Make your own watercolour ground and gesso

[@RobertPark-wm4up]

Thank you for your venturing in. Learned so very much.

[@mjpete27]

I was so surprised to see that you started out at the most basic level! I have used several of the commercial brands of watercolor ground, it is quite expensive! I found Liz Chaderton and her recipe for watercolor ground is gesso and modeling paste. If you want the wood grain to show through for a unique look, use transparent gesso and modeling pastes it works so well I have stopped buying any commercial brands and I have saved loads of money making my own! Thank you for sharing your from scratch recipes.

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Thanks for your comment! Having lived in a number of places internationally, I’ve found that not all art supplies are easily available in a lot of places, and I get frustrated with recipes that insist on using a certain product of brand that’s not always accessible, so I wanted to try and figure out how to make something like this from scratch. Glad you found it useful. :)

[@christianecarson4321]

WOW!!! I usually work with acrylics on canvases, but have recently been gifted a lot of good quality watercolours, but then found out it needs w/c ground for my canvas :( OMG! I just saw the cost of these w/c ground and, since I don't have much money, I wondered if there was a way round it? YAY!!! Lo and behold, there you are with this hack. I'm overjoyed to say the least, since I've been making my own gesso for years and bicarb is so cheap!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for making an old lady so very happy!😍🤩😋😘🥰💓

[@christianecarson4321]

@Tyler Thank you

[@sleepy-oi3ms]

Thank you for this video! Wood is my favorite surface to paint on, I can’t wait to play around with what I’ve got.

[@sleepy-oi3ms]

Tha j you for this video! Wood surfaces are my favorite to paint on, I can’t wait to play around :)

[@LaLaArtStudio]

Thank you for your very informative video! I'm recovering from a total loss fire and I am trying to stumble along with gathering unconventional supplies when and where I can find them, as traditional supplies are so costly. THIS IS GREAT I have been trying watercolor painting and the paper is so expensive! I'm excited to try this!🙏💗🎨 thank you thank you

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Thank you! Hope it works out for you; sorry to hear about the fire. :(

[@suemcarthur105]

you're so multi talented

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Thanks Sue!

[@amadhia]

Thank you so much for making this video! I've been wondering about do g watercolors on non-standard materials for some time! You've gotten me jazzed to give this a go!

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Thanks! Glad I could help. :)

[@danijeladesign]

Could you please write the correct prescription measures.

[@221b-Maker-Street]

They are literally in the video: 1:03 to 2:30.

[@sassycat378]

Thank you for the recipes can't wait to give them a go

[@jessieadair]

Thanks so much the great diy! (Your little bird is adorable!)

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Thanks!

[@asawarisalwan4437]

Such a fantastic share!! Thank you so much for taking the time out to make this video. If I use commercially available gesso and add the bicarb I am assuming it would result into the same kind of ground as yours. Will it work on prepping canvas for me too? I am assuming a yes, since it worked on wood. :-)

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Thanks! Glad you liked it. Yep, adding bicarb to commercial gesso should be absolutely fine, and you can definitely use it on canvas. Good luck. :)

[@jmmacb03]

@@SpinesAndSplines Thanks for posting this. I am on a tight budget (who isn't?) and am also revisiting watercolours since there are so many great teachers online and priceless info like this gets shared. Cheers, from Toronto ☮︎

[@splendour3951]

Thanks for sharing

[@jolandadejong9050]

Can you also just use pre-made gesso and add the bread soda? Love this video❤️

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Absolutely! I just wanted to have a go completely from scratch.

[@rainangel159]

Would gelatin work if i added it to the gesso?i know thats what they use to size paper for watercolour.

[@armida9999]

@@rainangel159 I think gelatine is used to size paper to keep the pigment at the certain depth, so that the cotton/cellulose fibres wouldn't absorb it, and it wouldn't bleed through (these fibres are already very porous and absorbent). Wood or other panels aren't, so the bicarbonate of soda is added to create this absorbency/porousness. and PVA is a synthetic substitute of gelatine, and it's already in the gesso. I might be wrong, of course, but this is my understanding. :)

[@nachobidness2553]

I've read on Wet Canvas that alkaline powders like baking soda, most chalks, and talc eventually eat away or fade paints. Have you noticed that happening? It's hard to find Ph neutral chalk, so I'd like your feedback on the effect of your ground over time, in case it's not an issue.

