Exploring Granulating Watercolours with Schmincke and Hahnemühle

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Exploring Granulating Watercolours with Schmincke & Hahnemühle

Exploring Granulating Watercolours

Granulation is an exciting effect to explore within the art of watercolour painting. It offers an organic, textured appearance that would be difficult to obtain via other techniques.

While you can find granulating watercolours within most lines of watercolour paints, our friends at Schmincke have created a line of watercolour paints that exhibit "supergranulation." These supergranulating watercolours combine two or more granulating colours, and also incorporate colour shifting properties. Plus, they're also all highly lightfast!

We've taken a moment to swatch out a few of the Schmincke HORADAM AQUARELL Supergranulating Watercolours on rough, cold pressed, and hot pressed Hahnemühle watercolour paper samples. Scroll through this article to see the variance in the granulating watercolour effects for yourself!

Some of the supplies used for the images in this article. Schmincke paints, da Vinci brushes, and Hahnemühle papers.

What are granulating watercolours?

Granulating watercolours are specific colours that exhibit a unique mottled texture. This effect comes from the characteristics of the pigments within the paint.

Granulating watercolours typically contain irregular pigments (whether it be size or shape) or pigments that are more cohesive and cling to each other.

On the opposite end, paints with smaller, more homogenous pigments will offer more even colours.

The colour swatch below of Schmincke's Glacier Black exhibits granulation, as well as the colour shift effect – the swatch has natural gradients between the paint's blue and black pigments, without the need to layer different paints.

Schmincke Horadam Aquarell Supergranulating "Glacier Black"

Factors For Granulation To Experiment With

Water Control: Using lots of water enables pigments to flow and move towards pockets, making the granulation effect more dramatic. Less water will lead to a less intense granulation appearance.

Layering: Going back over dried areas of granulated colour will heighten the effect, as the pigments will tend to settle in the same areas as they did before.

Hahnemühle Rough Watercolour Paper

Our three swatches of Schmincke Supergranulating Colours

Swatches of Supergranulating Colours on rough paper.

Granulating Watercolours on Rough Paper

As its label implies, Rough Watercolour Paper features a rough textured surface imparted by woollen felts during the paper production / drying process. Rough watercolour paper will be the most textured watercolour paper when compared to cold pressed and hot pressed papers.

The peaks and valleys of the rough paper create small pools for the heavier granulating pigments to settle into, increasing the intensity of the granulation.

Rough watercolour paper is a great option for those looking to strongly harness the dramatic look of granulation and incorporate it into loose, flowing shapes and textures.

Hahnemühle Cold Pressed Watercolour Paper

Swatches of Supergranulating Colours on cold pressed paper.

Granulating Watercolours on Cold Pressed Paper

Cold pressed papers have a medium texture, that is popular among a wide range of artists. This popular watercolour paper choice sits in between rough paper and hot pressed papers in terms of texture.

While the cold pressed paper has less texture than the rough paper, the granulation effect still shows nicely. The swatches show a fairly even, consistent granulation effect.

As is the case in many situations, cold pressed paper offers a "Goldilocks" option, not overly dramatic, and quite predictable.

Hahnemühle Hot Pressed Watercolour Paper

Swatches of Supergranulating Colours on hot pressed paper.

Granulating Watercolours on Hot Pressed Paper

Hot pressed papers are the smoothest watercolour papers, with minimal ridges and valleys. These papers are often favoured among artists seeking to create fine details as well as those who use inks, pens and pencils.

The granulation does show on the hot pressed paper, though it shows more finely with less dramatic variance within the colour than the rough papers. The different colours also show different levels of granulation.

For example, the Schmincke Glacier Green demonstrates the finer granulation effect due to the smoother surface.

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Painting a Landscape with Supergranulating Watercolours from Schmincke

Follow along with artist Jowita Marczuk as she shows how she makes use of granulating watercolour effects and combines the colours with non-granulating colours from the Schmincke HORADAM® AQUARELL watercolour assortment.

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