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Re-wetting an already painted area
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Message
Posted
Hi everyone
I am following a project from one of Geoff Kersey's books and have come across a wee problem I have experienced before. For info I've been watercolour painting a little over 2 years so still very much a beginner :)
In order to paint some misty looking trees I have to re-wet the sky area which has dried. However, I struggle to gauge how much water to apply, whether it should be shiny or damp, and how to stop my brush from lifting off the sky colour and causing it lift off the paper.
I have previously used Winsor & Newton 140lb paper (wood pulp based I think), Bockingford 140lb (also wood pulp based), and now using Saunders Waterford 200lb (cotton based and is lovely). Regardless of the paper I use and however gentle I seem to be I cannot stop the sky colours from being teased out of the paper fibres and running amok!
Long term it means more practise but as miser I don't want to waste more of my Saunders Waterford paper so if anyone is able to provide some guidelines to propel me up the learning curve it would be much appreciated.
Thanks and regards, Ian.
Posted
I don't know anything about Geoff Kersey's teaching methods but I can see a problem here. When I put in misty trees or buildings for that matter I always add them when the paper is still wet, on top of my initial sky and background wash. It is very difficult to re-wet watercolour paper once it has a colour added, you can get an 'edge' which is difficult to remove.
I learnt a lot about wet-in-wet watercolour techniques from the late Ron Ranson's books which I hope stood me in good stead, albeit I don't paint much in watercolour these days except for quick reference sketches out on location. The idea is to work swiftly and keep the washes clean and fresh, although if you give the paper a decent soaking of water initially you still have loads of time before it dries out.
I hope this helps you a little and good luck, it is trial and error of course to some extent but that is the usual way of working. If by chance it does dry out try spraying a fine mist of water over all the whole page.
Edited
by alanbickley
Posted
I've done this, my own method being hit and miss - and I'm not primarily a watercolourist, so be warned.
There is a way of applying water to dried paint, but Alan's quite right about it being likely to leave a hard line: this is the more likely to happen with dye-colours (Pthalo Blue, Prussian Blue, Pthalo Green) than with, say, ultramarine, cobalt, and mixes with them, eg rose and cobalt, virdian and raw sienna. Things you need to do - 1) Do NOT experiment on your best paper; 2) Use the back of a failed painting (I've got several of those...) or an offcut of other w/c paper; 3) Drop/paint plain water on the area you want to turn misty, and LEAVE it alone - don't add too much: a damp brush should be enough. Have a cup of tea. Pretend you don't care at all. Come back trepidatiously.
With any luck, it will have worked. But if it didn't, it's all your and Kersey's fault, not mine!
Posted
Okay Ian, I only know the way that I have described but obviously Geoff's method is much different and clearly takes much more time which may well be a good thing. As an example I would expect to finish a half imperial watercolour in around 15 - 20 minutes using the wet-in-wet technique but you will have experimented with that method as you have said.
Perhaps there will be somebody else that can offer advice but do post it on the gallery when it's complete, always nice to see the results.
Posted
In all my watrercolour painting years I have never heard of wetting a sky to paint something over it . one wets a watercolor in order to Lift colour off so i would ignore Geoff Kerseys recipe for disaster. My way for misty trees is to PAINT them misty . ,in other words use less colour with the water. Wet in wet .( or wet in moist) has to be spot on or you get blurred trees where the added colour spreads out and look like nothing real in nature ......cheers Syd
Posted
I've used several of Geoff Kersey's books but can't remember coming across this problem. However, if you wait until the picture is completely dry, then wet the whole area of the sky and wall very lightly with a large soft flat or fan brush and then leave it until just damp you should be able to get the effect you want without lifting the paint. It's much easier to paint the tree, or at least the foliage, in the first place though!
Posted
The secret, as Janet has said here is to wet the whole sky, not just a section, this will do the trick but you will need decent weight paper to avoid that 'cockling' which is so common in lightweight papers or of course stretch it on a board with gummed tape. I've generally been hit and miss on this paper stretching lark but I believe I remember Robert saying that he had 'mastered it', my words not his so I'm sure that he will put you right on how to perfect this if you should need help.
The great Rowland Hilder covered the whole paper from top to bottom with a weak wash of usually Raw Sienna or Burnt Sienna, sometimes a mix of both, he then let this dry for many hours or overnight before commencing by wetting say the sky area and dropping in strong washes of colour, often a mix of Ultramarine and Light Red to form some great storm clouds, followed by gently rocking the whole thing to separate these two colours to form a granulation effect. But the initial wash MUST be bone hard, that's the secret. I watched him demonstrate this method at a masterclass I attended back in 1985, wonderfully talented artist.
Edited
by alanbickley
Posted
Another way is to add water to a just laid wash - ie, water on wet paint, as I think has been suggested already: that can work very well, or go horribly wrong, but then that's watercolour for you..
On stretching paper, which Alan mentions, I think the secret is having wide enough gumstrip, not some narrow fiddly pieces which won't stick properly.
Posted
It rather looks like my original post has created a level of misunderstanding, which I attempted to address in a subsequent reply.
I had said "In order to paint some misty looking trees I have to re-wet the sky area which has dried" which isn't strictly true but I said this because I thought it was easier than saying, as I did in a follow up, "I have already painted the sky and a wall. The tree I need to paint will have both of these behind it and I want the tree to have a soft edge to the leaves at the end of the branches.".
I have uploaded my painting to my own gallery and it is the first time I have done this and I assume other members can find and view my gallery, I wasn't sure what other way to do it.
The painting is from Geoff's book "How To Paint Skies" and is called "Clear Sky In Winter". The trees either side of the barn needed re-wetting though to be fair, on further checking, Geoff advised that the area to the left of the barn needs wetting and the faded using a damp sponge.
Perhaps another example might help. When describing a "Wet on Dry Sky" Geoff initially paints his sky with cobalt blue and naples yellow which is allowed to dry. He then glazes on to this another layer of colour, so this is where he is re-wetting the sky but with paint and not just water, with neutral tint. This allows us to to get hard and soft edges if we want to.
Unfortunately I can't find other examples at this time but re-wetting areas is something I have seen in various projects and I am sure not just by Geoff.
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