Granulation - what and why?

Goethite, DS. PY43

Of the many characteristics the watercolour artist can explore, by far the most unique and special, is granulation. It's one of the reasons I use Daniel Smith watercolours - they are the masters of granulation.

Granulation is the effect you get when the pigment particles clump together rather than settling evenly on the painted surface. As a very general rule, the finer the particles, the less they granulate. So phthalos and quinacridones, being very fine and even sized man-made particles, appear very smooth in a wash. 

Many of the natural earth pigments, ultramarines, cadmiums and of course the Daniel Smith Primateks have larger, more irregular particle sizes and granulate beautifully.

Sydney sandstone sketch.  Watercolour.

You can increase the effect further 

by using rougher paper and more water.

As I am a realist, I really like to capture the texture as well as the colour of my subject, and granulating pigments helps to create texture in the otherwise 2D watercolour medium.

Buff Titanium, DS

PW6:1

Two of my palette staples are DS Buff Titanium (shown left) and Goethite (shown above). The buff titanium is a granulating ecru colour, prefect for marble, snow gums, and for making pastel hues with other colours. Mixed with Goethite it creates a wonderful beach colour. You can see a lot more about mixing this wonderful colour here and it is mentioned in many of my blog posts here.

Transparent Red Oxide,

DS. PR101 

Together this pair is also fabulous for the fantastic range of colours in Sydney sandstone or the lovely honeycomb colour of Bath.

Adding DS transparent red oxide and/or burnt sienna and allowing the pigments to move on the paper allows the pigments to create extraordinary effects. You can see the granulation of the pigments in the bottom part of the sandstone rock sketch above and the cliff sketch below.

Cliff sketch, Blue Mountains. Pen and ink and watercolour.

Governor Macquarie Rose. Watercolour.

This study of a Governor Macquarie Rose was painted in very soft washes of Piemontite and Quinacridone Rose, with just Piemontite used in the background. The colour changes when used in very weak washes or in mass-tone.

Piemontite, DS

Green Apatite Genuine, DS

Green Apatite genuine is another fabulous granulating Primatek watercolour. It can create interest in passage of foliage as it also moves from brighter greens in soft dilutions to rich deep olive greens in masstone.

The Gasworks, Seattle. Pen and ink with watercolour.

Here I have used a combination of transparent red oxide and piemontite to paint the rusty texture of the Gas Works in Seattle - I love this place and look forward to returning when I go back to Seattle in October. You can also see the texture of Green Apatite genuine in the foreground foliage.

(For more on my upcoming US trip see here)

I love painting rusty things. And dead things, and decay...they could seem a little morbid but I seem them as extraordinarily beautiful :-)

'Past their Prime'. Watercolour and Ink, 2017

The background in this pen and ink study of the dried Strelitzia was painted in a mixture of Goethite, Buff Titanium and Raw Umber. I love the way it produces a texture not obtainable any other way.

Perhaps the most spectacularly granulating pigment is PBk11 seen here in Lunar Black. I generally mix my own black hues, but I love exploring this one for amazing abstract or imaginary landscape studies as you can see in my gallery here.

   

 I have also shown a swatch of an experimental Daniel Smith colour - the rare and expensive YInMn blue pigment. In any other medium I have seen it, it is a lovely colour but otherwise not anything so very special, but seen here as a watercolour it is really something.

I love exploring all the characteristics of watercolour, whether for sketches on location, urban sketching, botanicals, studio paintings or just to play. But my favourite by far is granulation. 

3 - Mixing with Buff Titanium

Here is part 3 of my series on mixing with my Ultimate Mixing Palette colours, this time with Daniel Smith Buff Titanium. The granulating nature of this ecru colour adds a wonderful dimension to a number of watercolour mixes and creates pastel colours otherwise not possible. I especially like it for skin tones, and for the lovely sandy beach and sandstone rock effects it creates with Goethite.

All the possible mixes with buff titanium and my other 14 ultimate mixing colours are painted out in my book and eBook, but this gives a nice summary look :-)

Daniel Smith Buff Titanium mixed with other Ultimate Mixing Palette colours. Moleskine watercolour sketchbook A5.

Urban Sketching

I joined the Sydney Urban Sketching group for a cold first-day-of-Winter sketching trip at Sydney University yesterday. It was really nice to be with an enthusiastic group of talented sketchers recording the beautiful sandstone buildings.

View through the archway into the main quad

I started inside the entrance to the main quad, thinking it may be a little sheltered but it was a bit of a wind tunnel.

Goethite (Daniel Smith) is a great colour for sandstone, and the granulation creates the stone texture with ease.

I then moved into the stone corridor and painted one of the many grotesques. (Not gargoyles my niece reminded me, since it doesn't spurt water.) They have great personality. I used a neutral grey watercolour pencil for the initial sketch, then my favourites Goethite and Bistre (see earlier posts - a mixed grey i this case made with Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine).

Out on the grass looking at the main building was such a daunting view that I picked up one of the many leaves blowing about and had fun with the wonderful range of textures and colours.

There were some wonderful sketches of the buildings, sculptures and fine details at the end of our 3 hours. What a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

A grotesque. 

Back to my real comfort zone of leaves, but love the colours!