Watercolour ground

My watercolour ground just arrived today.

My daughter and I have been getting into bible journalling colouring books lately as it’s a fun meditative mindful activity and the bible does say to meditate on the word of God the day and night.

I prefer to use watercolour to colour (faster and more vibrant) and my daughter prefers to use her new graphic markers (alcoholic ink) as they’re also fast and vibrant and a little easier for her to handle compared to watercolour. We were a bit disappointed initially because we found that no matter how careful we were invariably it would bleed through to the other side. This is not the normal colouring books it has heavier paper but because it’s cellulose it tends to absorb the paint faster. So we went back to using just plain colouring pencils and or my softer watercolour pencils for a while. So whilst exploring other creative Bibles I came across a blog where they apply gesso on the paper before colouring and it stops the colour from bleeding through.

Quite a few other blogs and YouTube videos later I discover that watercolour ground is the better medium to use as it doesn’t just stop the paint from bleeding through it actually primes the paper to take up watercolour and from some demos you can turn any surface into watercolour paper. There’s quite a few out there and all have different effects so if you’re using this for more than journalling I suggest you watch a few comparison demos first. In fact some artists use it to prime canvases so they don’t need to even tape or worry about framing their paper or can do even larger paintings in watercolour! That sent me down a separate rabbit hole of varnish and fixatives but haven’t yet worked out the best one for me since the spray on one changes the colour of your painting.

So watercolour ground. There are a few different types and colours. I went for the transparent one and the Daniel smit 118ml pot seemed to be the best size for me to try. Was tempted to go for the larger bottles but storage and wasn’t sure if it would work for me. But this is a good size for the bible journalling and also if it doesn’t work out I can try it out on a few cheap canvases and if they don’t turn out I’ll just wait over it.

Another tip – some even use the white titanium watercolour ground like whiteout on their paintings but would be careful because the texture appears to be quite different.

I tried it out today with a thick brush and an old one I used to use for acrylic paintings but it is old and worn and the bristles are like wire. This left some interesting texture when painting it on. I had read that some use a palette knife to achieve a very smooth surface. I wonder if you use a roller with a sponge you could create an interesting texture like cold press or rough paper.

The second time I tried it with my very smooth synthetic Renoir brush I had bought from Bunnings (of all places – a hardware store). This gave a finer smoother texture.

I tried this on the thick cellulose colouring paper and also on the very thin creative bible.

Both warped whilst it was drying but it flatten out when dry I think it will flatten completely under a bit of weight.

I was able to test painting it after it dried after an hour (even though they recommend you let it cure for 24-48 hours I will do further tests over the next few days to see if it performs more like watercolour paper) or so and it was ok with one layer of paint. But 2 layers of watercolour paint you could see just a little bleed through.

I added another layer of watercolour ground to some of the areas to see (the banners in the picture) and my daughter used her found that there was no bleed through. My daughter also tested it out with her alcohol ink graphic markers and again there was bleed through on the single layer of watercolour ground but none when there were 2 layers. I also tested it further with more layers of graphic marker so much it almost felt like painting and again no bleed through.

Here’s the results

This is the creative bible which has much thinner paper with 2 layers of watercolour ground. It was painted a few hours after the watercolour ground was applied and you can see the colour on the page behind. This is for both watercolour leaves and the pink flower using an alcoholic ink graphic marker. Will try again in 48 hours … Or after another layer or so.