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
· roller
1
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.