Watercolor Granulation Experiment #1 - See Updated Video

Updated Granulation Medium Video: • DIY Granulation Medium...
Perhaps I will leave the old experiment up for a brief time and then remove it, as I have updated it.
Hey Art Friends! Welcome back to the Mandakyns Channel!
Today's episode is about an experiment I did where I dissolved various salts in water by super saturating the water and then straining through a coffee filter. Using this method, I created my own granulation solution/mixture.
I show the various effects that each of my salt solutions:
*dead sea salt
*iodized salt aka sodium chloride or table salt
*epsom salt aka magnesium sulfate
had on ultramarine blue watercolor pigment applied to strips of watercolor paper.
Then, I did a fun experiment where I added a substantial amount of pigment to a fresh solution of epsom salt in a spray bottle and tested it by itself and the effect each solution had on the watercolor pigment. I got some awesome and interesting effects with these sprays.
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!

[@Fabian_drop02]

Thanks for the money saving tips on making granulation medium easily at home. Great idea!

[@carlaeskelsen]

Salt is in itself a very effective preservative. I can't imagine you'd need anything else.

[@nafordebi]

i found that buying granulation medium was very simple , with stage 4 pancreatic cancer every moment counts it works well but this was an awesome video ty

[@Mandakyns2]

Thank you!

[@chedoodles]

yay! i needed this

[@wh0tube]

Epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) seems to be best out of the three. Wondering how magnesium chloride (sold as magnesium oil solution, or magnesium flakes) would go. Anyone tried it?

[@Mandakyns2]

I have not yet. But if you do, tag me! I’d be interested to see!!

[@wh0tube]

@@Mandakyns2 will do. Reading more on it, it seems water hardness is the key. So mainly, Magnesium and Calcium. Chlorides may not do much. I will also try crushed calcium pills. Antacid tablets (e.g.: mylanta) have magnesium and aluminium, although the anti surfactant simethicone may be counter productive. Where do you stop? 😆 I think I will draw the line at vesper martini, shaken or stirred!

[@Mandakyns2]

@@wh0tube I also was just taking a look and you might be onto something there. leeangold.com/2017/04/26/effects-of-water-hardness-on-watercolour-paints/ The effects of hard water would make granulation more pronounced. However, this experiment was done with distilled water as the base. So I tried to prevent that as a potential for causing the granulation. Makes me wonder what different pH of water will do such as adding lye to water. I know you can change the colors of certain natural pigments using things like lemon, vinegar, etc… as with blue pea flower. Can’t say I’ve ever had that! May have to try it next time I put on the ritz!

[@chedoodles]

I def will try the Epsom salt, that's nice

[@ryanoconnor7957]

Hi, can you please update your experiment to mix the mediums into the paint and water like you are supposed to instead of spraying it on top? Also it would be useful to see them compared side-by-side with the professional products and paints that are not naturally granulating (ultramarine is one of the most granulating already). Otherwise I have to do the whole experiment myself and this video isn't useful! :( EDIT: Yeah screw it, I'm too curious... I'm going to go and do it myself now.

[@ryanoconnor7957]

Tried a few non-granulating pigments with a little epsom salts mixed in with my water (maybe less than 2% by weight). It totally works, the effect looks similar to schminke's granulating watercolours range (reviewed here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZSkfplvf99lgJI). This definitely warrants more experimentation!

[@Mandakyns2]

You’re right. Another person commented about that. I’ll try to update this video soon to include some additional information and more tests. :) glad you gave it a try and got similar results

[@ryanoconnor7957]

@@Mandakyns2 I've found there is so much experimenting to be done here. I think we need to set up some more systematic testing / results. The reason is because every colour behaves quite differently. Some have absolutely no effect with epsom salts. And some behave as though pure commercial granulation medium is being used. No matter what, I can't quite get any colour to mimick "heavy" particle pigments though, it seems that using paint with the right particle size is the key to get that really attractive look where it sinks into the hollows of the paper texture. However I'm not giving up yet :D

[@Mandakyns2]

@@ryanoconnor7957 Hey Ryan! Good to hear back from you! I agree with you that there are a lot of experimenting possible here. I considered what you said and got right to it with a few non-granulating colors! I just updated the video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3fQmaGJq5WAf80 to include a recipe for a solution! I'd love to hear what you think! Happy Arting!

[@kerryanne3962]

you can get the same result with clear water too, just the droplets of plain water

[@Mandakyns2]

Some pigments are naturally granulating. But the solutions with salt gives a different effect than plain water. TFW! Happy Arting!

[@mydogeatspuke]

None of them listen. Someone told the crafters and the hobbyists that this is what granulation was and now none of them will accept that it's not.

[@lucev7497]

But what is the actual recipe? How much salt diluted in how much water? Is Winsor & Newton granulating medium really only some form of salt with water?

