Hey friends! I bought Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground a while ago and had been testing it on different surfaces for this review. I paid CAD$12.99 when it was on sale on Amazon.ca, which was not a bad price. You can buy it at other places like DeSerres for a similar price point. It comes in 6 colours and I bought mine in Titanium White.
What This Is:
Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground basically turns any surface into watercolour paper so you can paint on it. It claims to work on absorbent and non-absorbent surfaces alike, which I will put to the test. It is acrylic based and claims to not reactivate once it is cured.
I started testing on absorbent surfaces first before moving onto a non-absorbent surface.
Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground On Wood
I wanted to test the watercolour ground on an absorbent surface first, so I primed two wood tiles and let cure for 24 hours as instructed. I sanded both a little bit where my brush strokes were uneven.
For the first piece, I painted some simple florals with Rosa Gallery Watercolour and added Derwent Metallic Paint as accents. The watercolour ground worked very well on wood, and it felt like I was using watercolour paper. In addition, the paint didn’t dry super quickly, and I was able to blend the paints out even if the paints had dried. I do find that the paints stayed wet a bit longer on the watercolour ground, almost like using cotton paper.
Using Salt
For the second piece, I tested it with salt. It had almost no effect and didn’t repel the pigments much. This is probably because the watercolour ground is acrylic based, and salt isn’t one of the claims this product can do.
Anyway, I rubbed the salt off and painted over the areas with Bleed Proof White.
Afterward, I used Derwent metallic paint to accent the piece.
In addition, I primed a 5″x7″ piece of wood with the watercolour ground and did a simple floral painting. I find that the desaturated colours dried even lighter on the watercolour ground than on paper.
Watercolour Ground on Canvas Paper
I was hoping Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground can turn some of my least used paper into watercolour paper, but was I wrong! This was such a disaster. I needed to give some background info and hopefully you won’t bother with this paper because it won’t work.
By the way, the paper is Strathmore 300 series canvas paper meant for oil and acrylic. Since the watercolour ground is acrylic based, I thought it would work. The paper couldn’t take the weight of the ground and buckled immediately. I let it cure for over 30 hours nonetheless.
Upon wetting the whole paper, my paint brush picked up a lot of the watercolour ground. I did not expect this to happen because I had let it cure for more than a day. Perhaps I was too ambitious to think I could do a galaxy painting with heavy washes on it. Anyway, the paints didn’t work once the surface turned a little plastery from the wash. So be warned! Don’t use heavy washes on the watercolour ground or on canvas paper!
Using Watercolour Ground on Plastic
Last, but not least, I tested Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground on a non-absorbent surface–plastic.
First, I sanded the plastic organizer, followed by priming it with the watercolour ground. I then let cure for 30 hours. Moreover, I sanded it lightly before painting on it. I noticed that while I was sanding it prior to painting, the ground was already coming off the plastic, so I didn’t sand it too much or everything would be sanded away.
The paints went on well, a little desaturated than on paper, but I had expected it. I noticed the bottom right corner had started to peel, though!
I don’t think the entire watercolour ground would stay on the plastic if I peel it off. The surface of the plastic probably is still too smooth for the watercolour ground to grab onto.
Since this organizer won’t be rubbing against anything else, I left it be. If it had worked without peeling, I would have painted all of my plastic organizers!
What Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground Is Good For
To be honest, I don’t think this is meant to be a miracle product that will let you paint on anything. Many people use this to prime wood slices and paint them without heavy washes. I still think this is great if you want to paint on wood.
By the way, I didn’t test it on glass after seeing the peeling off the plastic. It certainly has some limitations despite its claims.
