Water colour on acrylic gesso

[Tarique Beg]

Hi folks,

By the way, has anyone tried transparent water colour on a smooth (sand-papered) acrylic gesso background, that is sprayed over with a transparent acrylic layer to make it waterproof after the painting is finished.

The reason I ask is because while water colour can be quite unforgiving on absorbent water colour paper, I find I can edit ad-infinitum with water colour on a non absorbent surface (which however has some tooth although quite smooth).

With acrylics, of course I could always sand paper out mistakes and redo them, but with water colour it's so much easier to simply wipe paint off with a damp brush (provided the surface is non-absorbent).

Eventually, I'm able to create quite a luminous painting which I've been spraying over with acrylic varnish.

My question is how permanent is this technique, if I can call it so ? I read that water colour was one of the most permanent mediums. My only worry here is whether the final acrylic varnish layer can effectively seal in the paint and make it impervious to dampness and scratches.

If anyone out there has experimented with this method all advice will be highly appreciated. I think this question is ideal for Virgil Elliot.

Hey! Virgil!! are you reading this??

Tarique.