I was speaking with a technician at Golden Artist Colors the other day about World Watercolor Month and the various absorbent surfaces Golden produces. At that time, she mentioned that you can always watercolor over gesso as well.

Orig. painting after 1 gesso coat

Hmm. I feel like I’ve heard that before, but really, does that work? I think of acrylic paint as plastic, and water just beads up on plastic, right? Wrong. This painting started out as a watercolor fail on 140 lb. Arches cold-pressed paper (5 x 7″).  I had painted on both sides, and didn’t like either painting, just hadn’t got around to throwing it into my collage pile yet.   I decided to see what gesso could do for me.   I poured some out and started painting.    I blurred some of the watercolor paint in the process, which I liked, so I left it alone.  Then…