Acryllic vs Watercolor on Linen Experiment
In college I discovered that painting with watercolor on linen was not only fun but created interesting and visually appealing paintings. I painted these paintings in the wet on wet style and noticed several potential issues.
1) I had to literally blow the paintings dry with a hair dryer to keep the pigment in the fabric. When I didn’t blow it dry the paint seeped through the fabric and just went directly onto my painting board. This left puny colors and unsatisfactory results.
2) Watercolor is notoriously sensitive to light and I’m concerned that painting watercolor onto linen fabric would make it more sensitive to light.
Pros… it looks really awesome! I loved the feel and look of it. And when I showed these pieces they received a ton of interest.
Despite these negatives I thought painting with watercolor on linen was super fun. It created a very different look and with a clean bucket of water you can somewhat control your white spaces. I have a big show coming up in August and thought I’d do a series of watercolor on linen paintings… but I thought Golden Acrylics has come out with a new line of liquid acrylics and maybe those would work with the linen paintings?
I found that they flowed fairly well but definitely less than watercolor. I was able to create ‘lighter’ spaces dropping clear water onto the linen but am still undecided if this medium is where I want to head with wet paint on wet fabric. I’d love your comments and reviews.
