Saturday, November 5, 2016

Working Watercolor over Spray Fixative

Wanted to share the results of working graphite with a spray fixative and adding color afterwards using watercolor.

Here is a section of the sketch crawl page I worked in graphite:




Using Blair, Very Low Odor Spray Fix, I sprayed the page with enough coverage to where I knew the graphite wouldn't smudge.  I spray lightly so not to get runs holding the can about a foot away from the surface.slowly sweeping back and forth.

Once I knew it was completely dry (which this stuff dries quickly), I applied light washes of watercolor.  Because there is a coating over that graphite, when I apply the watercolor, it doesn't turn all muddy like it would if applying directly over top without the spray.  The sprayed surface is like working on internal and external sized papers.

And, like painting on sized paper surfaces, if you go back over top a painted area, it could lift the previous layer back off.  Just need to use a light touch.  In my case I was using a dagger brush for this because it's soft.



Once the watercolor was dry, I went back in with my Lamy Safari pen and Lexington Gray ink.  I chose the Lamy because it has a super fine nib applying just enough ink without taking over the graphite (mainly to emphasize just a bit some areas).



Did the same thing with this guy at the table......




4 comments:

SusanA said...

Thank you so much for sharing your process! I always appreciate learning something new. Your sketches turned out great. The graphite adds a nice texture beneath the watercolor.

Giddings Art said...

Thank you for sharing this! As someone who works mainly with graphite, I like knowing how this would work.

Ginny Stiles said...

I don't think I knew about that spray technique. How interesting!
Thanks for sharing how to do it. I like the sketches!
And the polite fish sign…PLEASE no fishing.

Anonymous said...

Does the fixative prevent the paper from absorbing the water at all? I am penciling something now and hoping to try this.