There are a wealth of options to add colour to your woodburning project. I was naturally drawn to watercolour since I had previously used this medium. I love the way colours flow and seep into one another. A little nudging is all it takes to coax the merging of hues, to create a symphony of soft edges and for unplanned shapes to emerge.

Applying watercolour on wood is somewhat different from using watercolour on paper. I continue to explore the many ways that watercolour can be applied on woodburning projects. I’ve used watercolour directly on wood after I’ve woodburned my design. I’ve also applied a watercolour ground to my woodburning project before adding watercolour.

Once cured, the watercolour ground becomes a surface similar to cold-press watercolour paper. You can use a wet-on-wet technique or wet-on-dry technique as you would with watercolour! 

The Daniel Smith watercolour ground comes in six colours: transparent, titanium white, buff titanium, mars black, iridescent gold and pearlescent white. I use the transparent watercolour ground over the woodburned marks so that my pyrography design remains visible. Made by hand in Seattle, Washington, the Daniel Smith watercolour grounds are archival and acid-free. 

I apply the watercolour ground with an inexpensive, round, medium and synthetic soft-hair watercolour brush. You can also use a foam roller for a smoother finish. 

I wait 48 hours before applying a second coat. Once the second coat has cured (48 hours later), I then apply my watercolours. Less water is more when applying watercolours on a woodburning project.

Once the watercolour is dry (24 hours later), I seal the entire surface with two coats of cold wax medium. I wait at least 48 hours before applying the second coat. This last coat also needs to cure at least 48 hours before I can affix a hook on the front or a sawtooth hanger on the back of an aspen wall hook, for example. The cold wax medium is a water-resistant and non-yellowing finish. My blog on finishes provides more information on cold wax medium.

I prefer using watercolour tubes over watercolour pans. I like to mix my colours on a palette and reuse them by re-activating the colours with water. I have multiple palettes with various colour schemes set aside to avoid having to remix that perfect hue again when working on the same woodburning project over several days or weeks. I tend to mix several colours together to achieve the hue that I envision. In my experience, mixing colours in a pan muddies the colour in that pan. It’s really a matter of personal preference what kind of watercolours you use. 

While the focus of this blog is on watercolour since that’s my go-to colour medium, I also use a white coloured pencil to add a subtle and soft, white hue to some of my woodburning art. I compared different brands of white coloured pencils and prefer the Derwent drawing pencil (Chinese White 7200), manufactured in the United Kingdom.

I also make use of negative space (wood left unburned) especially on a light-coloured wood canvas such as basswood where the natural wood colour appears white against the various hues of woodburned marks.

Read my blog on finishes to discover the benefits of using a cold wax medium and how to apply it on your woodburning project.

Until then, colour your world!

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