Alcohol and clean water can make very striking textures on a wet wash, since they disperse the paint in the area to which they have been added. The effect is more subtle with water than with alcohol, and you get a fish-eye effect (a darker area in the center of the lighter area) with alcohol that you won’t get with water.
When dropping water onto a wet wash, you are intentionally producing back runs.
A drop of water on a wet wash will cause the paint pigments to move away. The trick here is to drop the water when your wash is almost dry. If you do it when the wash is still very wet, the paint pigments will rapidly remix and the texture will disappear.
In this example, drops of alcohol have been added to a wet wash. The alcohol has repelled the paint, leaving a slightly darker area (or fish-eye effect) in the center.
Drops of alcohol on a Yupo paper wet wash will produce very visible textures.
Drops of water on a Yupo paper wet wash will also produce visible textures. This technique works better if the wash is not too wet; if it is, the paint will likely remix.
Rubbing alcohol is slightly acidic but very close to a neutral pH, so it won’t change the pH of your acid-free paper.
ENGLISH GARDEN
Watercolor and mixed media on canvas
12" × 12" (30cm × 30cm)
This painting on canvas was built up of watercolor textures made with drops of alcohol on a wet wash. Once the background had time to dry, I looked for shapes in the abstract patterns and came up with this floral still life.
CHERRY BLOSSOM 2
Watercolor and oil pastels on Yupo paper
10" × 81⁄2" (25cm × 22cm)
The textures in the background of this Yupo paper floral painting have been created by dropping alcohol on the still-wet wash.