Watercolor Powder

Not too long ago I visited an art store about 30 miles from my home. When I arrived, I was in art store heaven. I could’ve spent the entire day in this store!

Seriously though, from floor to ceiling this store was covered in art supplies. Every single aisle was art related. One aisle concentrated on just paper, another was brushes, another was acrylic paints, then the watercolor paints, and lets not forget the entire aisle dedicated to writing utensils (pens, brush pens, pencils, pointed pens, etc.). I needed, I mean wanted supplies from every single aisle.

I went there to window shop and ended up buying the entire store. That store for me is equivalent to Target for the Target lovers out there. Now, I have major restraint when I shop at Target, but zero (literally zero) when I’m at an art store.

One of my purchases was some watercolor powders. Yep, more watercolors. As I was placing these into my basket, I started questioning myself.

Here is the dialogue between me and internal me:

Me: (As I’m placing the powders into my cart) These watercolor powders are so cool.
Internal Me: Do I really need these?
Me: Yes, duh. Is that even a question?
Internal Me: How many watercolors do I really need?
Me: Every watercolor brand is different, besides the more the merrier, right?
Internal Me: I only came here to browse.
Me: But if I don’t buy them now, I will regret it when I get home.
Internal Me: I will have buyers remorse when I get home.
Me: Hey Internal Me, STFU!

I’ve been practicing with these watercolor powders for a bit now and they are sure fun to play with. The texture is very fine and dissolves (or activates) with water. For a more vibrant and intense color, I just add more powder.

So far, I’ve used these powders in three different ways (I’m sure there’s many)

1. I sprinkled the powder directly onto wet paper and used my brush to spread the color. Just remember this, wait for one color to dry before adding another color, otherwise the colors will bleed into each other (unless that’s the desired look, it does look unique).
2. I sprinkled the powder onto a paint palette, added some water to dissolve the powder, and dipped my brush into the mix and painted on both wet and dry watercolor paper.
3. I gently sprayed water onto watercolor paper then sprinkled the powder onto wet paper and let the powder work its magic. It’s a total free form.

Here are some swatches I made using technique number one.