[@Mandakyns2]

I am unsure about the exact recipe W&N uses. My thought was to achieve the various effects artists are seeking and save money. And if I can find a “solution” that provides the same results or very similar, but can be made at home, then I make them myself! I am *crunchy*. I figure maybe other people are like this also, plus I enjoy sharing. Because the solubility of each salt is different I chose not to provide exact measurements. So I created the solutions by progressively adding more salt to the hot water and stopped when it would not dissolve any more salt. Then, I strained the remainder of water through a coffee filter and into a Pyrex measuring cups. Hope this is helpful! Happy Arting!

[@Mandakyns2]

Hey Luce! Hope you are doing well! I just updated the video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3fQmaGJq5WAf80 to include a recipe for a solution! Happy Arting!

[@alinkozanoglu837]

You don't need a preservative for any of these solutions

[@nancyvrba8865]

How much salt to put in. and water?

[@Mandakyns2]

Hi Nancy! I updated the experiment here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3fQmaGJq5WAf80 and in this one I used 1 cup of water to 1Tbsp of each salt. In the first experiment the intent was to oversaturate the water with the salts and I simply strained out any of the grains that it was too saturated to absorb using a coffee filter.

[@rambunctiousraptor]

This makes me wonder what my contact solution would do

[@Mandakyns2]

Great idea! As contact lens solution is basically a saline solution (salt water), it should work! Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

[@veracoggins7596]

My favorites the epsom salt

[@mydogeatspuke]

Why does every hobbyist on KZbin think that tossing water, salted or otherwise, onto drying watercolour swatches is "granulation" all of a sudden? Who has been misinforming you? This is not that. And PLEASE take your poor brush out of the water pot when you're not using it. That is literal abuse.

[@Mandakyns2]

Thanks for weighing in, even if you disagree. Here’s w&n’s vid: www.winsornewton.com/au/masterclass/granulation-medium-for-watercolour/ Here’s schmincke’s product: www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2017/03/22/schmincke-granulation-medium-special-effect/ In my opinion, the effect is similar to that which achievable with this method. Perhaps they use the addition of oxgall as an ingredient, but that isn’t an ingredient most have. I should add that a brush I am precious with was not used in this video as the salt may possibly damage the bristles or ferrule of the brush. However, the brush in question was not in the water long and was cleaned after the video. I appreciate your comment because it led me to consider these things. Happy Arting!

[@mydogeatspuke]

@@Mandakyns2 ox gall helps with flow, that is how pigment moves within water in a wash. How the colour spreads. It wouldn't make something granulate if it didn't already, but it can make paints that typically don't move once placed get very excitable in the water. If you've ever seen Qor paints disperse then you'll know what I mean. The effect in your video is possible with just plain water, because adding more water to a confined space forces everything else out of the way. Physics. It's also why you'll get a dark ring of pigment on the very edge of a loaded puddle of water. Spraying water does the same thing but to a lesser extent. The salt is entirely unnecessary in this application, although it does act as a preservative to stop mold growing when storing water in containers that aren't air tight such as a spray bottle. You can use dry salt to get some cool effects, but they're not the same thing as what's happening here. That companies have bottled water and sold it to people as a "granulation medium" doesn't mean that what you're seeing is actually granulation though, just like Daniel Smith's Primatek "mineral paints" aren't actually made from pure minerals. Marketing is dishonest a lot of the time and whilst it really shouldn't be, it is still the consumer's responsibility to research what they're purchasing. The effect of splashing/dropping/spraying/flicking water onto drying watercolour paint doesn't resemble actual granulation, but I can see how someone would think it did if they believed that the bottled liquid caused granulation. It's good that you're not using "good" brushes for these experiments, although I'm sure any synthetic brush would be perfectly fine to use with paints after a good rinse, however leaving any brush in any pot of water for any length of time is not a good idea. It can damage the bristles as pressure is put on them at an unnatural angle, and cleaning a brush that has been suspended past roughly the half way point of the ferrule in water for any period of time doesn't stop it from rotting unfortunately. It doesn't take much to start eating away at the glue holding the brush together and then the wood, all completely out of sight until it's too late. You should only have enough water to rinse the bristles and then place the brush horizontally beside your work after rinsing. Not everyone realises just how delicate watercolour brushes are or how easily they can be destroyed. Better to practice good ownership even when it "doesn't matter" so that you don't accidentally slip up when it does.

[@Mandakyns2]

@@mydogeatspuke Thank you for your response. It was only an experiment, after all! I am familiar with the term granulation and flocculation. Some pigments have a natural tendency to do create the effect of pigment particles settling and clumping. It is also true in my experience, that using a granulating medium can help achieve this effect, for those who desire it. Yellows and reds have been the most difficult for me to get to create such a reaction and may be helpful in such cases. I am not a watercolor purist by any stretch of the imagination. I usually am pretty good about not mistreating my paintbrushes. But I will strive to be more aware to show better care for brushes especially in my future videos so that I am conveying the importance of instilling this healthy habit. Thanks again! And Happy Arting!