Community AquaTip - Textures

This is the another installment of an ongoing feature called AquaTips. Members of the club are encouraged to submit tips and techniques they discovered or use to create and enjoy watercolors. Just send a note to the club with "Tip" in the subject line and we will put it into our AquaTips collection. Come together watercolorists, and share the treasure that is our knowledge!

This is a community AquaTip. DeviantArt members responded to a question with their knowledge and expertise. You can still contribute by responding to the journal, but no more entries will be added to the actual journal.

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As with many paints, watercolor can be manipulated in many different ways. Different techniques affect how it dries and the appearance on the paper. Be it using a different mediums in your paint, highlighting the granulation, or even a different paper or collage.

Question: What techniques do you use to add texture to your watercolor paintings?

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Lechtonen  
I use quite a lot of salt -- both ordinary and sea salt. You can do all kinds of things with it from various fractal-type colour formations to glittery crystal surfaces. Recently I've made some experiments with pigmented salt, i.e. I mix salt in coloured water and let the liquid evaporate.

I also use all kinds of textiles for various ends. I just dip the textile to colour and press it on the paper. That helps me to represent clothing and also interesting natural surfaces.


Milosflaca
I use wax, salt and cotton. With the cotton, you just have to dip it in the watercolor and press it against the paper! it's very easy and it works very nice if you want to paint clouds and stuff. Also you can use cotton swabs to work with details. You have to add a considerable amount of water to the painting, because the cotton will absorb all the water in one take.


pillowsrock
I sometimes use rubber cement to keep an area white. I do speckles, lines, splatters, and designs. There's an example in my gallery where I use it to do a kind of splatter that looks like something out of a comic book.


zwazoa
I'm all self taught but i think fresh out of the pack dish sponges look cool when your trying to get grainy surfaces like pavement or sand. Other than that I've heard real for-the-purpose-of-painting sponges give their own textures as well.


DawnBluewings
I've found that doing a wash of a light color and then dripping a slightly darker shade of the same color onto the still-wet paper gives a very interesting effect.
Example: dawnbluewings.deviantart.com/a…


joguff1977
Rubbing Alcohol has a neat effect. I also like to splatter Masking Fluid to create little dot or spots. Keeping the paper white. I will also use crayon. Bronze and silver and white are the colors I like to use.


p-e-a-k  
There are many ways to simulate texture in watercolour painting….

By stamping - with crumbled paper, sponges, lace-like textiles – anything goes, even real leaves.
Examples:
In my recent grape paintings (Pinot and Riesling) I used some real leaves as stamps.
All my far away greenery/ trees are done by stamping with a natural sponge.
The foliage on Lagen Island and some other Palawan series paintings were stamped with crumpled paper.

By lifting paint - using wadded-up tissues, cotton, or stencils cut from clear plastic.
I usually do clouds this way - lifting out paint with tissues.

By displacing paint – creating intentional back-washes, using wax paper or cling wrap, adding salt to the damp paint, spraying water or dropping another colour or rubbing alcohol into it.
Example for cling wrap - look at the background for Cosmos.
Example for wax paper - the grapes in Pinot and Riesling.

There's also a texture medium for watercolours. I have a bottle (of course! ) but I don't think I've ever used it.

Happy painting, everyone and, above all: EXPERIMENT!


rinaswan
- Dripping yellow onto still-wet paper is my favorite technique as in rinaswan.deviantart.com/art/Fi… .

- Rubbing white candle creates wonderful water-surface-reflection effect.

- Drawing with colored pencil before adding watercolor shade as in rinaswan.deviantart.com/art/A-… .

- Sprinkling salt, sugar, rice grain, pigment powder, etc. Each gives interesting textures, but don't forget to use a hair dryer.


abasss
If I need texture I use a dry brush on a dry paper, or sometimes I remove the excess of paint and water with toilet paper. Salt gives a nice texture, but once I tried to use a white candle to create some sort of effect but nothing happened.

(and sometimes I cheat and use 3b pencils to give a bit of an "ageing" look to a painting)

(addition: by rinaswan - Once a white candle is applied onto paper, the best result are viewable with intensive colours. Watery paint didn't work well.)


HLGEM
Crumpled up paper towels give a nice texture. I also like to work very wet and use granulating paints.


GH-MoNGo
Q-tips during various stages of drying. Also, paper towel adds texture through blotting.


fleetfoot
I sometimes push the paint around (especially when I have a lot of water) with my fingers.. Other than that, dry my paintbrush and use it to "suck up" the excess water on the paper, salt, cloth.


marcieness
Use the tip of the brush handle to make lines Like for trees and stuff.

Also I don't usually paint wet on wet, I find it easier to clean up mistakes if its wet on dry.


witchesrose
* Plastic foil in wet paint creates a nice effect, ...
* I like to stamp with a varaity of thengs like leafs, cotton, dried spaghetti, coins, rope, spunges...
* Sraping in still whet paint(but yhe paint doesn't reflect the light anymore) with an old ballpoint, the end of my pencil, ...
*Oil pastels give the same effect as a candel but in this way you can use colours, ...
* Spraiing paint with a spraydefuser...
* Drippings,spatsof paint in wet paint or on a dry surface, ...
* and of course different types of sals, ...
Most of it all ,is the willing to experiment, ... with very differnt things...BE creative

I hope this all will come in handy...


wanderinatnight
I paint on Smooth Claybord and Textured Claybord (aka Aqua Board) instead of paper. Paper and I just don't get along. The clay covered surfaces themselves create some interesting effects. For example, I've discovered that scattering salt on the board has the opposite effect of salt on paper. On the clay covered surface, dark pigmented areas form around the salt crystals instead of white areas. To achieve white areas on either of the clay surfaces, saturate them with clean water then add your paint by moving the brush rapidly over the surface. This creates pockets of tiny air, which bubble up through the paint, displacing it in the process. For an example, take a gander at the sky in my painting 'Migration.'

I've used steel wool or a fiber glass brush to lift paint after it has dried.

Watercolor pencils are useful for different textures, and can be used wet-on-wet or dry-on-dry, wet-on-dry, etc... The pencils act differently on the two surfaces.

Unlike fragile paper, the clay surface can take a lot of abuse and manipulation. I'm trying to let my imagination run wild, but it seems content to sleep on the porch all day.

At any rate, I recommend giving the Aqua Board and Smooth Claybord a try. It's made by Ampersand. A 4-pack of 6x6 tiles is under $5. The Smooth boards react like hot pressed watercolor paper and will hold a lot of detail, while the textured reacts like cold press. You can lift back to white with water, but be aware of which of your watercolor paints are staining. If you make a major mistake the boards can be washed clean and reused. Various methods of etching with X-acto knives, scratching, scrubbing, etc... can be employed on the boards.