Saltwater

I’ve been experimenting with watercolour painting in the last couple of days, creating textured effects using salt. I’ve never tried this before, but the results are not as expected.

I looked at a few tutorials online, and supposedly the salt should lift off the watercolour and leave white speckles. I don’t know what’s happened with mine, but the salt has the exact opposite effect! Instead of white speckles, the salt seems to concentrate the paint, and creates darker spots.

Salt scattered on the surface. Click on image for larger version.At first I thought this was happening in the pink section because I had impatiently brushed off the salt before the paper was dry, so I left the green sections alone for hours until it dried – but still no joy.

It’s either type of salt I’m using (ordinary iodised cooking salt), or the type of paint: liquid watercolour. Regardless, it is still an interesting effect, but it requires more experimentation. Back to the drawing board!

More textural effects to check out at Fountain Studio.