Video Transcript
0:08 Hello, I want to talk to you about watercolour painting outdoors, also known as 'en plein air' painting. One of the problems watercolourists face when painting outdoors, especially in hot and dry climates, is that the paint can dry very quickly. So what if you need more time to work on your washes? How can we keep a colour wet for longer?
0:29 This is where mediums like gum arabic and blending mediums can be very useful. Gum arabic is the binder in watercolour paints. So by adding gum arabic to your wet watercolour mix, you're adding extra wet binder, which is going to keep the colour wetter for longer. One way of mixing gum arabic into your watercolour is to mix your paint with water, and then to pick up a small amount of gum arabic and mix it with your watercolour mix before applying it to the paper. Here we can see that the mix containing extra gum arabic stays wet for longer.
1:21 You can also add a small amount of gum arabic directly into your mixing water for the same results. Another benefit of using gum arabic is it has the effect of making the watercolour more transparent. It will also add a slight gloss to the finish and slow the movement of the colour on the paper. And finally, you might want to experiment by applying a watercolour and gum arabic mix to your paper, and then applying watercolour on top of this. You'll notice you can control the spread of colour more than if you don't use a gum arabic mix.
I hope you found this interesting!