new product and trial of watercolor canvas
Fredricks has made a watercolor canvas for some time, it can be stretched on bars, or made into panels, or bought that way, or in a pad , here is a good link to explain it.
www.taramaterials.com/assets/pdf/TipsTechniques.pdf
If you use the pad like I did, you
must staple it down, not tape as I did, or it will cockle up. I had a hard time, but then I'm new to watercolor, but from the sample I painted you can see something, two pros, no glass needed for framing, can do big pieces. I did not find the subtle colors, I wanted worked as well as something more bold. I think paper is much better, but some of the acrylic painter may like it, I will try it again when I have a more contrasty piece .
On this not very good piece, I also used a new product I got at a vendor show yesterday. Daniel Smith Watercolor sticks below are some photos, here's a link
http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-G-284-670
I really like these, they can look like crayon, crayon and wash, ink, or picked up on a wet brush they look exactly like regular water color. I also used them directly into other watercolor in my pan ( this is my travel set up) by cutting in half I have a set at home and one to travel) to alter or change mixtures, I just scribbled it into the puddle of mix. They would be great for a really light set up, just stick a few into your pocket with a brush and a 3oz bottle of water, and everything would be in one pocket. I bought them on sale so I got a good deal. Basically they are just the pigment and gum arabic, by having the sticks in my travel box I have a wider range of color, so I could include some less standard colors I like, like olive green, in the pans, the basics are covered with the sticks. Being so concentrated they are a good value.
DS product info
My experiments
from left down and then to the right side
dry stick , with wet brush over.
wet brush over stick then applied
applied to wet paper
applied to damp paper
dipped stick in water then applied
mixing ultra blue, and hansa yellow( below the mix)
my travel pan
the actual size of stick (4")
the watercolor canvas painting, the grainy sand part is the bt sienna stick dragged over the canvas, then brushed with water