DIY Granulation Medium | Create Special Watercolor Effects using Household Ingredients

SEE LINK BELOW!
Hey Art Friends! Welcome back to the Mandakyns Channel!
Today's episode is an updated DIY experiment to achieve a similar effect to commercial granulation mediums. I received some feedback and decided to redo this experiment with the feedback in mind! Come along with me as I show how to create your own granulation medium solution. ​
Non-Granulating Pigments Tested:
Phthalo Blue
Cadmium Red Deep
*Distilled Water (Control)
I use a ratio of 1TBSP Salt:1 Cup Hot Water to dissolve each of these salts:
*Epsom salt (Magnesium Sulfate)
*Sea Salt (Sodium Chloride)
*Table Salt (Sodium Chloride with Potassium Iodide)
*Winsor & Newton Granulation Medium
In this experiment, I combine 1ML of each of the solutions in separate wells in the palette using two different non-granulating watercolor pigments applied listed above to watercolor paper. I then add another 1ML of each solution and swatch again.
Next, I test the salt solutions by combining together 3 drops each of two solutions, and swatch this out for both colors. Lastly, I combine all 3 salt solutions and test this on the watercolor paper.
This is a really great and inexpensive way to create your very own granulating medium! If you like granulating effects in your watercolors that you play around with making some solutions that you can easily make with household items you likely have around your home!
IMPORTANT NOTE! Be very careful not to contaminate the watercolors in your palette! Keep a jar of clean water handy and another for dirty water! Always only use clean water in your pan watercolor palette to keep your watercolors from getting dirty, mixed with other colors, or from having other contaminants (like the salt from our experiment) destroy your watercolors. Always allow your paints to dry after use, they can easily be reactivated. Storing watercolors with wet paint in a warm, dark place can cause mold to take root and destroy your watercolor pigments.
However, I would also set aside a paintbrush for this as salt may be corrosive for your ferrule (the metal part that holds the hairs of the brush) or could possibly damage the glue that holds it together. You should never leave your brush in the water for long periods as it can cause damage, but especially this water as it will be corrosive over time. It might be a good idea to mark the handle of your paintbrush with washi tape and permanent marker "SALT" if you will have trouble identifying it later.
MY ADVICE: Keep a separate dish or palette for these types of adventures to prevent mixing any solution with your beautiful watercolor paints. Tube paints worked best for this experiment so that I didn't accidentally go into my pan colors with salty water to get them juicy and inadvertently contaminate them. Once you add salt to your colors it will change the behavior of the paint, therefore it is a good idea to keep them separate.
HAPPY ARTING!

[@221b-Maker-Street]

The key to getting a decent granulation effect is two things: 1)

[@airplayn]

I'm a chemist and I recommend ALUM (Al2(SO4)3), ferric chloride (FeCl3) and ferric sulfate (Fe(SO4)3. These might be too strong but worth experimentation with.

[@wakeupuk3860]

Excellent, having taught Science and the importance of experimentation and recording, this really was good to see an artist apply. Currently experimenting with abstract WC landscapes and find even with Daniel Smiths and W&N granulating medium - high costs and often granulation is not that much better than the 'Triple' mix. So will certainly order some salt packets and have a go. Thank you very for your effort, I know you speeded it up for our benefit, but it obviously took you some time.

[@DebKiwi]

Great and helpful experiment! I read that someone used Everclear in a small spray bottle to achieve a granulation effect similar to Schmincke Granulation Spray. When I saw the spray on the Schimincke website, I initially wondered if it was made with salt. Anyway, I love to experiment and consider myself a [slightly less] mad scientist. :-) Btw, I don’t recall hearing you say which one of your salt experiments you think achieved the best results 🧐

[@watercolorpaintingintheaft9142]

Girl! Can it be this easy? Salt water? I had no idea. I'll definitely be trying it.

[@ImpRoll92]

this sounds like a fun experiment! thank you for sharing your results and sharing this idea with us!

[@CATAZTR0PHE]

Wow, that was great and fun experiment 🧪 clever!

[@peterplantec7911]

honestly I didn't see very much granulation in any of the samples. I was hoping the commercial granulation medium would have worked better than it did. I guess I expected supergranulation.

[@DahHar117]

It would have been nice to get your first-hand assessment of the results.

[@williamredmond8128]

I'm super into this channel

[@MelitaBintoro]

wow thanks for your thorough method! super cool for you to do this. i actually can't tell which of the salts created the most granulation from the vid -- which do you think had the best effect? and this might be a stupid question but would using concentrated salt water often damage our brushes over time? like drying out the brush hairs and making them brittle for example

[@lizadivine3785]

Very informative vid thank you! I was wondering, could the salt damage the hair of the watercolor brush?

[@Lacroix999]

Maybe I missed it if you mentioned it, but what type of paper did you use here?

[@lucev7497]

Thank you, it appears to me that W & N granulation medium barely works, if not at all for some pigments…

[@williamredmond8128]

Really enjoying hippie chemistry

[@evdokaki]

Thank you so much for this experiment. it will help me save a lot of money. 🙏🙏🙏 The granulation fluids on rhe market are pretty expensive

[@marjoriejohnson6535]

What were your conclusions???????

[@DavidDeWittStudio]

I’ve been searching all over Google for how to make your own granulating medium and all you get is videos and nobody really knows how to do it! That’s just crazy. Somebody out there ought to know how to do it? Nobody knows the formula for the stuff that you buy in bottles apparently. And I can’t even get a result of a blog or an article that talks about it

[@marilynanderson333]

Go over end results more slowly.