Watercolors & opaque colors on recycled paper

I was looking for an interesting paper to work on, and found 2 large sheets of this beautiful recycled paper. I have no idea when or where I got it, but turns out it works very nicely with watercolors. While it’s not very thick, I think it has some kind of durable sizing. When I was trying to tear it into smaller sizes, it resisted tearing, it felt rubbery..?

Anyway, it made me want to use some opaque colors on it.
I could have used gouache, but instead I reached for a jar of Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleed Proof White, and mixed a bit of it with each of my watercolor mixes.
It isn’t clear whether this is a white gouache, or ink, Dr. Ph Martin’s website states it is “opaque watercolor”. It is a very thick, opaque paint, so I also diluted it slightly with water.

I started with watercolors, then added the opaque colors on top. they are re-wettable.

This was a very enjoyable process, I was excited by the new paper and the opaque shades. The two green shades fascinate me, they are both so lovely!

There are no complicated brush strokes or painting techniques here. The whole process was quite loose, intuitive and quick.

Process video

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