Choice of Paper Texture Really Matters When Wetting the WC Layer

Today's Tip

These two papers appear somewhat similar to the naked eye (as compared to other papers you could compare). Just like the weight and roughness of the texture with traditional watercolour paper affects the appearance of the paint on the paper, so it does with digital watercolours.

The samples below are the same wash, wet with two different papers using the same wet settings. Use the same brush to wet both. Even though you don’t actually use the brush in your hand the action of wetting the entire canvas gets it’s control settings from the wet watercolour brush you chose and it’s settings. I have a couple of Custom ones I use.

I used a Soft Press paper to paint the Washes, but wanted a little more grain in the painting, so I lifted the dropped Watercolour layers from the Canvas to a Watercolour layer and Wet the Entire Watercolour Layer (after choosing the settings mentioned below.)

Click the Paper Flyout Menu on the Tools Palette to open the Papers Library.

Note: Painter 12 just crashed me when I increased my document size from 200 dpi to 400 dpi and tried to Wet the Entire WC layer. The textures look better and the brushes work better at 100 - 150 dpi anyway! Needed too much memory maybe?

Lift the Canvas to a Watercolour layer
Choose your paper
Pick the Wet WC Paper lightly brush because it will wet the paper according to the properties of the last (wet abrasive) watercolour brush used
Choose Wet Entire Watercolour Layer

In the sample on the left:

The paint looks much grainier and there is more gradation of colour in the 'spots'.

In the sample on the right:

The paint appears to have run together and created a soft grainy textured look that is very much like traditional watercolours. Needless to say, I prefer a more subtle look like this than the one on the left. I'm even finding French and Italian watercolour a bit rough for clouds.