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Varnishing watercolours?
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Message
Posted
Think I will stay with the old fashioned ,but well tested and successful method of glass and a frame.
Good luck to any who attempts it , hope it works out for you. I think I’m becoming a bit of a stick in the mud in my dotage, ah well in quite contented with things I know work and why mend what’s not broken. Still it’s good to see people trying different things out , maybe in just old fashioned. Hells bells I’m starting to sound like my grandfather, I will be wanting a tot of rum next before bed.
Posted
The use of wax has a long and honourable history - it's how some paintings from pre-antiquity have come down to us intact. There was even a wax-based watercolour made by Staedtler, until they withdrew it (as they have a habit of doing) either because it didn't sell well, or because they discovered a hazard in its use: I loved it, and was very disappointed when they stopped offering it.
The technique explained in the LP article is fascinating to read, but - I don't think I'll be employing it. In part because, like Dixie, I'm gettin' on a bit .... and anxious to improve my work in the materials I have got to know, rather than dipping into too many others.
Posted
Couldn't agree more, Alan - AND I like to see paintings framed, and get annoyed with companies advertising boards with "no need to frame": thank'ee kindly, art supply company, but I'll decide that if you don't mind. I've never yet painted, or seen, a picture that wouldn't be a lot better off with a frame around it. I'd maybe make an exception for one of those really huge paintings, whose very impact speaks for itself - but then, I don't paint those (yet). A bevelled mount, glass, and frame, bring out the best in watercolours; and a frame generally helps to centre a picture and focus the eye.
I daresay there are art students looking in who'll think how very old-fashioned some of us are, stuck in the past, fuddy-duddy (they probably have a more modern expression than that...) - but, kiddywinks: experience still counts: it's your tutor's job to make you think outside the box, and good luck to both you and them; but always remember, it's the good of the work that matters, not the fashion du jour.
Posted
I have vague memories of varnishing illustrations at school, which did make watercolours glow, just as a gloss photo have more intense colours than matt photos. But I cannot imagine needing to do it these days, except for my Dawn in New York effort, where I need to varnish over highlighter pen.
Posted
Yonks ago I purchased some W&N Gum Arabic and have used this as an effect to overpaint parts of watercolours to make an area shiny. It creates a nice sheen rather than a shine and does create contrast. However I have no idea what the long term effect on the picture would be, whether it yellows with age etc.
In the end I gave up using it - never really did figure out how to use Gum Arabic properly.
Posted
Interesting, Andrew - gum Arabic is in watercolours already, as the binder; adding more - as I know people do - will indeed increase gloss; usually, I believe people mix the extra gum with their paint, rather than apply it afterwards as a sort of varnish; I have no idea if there'd be a deleterious effect long-term.... I suppose it could crack if really lathered on, but it'll be interesting to look into that; as I shall now (well, eventually) do.
Posted
There's a lot of guff talked about "pure watercolour" - I'm as keen on a watercolour that's just unadorned paint, skilfully applied, as anyone else. But some make a fetish of it - advise, usually in these exact, condescending tones, "we don't use white". Well - I don't use it much myself, but Turner did: and if you use Naples Yellow, Light Red, or Yellow Ochre, so do you, whether you realize it or not, since opaque colours are only opaque because of the white added to them (Cadmium Red, Yellow, and Lemon might be exceptions to that). What matters is what works for the painter, not what - to be cruel perhaps but also accurate - watercolour snobs like to pontificate about. A LITTLE white can add to the subtlety of colours - too much, and you're into body colour, or gouache. "But I love the transparency of pure watercolour!" - well don't we all? I certainly do. But while some techniques can turn what ought to be quite a simple medium into an over-complicated faff (see varnish: watercolour for the use of..) there's never any need to become a fanatic about them and forbid them on pain of having your brushes broken over the knee.