watercolour on a new surface

During the very hot summer, I sat in my cool basement and painted, trying out some new techniques.

I'd watched a film on internet with a fantastic artist called Carla O'Connor who worked with watermedia - mostly gouache, on a gesso surface. She painted gesso (which is an acrylic and chalk mixture) onto hot-pressed watercolour paper to give herself a water resistant surface to paint on. The advantage of this was that she could easily wipe off, and even lift out, areas of her watercolour painting. The paint just sat on the surface and dried, it didn't soak in like on ordinary watercolour paper. I was intrigued and tried it out, and even tried some other grounds - like matte gel medium. This was my favourite. I painted a sheet of hot-pressed Saunders Waterford watercolour paper and then started sketching up a picture of a woman with water-soluble pencils. Then I began painting. At first I was a bit frustrated as the watercolour lifts off if you work too hard over it, the friction of the brush causes it to dissolve, so layering different glazes has to be done quite carefully - but then I got used to working in this way and even tried stamping onto the surface with some of my own stamps (florals) using watercolour paint. It was fun!!! I decided to draw the face in with watercolour pencils. Here's the result - can you notice in the detail pictures how I could lift out highlights along the left side of her sleeve and socks? Am definitely going to try more of these techniques! /Jacqui