[@angelareinhard]

thanks for the video & recipes! do you think this would work well for gouache?

[@SpinesAndSplines]

I think so! I didn't try it with gouache, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

[@Mark-fv8vt]

Which watercolour brand do you prefer?

[@SpinesAndSplines]

All of my watercolours are by Sennelier. I used to work for an art store that represented them specifically, so it's what I ended up with. I prefer using pans to tubes, and Sennelier in particular are really great for building up lots of translucent layers.

[@michelemerrell2951]

Would this work for watercolor if you painted it on the pages of a book you got at a thrift store or library book sale, like art journalers do with regular gesso and acrylic paint? Is there a ratio of acrylic gesso to baking soda? Thank you.

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Hi Michele, I see no reason why it wouldn't work on pages of a book. I'm not sure of an exact ratio, but I had around a cup of gesso and added about four spoons of bicarb soda.

[@michelemerrell2951]

Thank You very much 😊

[@BelindaShort]

I imagine that you could also make ground with cellulose/paper that has been blended. You could also use calcium carbonate instead of sodium bicarbonate

[@KiwiJane1]

Belinda Short: calcium carbonate (French Chalk in the white package) is what what she mentioned in the beginning which was used to make the gesso and then the baking soda (bicarbonate sodium) was added to make it more like a watercolour ground.

[@GaeyleSong]

thanks for the great tips. one thought - the background "Music" is very distracting.

[@mikuenjoyerXD]

Why not paint directly onto the wood?

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Sunshine Pineapple The paint wouldn’t sit where it’s supposed to; untreated wood would just suck up all the watercolour. The ground acts as an intermediary between the surface of the wood and the paint. Because the binders in the paint are quite fragile, they don’t stick well to plain wood, but they do stick well to the ingredients in the ground, which in turn sticks well to the wood.

[@SpinesAndSplines]

To add to this, it's not advised generally to do any type of painting on wood that hasn't been sealed or primed first, as over time the wood will leach various chemicals/properties out, which will generally have a detrimental effect on the paint. Even just straight up gesso isn't really enough; the best bet is to seal the wood first with a clear coat then apply your gesso or watercolour ground. If you want the ground to be clear so that you can see the wood, you could try making up a ground without the paint pigment, or you could paint the ground only in the section where you will be painting, so that you end up with an image that has a natural looking wood surround.

[@mollie3763]

Could I use normal chalk instead? [Despite of trying, I can't find it]

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Hi, I’m assuming you’re in the US, because a quick search of all the main art stores and amazon gave me nothing. Weird! French chalk is basically straight up, unscented talcum powder. Using something that’s already a powder, rather than grinding up solid chalk, would definitely be preferable. This is the one place in the US that I was able to find it for sale: shop.takachpress.com/French-Chalk-p/french-chalk.htm Your best bet, rather than making this entirely from scratch, would be to add the bicarbonate soda to a premade gesso, which should be widely available. I just did the whole process here because I wanted to make it entirely from scratch.

[@mollie3763]

@@SpinesAndSplines Greetings from Poland

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Mollie Thanks for clarification! Not sure what your primary art shops are in Poland, but you should be able to order from Jackson’s in the UK: www.jacksonsart.com/handover-french-chalk I bought mine from Evan’s art supplies in Dublin.

[@mollie3763]

It's hard because of translation issues - Google translated "French Chalk" to polish as "mydło" - it's a "soap" I bought a Johnson's Baby powder, which contains pure talc and a parfume - it works perfectly, thanks for the recipe so much ^^

[@hobbswells8985]

Would somebody comment on how painting on a gessoed surface compares to actual watercolor paper?

[@SpinesAndSplines]

Thanks for your comment. My personal opinion is that I would choose watercolour paper every time if I only wanted to paint on flat things. It’s easier to deal with and faster. This did feel different to painting on paper and the watercolours reacted in different ways, but different types and brands of watercolour paper also give different feels and results. What’s interesting about this for me is that it opens up other avenues of watercolour painting (such as painting on objects) that would be impossible otherwise.

[@aotulapongen8382]

@@SpinesAndSplines watercolor paper sizes seem limiting, so this method would be immensely helpful when making your own canvas. But I'm curious to know how different would it be compared to paper and primed canvas.