Mixed Media, Mixed Results

 

4/13/22 Green Lake neighborhood

Grabbing my mini Sendak containing non-soluble materials, I went out to run errands and stop for a sketch afterwards. I also had my usual water-soluble pencils in my everyday-carry bag. It was a great opportunity to use both soluble and non-soluble materials together to take advantage of the properties of each – a technique I think about often because it seems to have exciting potential, but I hardly ever get around to trying, especially on location.

I started by drawing the houses and nearly bare tree in the background with a non-soluble pencil because I wanted the lines to stay sharp. Then I used yellow and magenta non-soluble Neocolor I wax pastels to color the foreground trees. A little blue was applied afterwards. Then I went in fairly aggressively in select areas with water-soluble Museum Aquarelles in the same Caran d’Ache CMYK hues as the Neocolors (this is where it pays off to use different types of materials in the same brand – the colors match well, so the overall look is more cohesive).

My thought was that when I spritzed the foliage with water, the areas where I applied watercolor pencils heavily would spread and dissolve as usual. In areas where I applied very little watercolor pencil or not at all, the non-soluble crayon marks would remain undissolved and the paper tooth would be more visible.

I spritzed the page liberally, partly to test the 100 percent cotton Hahnemühle sketchbook and especially because I knew I didn’t have to worry about keeping the water off the houses and other marks that I wanted to keep crisp.

Some results surprised me: I was happy that the houses and background tree were preserved in the way that I had intended. (Why don’t I do this more often? It’s a no-brainer to draw with a non-soluble colored pencil – but it’s remembering to use it that’s a challenge!) But the wax pastels used for the foliage apparently resisted the watercolor pencils so much that not much of the water-soluble pigment seemed to adhere. Or maybe it adhered, but the wet pigment didn’t disperse the way it usually does because the resistant wax pastel kept it off the paper’s surface.

I continued to dab with water-soluble pencils while the paper was still wet, but the overall effect was not what I was expecting, which was more of an interesting contrast between the soluble and non-soluble areas. Maybe like oil and water, they don’t mix as easily as I had hoped.

Although this sketch didn’t work out the way I wanted, I am newly intrigued by the potential. Finding effective ways to use both water-soluble and non-soluble materials together would be truly exciting – if they work together instead of fighting each other. Much more experimentation is needed – and I’m up for it!

As for the 100 percent cotton Hahnemühle paper, I was pleased by how little it curled with my heavy spritzing. That’s a significant difference compared to the Hahnemühle “akademie” grade watercolor sketchbook (presumably with non-artist grade paper) that I am currently using as my daily-carry, which curls quite a bit (though flattens after the book is closed for a while). Since the paper weights are the same, it must be both the sizing and cotton content that affect ability to withstand water without curling and buckling. Other than that, I’m not sure I notice much difference in performance. I do love the square format, though.