Watercolour Ground
Posted on: 04/11/2017
Some of my old and expensive watercolour papers had deteriorated into blotting paper so in an effort to salvage the situation I had been re-priming the papers with hot starch. It didn’t work! So after some research I decided to use the QoR Watercolour Ground. It’s like the primer used to prepare surfaces for acrylic paints, only this type is more absorbent. I used two thin coats and let the paper “cure” for a couple of days.
It worked well, the painting surface became more like a hard sized hot press paper but with a rough plasticky feel to it. It is certainly not like painting on a good well sized paper like Arches or Fabriano! My first wash of Dioxazine Purple dried chalky. I had to layer on several glazes to get the vibrancy I want but the colours now turned a darker value than what I intended!
Kuching people will have no problem identifying the flower subject – ruellias.
“Ruellias” painted on QoR Waterground with Cotmans Watercolours 9″ by 12″. By the way, taking a photo of the painting was tricky because the background, left white, was very reflective.
Painting Kuching in Watercolour 
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