Well, I feel very disappointed in the results of trying the Fredrix Canvas for Water Media (as mentioned in a post sunday). The product seemed to take away the features that make watercolors such a wonderful medium to me.

The Fredrix Watercolor Canvas main feature is great lifting ability. Lifting with watercolors is when you dampen your brush and use it to remove paint and lighten the art. Well the Watercolor Canvas does this well, in fact it works too well. Just trying to paint on top of previously painted and dried areas will lift the medium below it. You see, the beauty of watercolor is that its made of layers of translucent colors, one on top of another, that produce beautiful rich colors. So if the paint gets lifted easily it is taking away one of watercolor’s best qualities.

Now I kind of knew this would happen, but I really wanted it to work. For example…the video from the official page they show the painting being wiped away with a sponge (yikes).

The only things I did not try was to the painting dry longer then 15-20 minuets (some of the time with a blow drier) or to spray some sort of fixative chemical in between layers. But I feel anything more would take away from the spontaneity of the watercolor medium.

So, this is as far as I go:

Now lets take a closer look at how the painting looks.

Let’s compare the above sample to a close up section of my flying pig painting. Can you see the difference?

 So for now I will be sticking to my regular watercolor paper, but there are some other cool techniques to try. A friend of mine has mentioned that some artist are stretching sheets of watercolor paper over wooden stretcher bars (like they do for oil/acrylic paintings). Then they spray the work with an  acrylic coat and display it without the glass or frame traditionally required for protecting watercolors.

Sounds cool, maybe that will be a project for later this year.

If any artist has used the project and would like to comment, please do .