How to – paint wet in wet watercolor portrait with calligraphic marks. Watch the video and learn how I prepare my paper for wet into wet painting and how I control watercolor on the wet surface.
In today’s video I demonstrate a portrait painted on wet paper. The video is ‘uncut’ except a couple of short edits. Since timing is of essence when painting wet into wet, the video lets you see the process in real time.
As for paper preparation, the video is sped up in the beginning to prevent boredom. The process of saturating the paper with water took around 5 minutes but is condensed into 45 second segment. The process itself is quite straightforward, first you wet the back side of the paper thoroughly, then you flip the paper and wet the front side. Once both sides are wet suction is going to keep the paper stuck to the board. After wetting both sides, it’s a good idea to wait a little before applying paint. Some buckling may appear which only means uneven wetness. Just gently raise up the part of paper in question and apply more water on the back side. Repeat as necessary. Before painting I use a damp brush to pick up excess water from the front side of the paper.
As for the painting process, I first structure the form and add detail only when the planes are clearly established. I proceed from general to detailed, from large to small. I add calligraphic marks with a variety of brushes only at the end. These are the principles that apply to this particular painting. In a different painting some may be discarded and other added. For example, it’s a perfectly sound approach to do almost abstract underpainting and define planes with line only. Remember that each painting is its own world and few rules in art are universal.
