Very nice Folker, I like this unusual and powerful way of using watercolors, almost fluorescent. You make me want to try, a sparkling hug.
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Very nice Folker, I like this unusual and powerful way of using watercolors, almost fluorescent. You make me want to try, a sparkling hug.
Thank you Armando. Those are no unusual watercolors, they're just my Schmincke Horadam. I do, however, add a tiny bit of honey in my mixes, which makes them flow nicer, have slightly more intensity, and a very subtle sheen after drying.
The flipside of this is, if the paint is too concentrated (like cream), it may dry slightly sticky and must be sprayed with a fixative to get rid of the stickyness. So the honey works best on thinner washes. Of course, I have no idea whether this is archival or not, but since I'm not selling my art I'm free to experiment.
Also, they are much harder to photograph with hardly any natural light coming in through the windows these winter days. The colors in the photos are a touch overcranked, and this can't be fixed in software without losing dynamic range in the photo, making the shadow areas look like dirty greyisch blobs. So I rather live with the somewhat beefier light colors.
In my painting, the oblique cloud strips just above the mountain range are a symphony of pastel pinks, pale yellows and oranges, and even pastel purples. NONE of that shows in the photos; it just looks like ugly streaks!
It is very strange, and I have not found a solution for this. I even tried HDR photography, but that makes it worse, with 10 times the effort. I think it's due to the modern LED lighting I have over my work area. It's fine on the eyes, but it seems to mess with the camera sensor.
What I'm saying is, my painting is very colorful on purpose, but in reality not quite so in your face and much closer to the colors in the reference photo.