watercolour won't hold on any vellum i've used.

don't forget to stretch your paper properly before painting (unless you're using a very tiny amount of water), or the whole thing will buckle up and won't lie flat. (this is the most important watercolouring tip IMHO)

for the ink, I would be inclined to draw in pencil, then paint, then ink over top.
if you get waterproof ink, it should be OK, but it's a bit of a risk if the drawings are hours of work.

using acrylic paint diluted with water is another option. Acrylic offers a greater degree of transperency when overlapping layers of color (of course, you gotta wait for one layer to be dry before applying another).

i'll second the prestretching before beginning any watercolor unless you don't mind the warping effect (though if you do want to draw in it afterward, i would definately prestretch it)

i would also get hot press paper - the smooth stuff. arches 140# is pretty standard.

it's been while since i've watercolored and i can't remember exaclty if pen will bleed or not. but i would be careful. because you've already presoaked the piece of paper and watercolored on top of it, the paper surface is not completely smooth. if you run a pen (such as a rapidograph) over it and it catches on a paper fiber or rough spot, the pen will definately bleed.

if you add a tiny bit of glycerin or dish soap (anti-surficant) you might be able to watercolor on vellum. textile designers favorite paper for design samples to look like 'fabric' use - rice paper that has been waxed with gouache (opaque watercolors). if it works for that - it should work pretty well for a water resistent paper like vellum.

happy illustrating............

psssssst:

Adobe Photoshop has a "watercolor" filter.
I wont tell if you dont.

Adobe Photoshop has a "watercolor" filter and it's pretty shit.

Try Piranesi for that quality effect.

thnks all for the responses

yup, PS's filter sucks. There are techniques that look good, but Piranesi is the way to go for more natural looks and good control.


I still wish I learned to paint when there was 'time'.

why not try using felt tips (pt. 0.1) instead of tech pens. felt tips are blot proof even on buff papers. if you can find felt tips with brown inks that'll be better. that'll give your painting a natural and softer look than with black ink.

If you decide to use watercolor paper or at this point have already bought your paper note that the heavier the paper the less you have to worry about warping, i.e. 300lb v. 140lb.

I recommend drawing it out lightly with pencil first, do your various watercolor washes (hair dryer can speed things up), wait till it completely drys then go over it with a dark,soft, sharp pencil or tech. pen, although I personally think pencil is more befitting as pencil blends better with the tone and mood of the medium. Also note that to get a really vivid, punchy painting that you can see from a distance as is the case in a presentation you have to do lots of washes.

I've always partly liked watercolor because of the things you can do with the sky and playing with washes to create shadow and thus to creat a sense of shape, depth, form, light etc.....