Fast-drying watercolour during painting

Art Medium Discussion and Questions
1

Hi there,

I’m working through the Watercolour Workshop (which is great, by the way, because I’m beginning to understand what makes watercolours stand out from other paints, and also how to use them effectively). I’m nearly finished with the pear still-life, but I’ve noticed that my paints seem to dry a lot faster than Matt’s, which makes things like wet-in-wet painting harder. Does anyone have an idea what might cause this? I’m using Winsor & Newton Cotman pans, on a study watercolour pad, which is quite thin, only 180 g/m2 (sorry, I’m in Europe and get terribly confused by American units), so I guess the paper can’t absorb that much water. Could my paper be the problem? Even when I wet the paper first (with plenty of water), the paints dry really quickly. So far I’ve remedied it with adding more water every time, but this makes the effect somewhat different.

Thanks in advance!

2

Hi,
My first thought was that where Matt lives is more humid, then I checked the humidity levels and the Netherlands is more humid - thank you North Sea!
Another thought might be that Matt uses heavier paper (300 gems) and he has it taped to a wooden board. You mentioned that you are using a pad of paper, could the pad be acting like blotting paper?
Not sure if any of this helps!
Cheers,
Mike

3

Hi Mike,

I think you could be right. I’d thought the heaviness of the paper could be a factor, but I hadn’t thought about the pad acting like blotting paper. Thanks!