Wet Canvas Technique

by Phil Wegner
(U.K.)

I'm sure most artists are familiar with good old Bob Ross's wet canvas technique,which for me personally was an immense revelation from which my work benefited astronomically.

Wether it be a liquid white base or liquid clear on a black canvas I found the differnce amazing.

I sought of added another step to suit myself. This involved sketching the main subject of a picture,say a portrait of a dog then painting in the outline with black acrylic,giving you a silhouette. I would then cover all of the background area with liquid white and paint all of the background in. I would then paint over the silhouette with liquid clear and paint in the dog.By slightly overlapping the silouhette a nice clean line is achieved against the background.

You'll find the paint applies beautifully to the canvas ,nice and smooth and covers well. Also, colours don't disturb each other as they would painting on dry canvas. The silhouette technique also applies in acrylics which I have mentioned in another article.