Salt, cling film and alcohol textures in Easel by Zaweba
Salt, alcohol drops, soap, cling film and decalcomania make special wet-paint textures in Easel by Zaweba. When to use each one.
Watercolour painters have a cupboard of kitchen tricks. A pinch of salt dropped into a wet wash leaves little starbursts. A drop of rubbing alcohol pushes pigment away into rings. Cling film pressed onto wet paint leaves crinkled, crystal patterns. Easel by Zaweba includes these and more: salt, alcohol drops, soap, cling film and decalcomania, all of them ways to make special wet-paint textures.
They all have one thing in common. They work on wet paint, and they make textures you couldn't paint stroke by stroke.
Salt
Salt sprinkled into wet watercolour is the classic texture trick. In real painting, each grain draws pigment towards it and leaves a pale, starry mark when it dries. It is ideal for snow, stars, frost, lichen, sea foam and the speckled surface of stone.
Timing is everything. Too wet and the effect spreads into blurs, too dry and nothing happens. Damp but shiny is the sweet spot on real paper.
Salt is also one of the easiest textures to read in a finished picture. A snowy hedge, a frosty window or a starry sky painted with salt looks right at a glance, even from across a room. That makes it a good first technique to try if you have never used any of these before, because the result is clear and the habit of judging wetness carries over to all the others. Try it on a small test area before committing to a large sky.
Alcohol drops
Drops of alcohol push pigment away and leave round, pale cells with darker rims. They work well for bubbles, distant lights, cellular textures and abstract patterns.
Like salt, alcohol depends on how wet the wash is. On a very wet wash the cells soften and merge, while on a damp one they stay rounder and crisper. Try a few drops in a corner before you use them on the main subject, and keep the drops small at first. Several small cells usually look more natural than one large one.
Soap
Soap changes how paint sits on the surface. In mixed media and watercolour work it is used to make paint hold texture or bubble and to break up an otherwise even wash. Use it in small experiments first to see how it behaves with your chosen paint and surface.
Cling film
Cling film pressed onto a wet wash and left while it dries leaves a pattern of sharp creases and pooled colour. It is a favourite for ice, crystals, rocky textures, water and abstract backgrounds. Crumple it more for small busy textures, less for big folds.
Decalcomania
Decalcomania is the technique of pressing a sheet onto wet paint and pulling it away. The paint lifts in branching, coral like patterns. The Surrealist Max Ernst used it to make strange forests and landscapes, then painted into the shapes it suggested.
It is lovely for alien vegetation, coral, rock faces and textured backgrounds you can draw into afterwards.
Using texture techniques well
Choose the technique for the subject. Salt for snow and stars. Alcohol for bubbles. Cling film for ice and rock. Decalcomania for coral and fantasy forests.
Apply texture early, on wet paint, before you add detail. Then use Dry now to lock it in place. Dried paint never moves or mixes again, so the texture is safe while you paint over and around it.
Mask what you don't want touched. Masking tape, masking fluid and stencils keep clean areas clean.
Don't overuse them. A painting covered in salt or cling film texture looks like a demonstration rather than a picture. One or two textured areas, in the places where texture tells the story, are enough. With the time-lapse running, you can watch each technique develop afterwards, which is half the fun of trying them in Easel by Zaweba.
