I’ve spoken many times about how we all should “paint large”. It forces us to “think” more about what we are painting, how we use the space, how we show both our negative space and positive space and let’s face it, an enormous landscape will dominate a room in a way a series of small canvases never could.
One of the big problems is watercolor paper only comes so big, as you know a full sheet is 24” x 32” inches, the largest block I’ve found is 18” x 24”, Montval watercolor paper comes in rolls of 48” x 5 yrd., but I personally hate dealing with rolls because they roll ;p.
Another option for the watercolor artist is to use a ground on a canvas. Here are some advantages although it is up to you to decide if they outweigh the disadvantages.
Canvas is a very durable support.
Because even heavy weight watercolor paper is relatively thin and soft, it can be easily damaged when you are storing it or in transit if unframed and properly protected.
A stretched canvas or canvas board makes for a more rigid and durable art piece which is less vulnerable and if the stretcher bars are damaged or become warped the painting can be removed and stretched across a new frame.
An opportunity to work on a large scale.
You can work larger on pre-stretched canvases or if you build your own stretcher and stretch the canvas yourself.
There are options to hang the work without mounting or framing.
To hang a painting made on watercolor paper without damaging the artwork, the paper needs to be mounted to a rigid support or framed. A stretched canvas can be hung without framing or mounting, as hanging hardware can be screwed straight into the wooden stretchers. Canvas boards can be hung by gluing strips of wood to the back of the piece and attaching hanging hardware to the wood.
With pre-stretched canvases, there is no need to stretch the surface.
To avoid buckling watercolor sheets can be stretched before painting, an extra process that is necessary if you are using a lot of water, or you can paint on the watercolor blocks. If you are using a stretched canvas or a canvas board, there is no stretching needed. After applying the watercolor ground, you can get straight to painting once it is dry.
The downside of a canvas is more space needed for storage, the need to prep the canvas and the fact that the watercolor ground just does not paint like the paper. My experience is the paint color is muted and paint does not flow as well as it does on watercolor paper. You have to be aware of the texture the ground creates and how it will affect your paint.
Here are some pictures from Jacksons Art.com comparison of different grounds and how the watercolors reacted to them.
They found as we did in the mixed media class, that the Schmincke aqua – ground fine, paints well and lifts easy.
They found paint dried unevenly on the ground, the granulating blue paint made interesting patterns as it dried in the surface texture, and the green lifted well but left a slight yellow stain.
The texture complemented a granulating paint wash, with the heavy pigment particles settled in the pits of the surface. The Permanent Sap Green swatch the paint was caught within the surface texture, making it difficult to lift away the color entirely.
With a palette knife you can get great texture, as we found, particularly with the rough, for interesting affects.
Schmincke : Aqua Watercolor Primer : Transparent dried to a satin, transparent finish which did not affect the texture or color of the surface underneath so you had canvas texture.
The grounds do cause the paint colors to look somewhat muted as we found in mixed media so bare that in mind.
Jacksons also looked at Golden white absorbent ground, Golden Qor cold press ground, Daniel Smith Gold Iridescent ground, and Daniel Smith black watercolor ground. All gave interesting textures and effects and offer the option for different affects and techniques.
Jacksons also looked at Golden white absorbent ground, Golden Qor cold press ground, Daniel Smith Gold Iridescent ground, and Daniel Smith black watercolor ground. All gave interesting textures and effects and offer the option for different affects and techniques.