Best of Both Media

I used to be frustrated by watercolor. Following the rules drove me crazy! Plan carefully....Save the whites.....Put your darks in last. Every time I tried to paint this way, I ended up with a pale, wishy-washy watercolor. Years of painting with acrylics led to habits that seemed impossible to change __ using darks first, covering areas with opaque paint and freely moving things around. Yet, I kept coming back to watercolor because of its loose, the way it "bleeds" and granulates, and, of course its wonderful transparency.

My frustration grew until I finally threw up my hands in despair and decided "if you can't lick 'em, join 'em." And that's literally what I did. I "joined them" by using both acrylic and watercolor in the same painting. This has enabled me to take advantage of the best of both media.

FREEDOM AND CHANGE

Combining acrylic and watercolor in Glacier Patterns allowed me the freedom and control I needed for the intricate patterns of this glacier moraine. I initially developed the design of the ice by leaving the paper blank and building layers of watercolor around it. As the painting progressed, I used opaque acrylic tints to expand the design into areas previously painted with watercolor. The two media allowed me to have fluidity and interesting color blends, yet retain control over the details.

As I began to experiment with putting the media together, some interesting things occurred. I could "save" areas of free flowing watercolor when the effect was just right, and I could gain infinite control by using acrylic when careful detail or corrections and changes were needed. Both could be gorgeously transparent, allowing me to layer them without concern as to which should come first. After awhile, I couldn't tell where the watercolor ended and the acrylic began __ it looked as if the same paint was used throughout. This discovery solved the problems I had with using watercolor by itself, and it has challenged and encouraged me to grow and continue experimenting.

SEPARATE BUT EQUAL

A highlight of the acrylic/watercolor combination is that the strength of each compensates for the other's weakness. For instance, the values of both media change as they dry. Opaque acrylic dries darker, while transparent watercolor dries lighter. When I first began using watercolor, I would work happily on a wet painting only to discover that when it dried, it was very pale and had little value contrast. When trying acrylic on paper, my values would dry much darker than I planned. I would paint layers and layers of opaque paint to lighten them, but would end up with stiff edges. Together, however, the media created the balance of value that I was after.

Although the media look the same on paper, they handle differently, so there are some important facts to remember about how each needs to be treated. First, use different brushes for watercolor and acrylic, and keep them separated. Watercolor requires good sable brushes that are flexible, well-made, and often expensive. Sable brushes will keep their shape when cleaned and cared for and will last many years. But, acrylic will destroy a good sable brush in a day, so use inexpensive, synthetic brushes, and don't be concerned when they are ruined.

Second, use separate palettes for acrylic and watercolor. For acrylic, disposable paper palettes work fine (be sure you buy those made for acrylic; the ones for oils will bubble and buckle). For watercolor, I use a re-sealable plastic palette with compartments for paint and a large area in the center for mixing. You can keep acrylic paint moist on the palette by spraying frequently with water. You'll find that acrylic paint will dry into hard gobs on the palette by the end of the day and can't be used again. When watercolor paint dries hard, however, you can continue to use it indefinitely by spraying with water.

Third, although the media end up looking similar, remember that watercolor and acrylic react differently on rag paper. Watercolor is forgiving in its drying time __ it allows you to float pigment onto a wet surface, and later float more pigment there or dilute with water. Dry watercolor can can be re-wet to lighten values or even remove paint entirely from an area.

Acrylic, on the other hand, just sits right where you put it. It dries almost instantly, and it is almost impossible to add water to float the pigment or lighten an area. Even when working on wet paper, acrylic almost always leave an instant edge. For this reason, most watercolorists give up on acrylic. But one way to prevent acrylic from being absorbed into the paper too quickly is to start with a watercolor underpainting.


STEP ONE: Watercolor Washes The first step is drawing the image lightly in pencil and loosely applying watercolor to establish a mid-value base of color. This is a chance to get in the middle of things and play. I saved the white of the paper for the largest areas of the white in the clouds, but on the whole, I used strong color and worked boldly since I knew I could tone it down with acrylic if necessary.	STEP TWO: Switch to Acrylics With watercolor, I loosely brushed in the design and pattern of the fireweed in the bottom third of the painting. Next, I established the pattern of light and shadow on the distant mountains. To give the mountains weight and darker values, I glazed over them with acrylic washes. I also gave the valley two light, gray-brown acrylic washes and began developing the negative space behind the foreground fireweed.	STEP THREE: Focus Attention Since the focal point of the painting is the middle valley, I created strong value contrasts with small acrylic dots. Then, I emphasized the sunlight on the distant green hill by darkening the surrounding mountains, and added opaque lights as highlights. I then went back to watercolor washes to gently darken the values in the valley.

STEP FOUR: Add Gel and Detail

I coated the entire painting with a layer of transparent gel medium to eliminate the absorbency of the paper. This allowed me to create fine detail and hard edges, to enhance the dark values, and to intensify colors. This is especially important in the dark negative space between the leaves and stems and around the edges of the flowers. At this point, the leaves are still defined by the first watercolor wash.

