TJ's Projects: Canvas vs. Paper

Hello hello everyone!

My first canvas done with watercolors arrived safe and sound at its owner! I figured it would be nice to see the difference between my usual watercolor paper and working on canvas.

Some of you know about the Three Venetian Masks I painted a while back. I love Venetian masks they are mysterious and often full of details. A friend really loved them and asked if it was possible to have it on canvas as well. Well almost anything is possible, so I said ‘Yes of course!!’

So I re-painted it on canvas with...watercolors! I haven’t got the usual in-between pictures. I kinda forgot to keep track of it. This is what I used:

I probably should have taken a picture without both finished pieces hehe. Ah well! Next to the standard things, like brushes, pencils/pen, eraser, paint (which I forgot to add in the picture), I used four extra steps.

1. I retraced the original painting on tracing paper (that's the transparent drawing you see above)

2. I primed the canvas with Watercolor primer from Schmincke (the white bottle in the back)

3. Then I retraced the painting on the canvas by using Saral transfer paper. (the red box on the left)

4. Finally details are added with acrylic ink in white, black and iridescent gold. (the three little bottles in front of the primer.)

Standard canvasses are prepped with a universal primer, suitable for most paintings. However I found that watercolors didn’t really ‘stick’ with this universal primer. So after some research I found a watercolor primer for canvas. A very good product, easy to apply and it dries fairly quickly. You need to add 3 thin layers on your canvas. After drying, you can start painting.

Saral transfer paper in graphite. I love this! A whole new array of possibilities has been opened with this little roll of graphite paper. This medium makes transferring drawings very easy as you can transfer it on e.g. canvas (obviously), wood, ceramic and so on. The graphite lines dissolve in water. Warning: make sure the lines aren't too thick (so not a whole lot of pressure while you trace your drawing) as it will influence your paint color, because the lines give too much pigment and add a touch of greyness when it dissolves. Most people don’t want that…

The actual paint process was a bit tricky as the canvas had a rougher structure than the paper I use. The brush didn't glide quite easily over it, at least not like I'm used to. The watercolor paper I use is quite smooth and the canvas had those little lines…

I guess because of this the waiting for a layer to dry increased by a lot! And I’m not that patient to begin with hehe. So the adding of the layers continued and the details and background are done with the acrylic inks. Finally, I added 3 thin layers of fixative and this also gave it a lovely shine.

I’m very pleased with the end result and I do like both pieces. On the canvas the colors are more vibrant and on the paper it’s softer. It really depends on what you want in the end.

Here’s a picture that I got from the owner. She loves it and I’m really happy it got to her safe and sound! It was such a fun project to do and the first time I really painted on canvas. So not mindless doodling hehe.

Now it's proudly displayed in its new home :D

That's it for now! Questions? Do you have a preference? And do you like Venetian Masks? Some people find them a tad scary...

Enjoy your weekend.

Ciao!