Painting Watercolors on Paper Coated with Acrylic Matte Medium

This is a post from Belinda Del Pesco’s Art Blog Belinda Del Pesco.

Painting Watercolors on Paper Coated with Acrylic Matte Medium

In this post about using Speedy Carve to create a relief print, my friend and fellow artist Bonnie Rinier mentioned coating paper with acrylic matte medium before painting with watercolors. I’ve used gesso to coat paper before painting with watercolors, but never even considered matte medium. I assumed the pigments would pool on the acrylic base. Curiosity swelled.

I have a fresh pad of Arteza Premium Watercolor paper, (this one) so I set about an immediate exploration of watercolor over acrylic matte medium.

Painting on a Chalky, Ridged Surface

The matte medium felt a teeny bit chalky under the watercolors, but the pigments remained bright and vibrant.

The texture of the matte medium over the watercolor paper was also very interesting. Lots of hills and valleys to affect the way the wet pigments dispersed and settled. You can see the texture in the close ups below…

Painting from the Comfort of the Couch

With a lap desk under my watercolor pad, and a sofa pillow to hold my field palette, I spent a lovely evening working on this watercolor on matte medium coated paper. (I was also listening to this awesome audiobook.)

I’ve written about painting on the couch before, and the minimal supplies needed to set up a portable painting tote bag here.

Making Watercolor More Forgiving

One of the challenges of painting with watercolors is the staining quality of the pigments. Trying to lighten a passage that has gotten too dark, or muddy-colored is a common frustration.

I tend to use watercolor glazing techniques to force a slow build up on pigments and values. Even then, the finished painting often benefits from a few areas lightened, brightened or shifted in color. I almost always go in with a wet, clean brush to lift a bit of color here and there.

On standard rough or cold pressed paper, pulling pigments up to get back to white can be difficult if you’re using staining pigments, or paper without enough sizing to block absorption.

The coating of Ultra Matte Medium allowed me to pull the darkest green off the paper with a clean, wet brush to get back to the bright white of the paper. (see above)

Shifting Hue or Temperature in Watercolor Painting

In the same vein – I was able to lift staining alizarin crimson watercolor off the tip of a tulip petal in my composition to test a little Opera Pink (see above). If I hadn’t coated the paper in Matte Medium first, I would not be able to lift that color to try another version of pink.

Ultimately, I removed the Pink Opera and returned to the Alizarin Crimson because the hot pink of the test color popped too much. That series of color test swatch applications and removals was only possible because of the matte medium coating on my watercolor paper.

So, if you’re new to watercolors, or your timidity to test color cramps your design options, maybe get a jar of Matte Medium to coat your watercolor paper to give that new surface a try?

Big thanks to my friend Bonnie for suggesting the matte medium. It was a very satisfying experiment!

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you in the next post -

Belinda

P.S. Growing up in a house of inventors and mechanical engineers gifted me with a strong affinity for tinkering and experimenting, which I use to this day in my art practice. If you know kids who like to build, or dabble in creative experimentation, keep their wonder and curiosity fed with books like these…. (The links below are affiliates, which doesn’t affect your cost if you grab them.)

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