STEP FIVE: Accent the Highs and Lows

The gel surface allows for the maximum opacity of the acrylic. On the surface, I create the lightest lights and the darkest darks. Here, I darkened the values of the foreground fireweed and leaves with short, overlapping strokes of different colors of acrylic. I unhesitatingly use many colors - as long as they're the right value, they'll blend into the rest of the work. To finish Denali Valley, I added opaque pink and yellow to the clouds, darkened the blue of the sky, and washed some darks into the lower haze above the mountains.

WATERCOLOR FIRST

For the watercolor underpainting, the colors on my palette are pretty basic __ warm and cool reds, blues and yellows, a couple of greens and violets and maybe a new color to experiment with. I don't get fancy with this because watercolor is just a base to work from, like a foundation to a house.

With the image penciled lightly on paper, I apply watercolor loosely to establish the middle values and a base of color. As step one of "Denali Valley" shows I saved the white of the paper for the largest light areas in the clouds, but I didn't worry too much about saving them because I knew I could go over them later with opaque acrylic. In the underpainting, be bold, use strong color, work wet-in-wet and maximize the "happy accident" qualities of watercolor. This is a chance to get in the middle of things and "play."

Next, I set up a palette of acrylics. Through the years, I've used many brands of acrylic and now have quite an assortment of sizes and colors. I find Utrecht acrylic in tubes and jars superior to others in the consistency of the paint and intensity of the hues (and no other brand can beat the price). Since a greater part of the painting's development occurs in acrylic, this palette is wider than that for watercolor. I employ titanium white, cadmium yellow light and medium, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, naphthol crimson, acra violet (Liquitex), burnt sienna, burnt umber, thalo blue, and ultramarine blue. I've always mixed my own acrylic greens.

Acrylic seems to have a much wider range of tints and shades than transparent watercolor. A full range of values can be created by diluting the paint to different degrees with water, and numerous color variations can be mixed by adding white and using the paint opaquely or transparently. Since the paint looks much darker on the paper than it does on the palette, I develop the middle values using short, broken strokes.

The versatility of acrylic allows me to develop the painting in two basic ways: I can use them in transparent layers to gradually build and deepen form, or I can lighten highlights with opaque acrylic. In "Denali Valley" I took the first approach, using glazes of both transparent and opaque acrylic to deepen the values and add form to the watercolor underpainting. But in "Rhubarb" I used acrylic primarily for adding highlights. In fact, most of the sunny spots on the leaves were achieved with layers of opaque acrylic. The background was changed from a transparent watercolor wash of dark blue to the warm opaque peach and pink by painting opaque acrylic over top of the blue. Yet, some of the original watercolor underpainting still shows through __ you can see some of its soft bleeds of green and blue in the leaves.

With either method of working, I make sure that I don't get "hung up" in one area. If I complete one small area at a time rather than developing the entire surface to the same level, I tend to lose the painting. So I gradually adjust all of the values and model the forms, using whatever painting techniques necessary. I may use transparent watercolor washes, opaque highlights, stippling, spattering or direct painting __ any technique that enhances what I established in the watercolor washes. I boldly use many colors because I've learned that there's really no right color __ only the right value. If your values are correct, it won't matter what color you use.

ACRYLICS FOR STRENGTH

While watching for caribou in Alaska, I saw the filmy clouds lift to reveal the dazzling white peaks of Mount Drum. To capture this, I applied watercolor wet-into-wet, leaving the white of the paper for the filmy clouds. To give the mountain strength and dominance, I overpainted the watercolor base with opaque mixtures of white acrylic. This enhanced the snow patterns and gave Mt. Drum:North Face a brilliant, strong source of light.

WHEN IT ALL GELS

When I'm ready to use smaller brushes and get down to detail, I coat the entire painting with a layer of transparent acrylic gel medium. I thin the gel to a milky consistency with water and apply it in liberal strokes. The painting will be obscured with this white medium, but it dries within minutes and becomes completely transparent. The gel eliminates the absorbency of the paper and enables the development of fine detail and hard edges, and it enhances the dark values and intensifies the hues. It also allows for the maximum opacity and value range of the acrylic. Painting on its slick, smooth surface is a delight for me.

Once the gel medium has been a applied, I never use watercolor again. When I've placed all details in acrylic, the painting is finished. Sometimes, I coat the finished painting with another layer of either matte or gloss gel medium. Matte medium leaves a dull finish while gloss medium leaves a shiny surface. If the painting is predominantly dark, I avoid gloss medium because the subtle values are often obscured in the shiny surface reflection.

Yet another bonus of this combination is that the paintings are qualified as watercolor and are eligible for watercolor exhibitions and awards. It seems that the opportunities for watercolor shows and contests are endless, so this has opened a new world for me. And I think that testing the possibilities of this combination of media can be the start of something new and rewarding for you too.

RETRIEVING THE LIGHTS

Rhubarb was the painting that inspired me to combine watercolor and acrylic. I had planned to do it all in watercolor until I was muddling along in the middle and realized I needed more light in areas I had made quite dark. So I turned to acrylic to bring back the highlights I had lost. I also used the opacity of acrylics to change the background from dark blue to warm peach and pink. The introduction of acrylics allowed me to show the bright, glowing pattern of light among the rich darks of the shadows.

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