18 Artists Magazine December 2019
Build TUTORIAL
WATERCOLOR BATIK BASICS
Materials
SURFACE: Any kind of rice paper
will work, but my go-to rice paper,
ginwashi, has little sticklike flecks
and is quite strong, depite its
fragile, transparent appearance.
WATERCOLORS:
· Winsor & Newton
· Daniel Smith
PARAFFIN: I buy paraffin at the
grocery store and then melt it in
a miniature slow-cooker. The wax
doesn’t heat to the temperature of
combustion in this little pot, so I’m
comfortable using it for long periods.
BRUSHES: I use only inexpensive
brushes. The heat and the wax
ruins them after a few paintings.
MISCELLANEOUS:
· wax paper or freezer paper
· black waterproof pen
· black construction paper
· tape
· newsprint
· iron
· 300-lb. watercolor paper
· credit card
· matte medium
· roller1
First I tape a sheet of wax paper or
freezer paper to a board. I then place
rice paper over it, smooth side up. Using
a black waterproof pen, I lightly draw my
image—in this case, a duck on a lake—on
the smooth side of the rice paper. Next,
I “paint” with molten paraffi n (heated in
a miniature slow cooker) on the areas of
the rice paper that I want to remain white.
From this point, I begin to alternate layers
of watercolor and wax.
For this demonstration, I applied two
faint washes of blue and violet over the
initial wax layer. I then applied a second
coat of wax to protect the next lightest
color in the painting. (The paraffi n dries
almost instantly after it’s applied.) When
I can’t see where I’ve placed the paraffi n,
I slip a piece of black construction paper
under the wax paper; the paraffi n outline
shows up better over a black surface.2
I waxed an area that will be a white
mark on the duck’s face, along
with portions of its body and some
horizontal lines within the lake area.
Because I’d protected these areas with
paraffin, I didn’t have to paint carefully
around them. In the image, you can see
how the wax I’d applied in the lake area
resisted the blue paint.3
At this stage of each layer, I tape
the paper so it hangs from my
bookshelf. When it dries, I remove the
painting from the shelf, wax the next
light area and paint in the darks. One
artwork can require up to 12 layers of
paint and paraffin.