you here:
Bubbles
Very bold and adventurous artists (and children!) will love this technique: Prepare a cup of coloured water or diluted paint or ink and mix some detergent into it. Now, when you blow into the liquid with a straw, colourful bubbles gush out of the liquid. Let them flow over the edge of the cup and fall onto the paper.
You can also apply the technique the other way round: put the liquid in a shallow dish, create bubbles and then gently press with the paper on top of the coloured foam.
I came across this great technique when I watched the Instagram stories of the dear Bine Brändle. She also experimented with many other materials. Please have a look at her account, too.
Tip: A flat cup is better than a high one. In addition, the paper should be strongly and quickly water absorbent because the ink must be sucked in before the bubbles burst. I recommend Khadi Papers*. They are made from recycled cotton.
Covering
To create white spaces when painting (for example, when we don’t want to cover the entire picture with bubbles), we need to leave areas where you can still see the paper. This can be quite tedious at times, which is why it is useful to simply cover these spots. Even if you want to paint within a shape, it can be very helpful to cover the edges beforehand.
Masking fluid (I use Rubbelkrepp* by Schmincke) can be applied with a brush on the paper and so also covers details. You let it dry well and then just paint over it. When the paint is dry, scrub the masking film with your fingers. It is also great for limiting a shape so you can paint a surface easily and cleanly.
Wax, e.g. of a white candle, is water-repellent and works well to cover surfaces roughly. It is difficult to remove the wax from the paper after painting, and a few stains tend to dry on the wax layer, so the result is relatively random. For structures like waves or clouds, this technique is well suited.
Materials that I use:
UK:
- Liquid Frisket (Rubbelkrepp)* by Schmincke
- Watercolour* by Schmincke
- Watercolour* by Winsor & Newton
- Water Brush* by Kuretake
- Watercolour Paper* by Vang, e.g. for that painting
- Watercolour Paper* by Herlitz, e.g. for that painting
USA:
- Liquid Frisket (Rubbelkrepp)* by Schmincke
- Watercolor* by Schmincke
- Watercolor* by Winsor & Newton
- Water Brush* by Kuretake
* Affiliate-Links
I am especially interested in this technique as part of the fun with design and painting for me is to allow things to just happen and NOT be in full control. I like to be in control of the composition, the color depths, the balance but the texture and details can take on more freeform and to me, that is the most artistic a piece can get. Managing everything so we essentially are a human copy machine is not exciting anymore. If I want a duplicate, I will throw it on a scanner and printer.
Nice idea and I appreciate how you have a video clip along with photos of the finished and drying stages. Nice layout.
Hello! Thank you for your feedback. I absolutely agree with you. I used to love to have everything under control, but now I appreciate the mixture of both, since it makes an interesting contrast. I want to work more on that in the future.
I’m very happy that you liked my article. 🙂
I did the bubble technique when I was at a pottery store and wanted to paint something.
It was a fantastic adventure because somehow you can controll the effects and somehow you cannot.
As for me who likes to draw/paint everything by herself it was a very interesting experiment and I want to do this in my watercolour workshop, too. 🙂
Hi Alexandra,
Do you mean you can do it with pottery as well? (Or did you just sit in the store painting?) I would love to see it on pottery!