4/27/09

YUPO & TEXTURES

This week at our workshop, I'll be teaching how to use as many approaches as possible on YUPO. This gull was one of the first paintings I did on this slick surface - done about 9 years ago.

The juiciness of the paint being affected by gravity, especially as seen in the rocky areas in this painting, was one of the hardest things to learn to take advantage of. Being a control freak, I found that the possibilities on YUPO helped me let go and enjoy the process of painting a lot more. I soon realized that YUPO and textures go together wonderfully and just love the way the colors stay so intensely vibrant on this non absorbent paper.

Although I now seldom take advantage of the juiciness aspect of paint on YUPO, I still totally LOVE working with either watercolor or fluid acrylics on this unusual surface. If you haven't tried YUPO yet, be brave. You can wash off your watercolor mistakes easily and start all over if you need to. Good luck.

"MAINE GULL" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO 14 x 11" COLLECTED

10 comments:

Cathy Gatland said...

The rocks here are wonderfully textured - a beautiful painting. I still haven't found this paper here in Johannesburg (I guess I should order it online) but I often use a matt white tile to mix watercolours on, and LOVE the things that happen on there, I imagine similiar to what happens on YUPO. Your lovely flower paintings in the previous posts look very like what we call 'cosmos' here, which pops up profusely all over the countryside around Easter time, in shades of pink and white. There's a slide show of them here http://www.702.co.za/shows/jcw_cosmo.asp if you're interested.

Suzanne McDermott said...

I, for one, won't be using Yupo, but I love to watch what you do with it. For example, the way the gulls wing relates to the texture of the jetty rocks. Have fun with your workshop - I know you will!

Anonymous said...

Sandy,

man oh man,
or should I say woman oh woman. Sandy you keep putting up these great images that are just superb, I love the textures on the rocks this looks like a still wet oil painting and that is just amazing.

Do you ever paint a "dud"??

Nick said...

Those rocks are just amazing, what a fantastic piece . I didn't know you have been painting on yupo for that long, explains part of why you're so good on it. I don't think I could ever paint this well on it, and you did it 9 yrs ago!
I saw the workshop post, thanks for that.

Susan Liles said...

Amazing that you could accomplish this with watercolor on such a difficult paper. I do need to try more fluid acrylic with the Yupo which is so fun.

RH Carpenter said...

This looks a lot like some of the scenes we just saw on our recent trip :) But more beautiful, colorful rocks, of course!! I wish you'd start using your new name: Mistress of Yupo - because no one does it better on this sometimes frustrating but always fun surface.

masmoulin said...

Very beautiful. I have never use Yupo. what is the technic for paint the rocks with tinfoil ?

Cathy said...

I'm sorry but I have to ask : what is YUPO paper? Is it a trade mark or a special type of paper that you can find in different brands? If Cathy couldn't find it in Johanesburg, there's no way I can find it in Pretoria!!! But I might try my luck in France when I get back... If you could just explain what it is...

Sandy Maudlin said...

Hi y'll, Got computer problems so i haven't been on line often. Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving comments. So appreciated.
Cathy, YUPO is the name of a slick, high grade plastic paper used in the printing industry. Watercolorists have found out how much fun it is to paint - as well as how much agony it can be... some love it, some hate it. The ones who hate it usually need more instruction on how to handle the paint on the slick surface. Hope you can find some. If not, try gessoing a sheety of 140# w/c paper, and when you paint on it, you'll get an idea of how differently paint behaves on the adjusted surface. Since you work with acrylics, you could also dilute them considerably and use them like w/c on the surface. Right now I'm having way too much fun using fluid acrylics on the YUPO. The YUPO paper started in Japan but is manufactured in the states now too. Check out Molly Brose's work on YUPO, too - very unique, lots of graphite, etc. Good luck finding it.

Cathy said...

Thanks Sandy for all the explanations!! It does sound tempting!