...And the results are...

...Interesting.

Here's what I did.  I decided to do a quick background comparison test using a piece of watercolor paper (with a gesso coating) versus Bristol board.  At the same time, I decided to test my new purchase - a Winsor Newton Series 7 size 2.  The only waterproof ink I had to test it with was my little bottle of Winsor Newton Indian Ink, so that's what I did....

The image on the left is the watercolor paper with gesso, the left is untreated Bristol board.
First thoughts?  I HATE inking on gesso - it's not just the feel of the brush on the surface, but it catches my fingers making the inking more "wobbly" as a result.  I used my Rosemary brush on the gesso, as I didn't want to ruin the W&N straight away.  I did use it on the bristol, and liked it a lot - but the ink!  The W&N Indian ink just didn't want to flow!  I normally use Sumi ink, which is gorgeous with a brush, but compared to that, the W&N ink felt like tar - it just didn't flow.  The upshot is I'm going to try to get some Pelikan ink (supposed to be really good with brushes), but I digress...

I did the background using the same basic method - that is, I got the page wet, and applied some diluted Golden Fluid Acrylic (Pthalo Blue), trying to get a gradual fade.  I obviously didn't succeed, but that was becausse I was short of time.  Both surfaces were much less absorbant than the basic watercolor paper (which I expected), but both behaved in different ways.  The gessoed watercolor page did have some texture, which stopped the paint from moving very freely.  The bristol board is much smoother, which lets the paint flow better.  You'll notice that the bristol has a more "watercolor" feel because of that - the quite stark color gradient is because I had to mop up the remaining blue paint on the surface as I ran out of testing time.  I think that given more time, the result would have been more pleasing.  It also leads to another point:  with the bristol board, I could lift the paint off more like I would with watercolor, so I could fix mistakes.

So what's the result?  Well, I prefer both surfaces to untreated watercolor paper without a doubt.   The thing is, I'm not sure if I'd prefer gessoed illustration board to Bristol Board.  Bristol is cheaper, more easily available, and takes ink better - I may well stay with that.What I might do is sand the gessoed illustration board a bit, and see if that helps...

'Ruddy 'Ell!

Just tried a background in acrylics on watercolour paper, and found that I couldn't move the paint around how I wanted.  Problem appears to be that compared to Bristol or Illustration board, the paper is so much more absorbant that it literaly sucks the water out of the paint.  Also, even though I sealed the ink drawing with fixative, the ink still ran when water was applied!  The answer appears to be to gesso the surface, so I might try a couple of experiments..

Trouble at t' mill...

This blog of mine as sort of become a post facto diary of sorts for my journey in art, so here's the latest debarcle...

I've started experimenting with liquid acrylic paints, specifically Golden, and the results are quite good.  I used a similar method that I use for the watercolour base (light to dark), just with more layers...

I'm really pleased with my version of "Leia" (Carrie Fisher), and it gave me the confidence to go further, so I tried "Castle" (Nathan Fillion again).  Nathan is a really hard subject, but I thought my sketch was pretty good, so on with the painting, and...  oh dear....

Unlike "Leia", I tried to do clouds as I would have done with oil paints, but by using an acrylic blending medium - the results were horrible.  Not only were the clouds "patchy", but the illustration board reacted badly in one place, the surface "bobbling" until it went a very strange shade (almost like I'd damaged the surface).  I'll tried to tone the background down a lot to get over that problem, but that wasn't the end of it.

The mask I used to cover the subject failed in places, leaving bright green smuges on the paper.  The answer (I thought) was titanium white, but of course, the different absorbtion rates between the paper and the white paint left me with horrible blotches.  I tried guoache, but that just mixed with the acrylic paint!  It took a lot of work, but I finally covered the mistakes.  Then the painters tape ripped the board - bacause it wasn't gessoed...
Next step was colour pencil - and that really didn't work.  The blending just went straight to hell, although at least the pencil "took".  As I look at it now, it's not terrible, but it's nowhere near "OK"...

So, for future projects....

• Gesso the surface to make it "even" when the paint is applied and prevent "Bobbling"
• Go from light to dark, and assume you CANNOT lighten it.
• Don't mix guoache with acrylic!

So, I may try "Castle" again using the lesson's I've learned - watch this space!