How to Use a Canvas for Watercolor Painting: It's All About Priming (2024)
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While this concise sentence has gotten me through the worst of times, it’s also applicable to the lighter side of life. For example, there’s a reason that my sister-in-law lets her cupcakes cool before icing them: so the icing doesn’t melt. In art, there’s a reason that many artists use paper as a substrate for painting with watercolor (to make use of the medium’s transparent, luminous qualities).
But sometimes the standard practice doesn’t give you the effects you’re going for. And that’s when it’s time to break away from the norm and play around with different methods. Maybe I want the icing to melt and be as smooth as a calm lake. Maybe you want to see what happens when you paint on a surface that isn’t known for playing nice with your media. Helen Birch, author of Just Add Watercolor: Inspiration & Painting Techniques from Contemporary Artists, addresses how to get away with using watercolor on canvas in this exclusive excerpt.
Canvas is the common choice of artists working with acrylic and oil paints. It’s less commonly used with watercolors, thanks largely to the fact that its surface is nonabsorbent. Before watercolors and canvas can be combined, the canvas must be coated in gesso and watercolor ground to increase its absorbency–a process known as priming.
Elissa Nesheim, the artist behind Stormy Mojave Colors (at right) specializes in painting miniatures. Working at such a small scale tends to mean a quicker turnaround of paintings; it’s a good idea to prepare canvases in batches so that there are always spares nearby, ready to use whenever they’re needed.
Stormy Mojave Colors was produced through a combination of washes, lifting, and the use of Sumi-e ink to define details. Several coats of a spray varnish were then applied to fix the paintings and protect them against damage.
Tip: Ready-made gesso can be purchased from well-stocked art supply stores. It’s usually white, but can also be bought as clear, colored, and black. Remember that only opaque color will work with the darker versions of gesso. ~Helen Birch
With such a variety of art styles and techniques, you’re bound to learn quite a bit in Just Add Watercolor. Get your copy now, and while you’re in your watercolor groove, discover how to control watercolor when you want to in this video demo. Enjoy!
Make sure that the canvas panels you pick are acid free (archival quality), it will help prevent yellowing and decaying of your canvas. Pick a canvas that is primed, with or without Gesso
Gesso
Gesso (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒɛsso]; 'chalk', from the Latin: gypsum, from Greek: γύψος), also known as "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso", is a white paint mixture used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden painting panels or masonite as a permanent absorbent primer substrate for painting.
Before watercolors and canvas can be combined, the canvas must be coated in gesso and watercolor ground to increase its absorbency–a process known as priming.
Priming your canvas protects your canvas from rotting. It also means your paint will sit better on the surface and not sink into the canvas. When it comes to oil colour, priming can help avoid dull patches in your finished work and make the colours stand out. Priming gives you an even ground to work on.
For the high absorbency needed to accept watercolors, apply 5-6 coats of Golden Absorbent Ground, allowing each coat to fully dry before adding another. After the ground has fully dried (give it at least 24 hours), you can now paint with watercolors on your canvas.
After these have fully dried, brush apply an isolation coat composed of two parts Soft Gel (Gloss) to one part water. Be careful to mix the isolation coat slowly to avoid foam and bubbles. Once the isolation coat has dried, apply either the Archival (4-6 coats), MSA (1-2 coats) or Polymer Varnish (2-3 coats).
Prepping your canvas makes it less absorbent, helps your paint sit better on the surface, and protects your canvas from natural corrosion. The primer gives you an even ground to work with, which means your brush strokes can flow easier and you will end up using less paint!
Unpainted wood and drywall can pose huge adherence problems for coatings without primer. With fresh drywall, the substrate actually absorbs a coating really well, like a sponge. However, because it absorbs so well, without a primer coat, you'll experience uneven coverage, especially along drywall seams.
Canvas can absorb paint and sag – or become “baggy” if you paint directly onto it with using a primer. Check if the canvas you're using is pre-primed – if not, do this first.
Normal canvas, even if it has been gessoed, is generally not absorbent enough to work well with watercolors. The watercolors would lift off too easily, which would make blending or overlaying colors particularly difficult. There's a way to do it, using Golden Absorbent Ground, which you can learn about here.
Watercolor canvas allows the artist to go cover- or frame-free. Bonus: Watercolor canvas stays wetter longer and it won't buckle or tear like paper. If you're ready to reap the benefits of using watercolor canvas, start by choosing high quality watercolor canvas from FREDRIX.
The drawback of using watercolor on a canvas without gesso is that the paint will not be absorbed as well as it would on canvas that has been prepared with gesso. This means that you have to be careful when applying your first layer of paint!
Yes, you can use watercolor on canvas without gesso. However, the result will be disappointing. The drawback of using watercolor on a canvas without gesso is that the paint will not be absorbed as well as it would on canvas that has been prepared with gesso.
Priming your canvas or panel with Qor Cold-Pressed Ground is the closest you'll get to paper, and even has actual fibers in it. As others mentioned ^^^, you can paint with watercolors on primed canvas, but it doesn't absorb the paint the way paper does.
Oil paint should never come into direct contact with the fiber or the canvas will eventually rot, become weak, brittle and crumbly. When acrylics are painted directly onto raw canvas, the water content may draw impurities in the support and yellow or turn the paint medium brown over time.
Watercolor is pigment suspended in a binder usually of gum arabic, glycerin and a humectant… this will adhere to acrylic…but will be brittle…and will flake off easily…so you would have to varnish it. If you are looking for a ground to paint on, you would do better with traditional gesso…not acrylic.
Introduction: My name is Geoffrey Lueilwitz, I am a zealous, encouraging, sparkling, enchanting, graceful, faithful, nice person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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