Painting a Horseshoe Crab With Granulating Watercolor: A Mini Painting Experiment
Mini Painting Number 6 of 6
Hi, I'm Valerie Englehart, and it is still mini painting season. This horseshoe crab is number six of the six I wanted to complete, and it follows directly on the heels of last week's granulated dragon. I enjoyed that technique so much, putting down granulating pigment and then spritzing it and letting it flow, that I wanted to try it again with more intention.
Last week I approached it with a loose plan to paint a seascape and just see what happened. This time, I very purposefully picked my subject, the horseshoe crab, before the first brushstroke.
Setting Up the Paper and Brush
For this piece I used a cold press 4x6”, 140 pound block of watercolor paper. I worked with an oil fan brush and pigment straight from the tube, which keeps the paint nice, heavy, and thick. The oil fan brush also creates a rough texture that I really like.
The video is sped up by nearly 200 percent, so any long stretches where I am simply holding the block up and letting everything flow are much longer in real life. This technique takes a lot of patience. You put paint down, hold the paper at an angle, and let gravity do the work. Even in the early stages, I thought it already looked beautiful.
From there, I used a size 8 round brush to drag some of that pigment into the body of the crab. I did not want it to be stark white, because I wanted the colors to feel cohesive across the whole piece.
The Two Rockwell Art Pigments I Used
The entire painting uses just two colors, both from Rockwell Art. The darkest is opal yellow. I assumed I would reach for obsidian brown since I wanted something dark and brown, but it turned out to be opal yellow, because as it separates, you see yellow tones coming through. At the bottom of the painting, an indigo blue even starts to split out of it.
The second color is magic wizard, which is one of my favorite granulating colors. It comes out as a golden brown, but when you lift it, you can get a fluorescent yellow, and sometimes even a pink undertone. It is just really pretty.
I keep a paper towel on hand throughout so the pigment and water have somewhere to drain.
Why Tube Paint and Dark Values Matter
For this technique, I highly recommend tube paint, because you need a really thick application. As you spray water and tilt the paper, the value is going to lighten up. If you start with a midtone, it becomes a light tone by the end. With only two colors in play, everything depends on your values.
Even when I do use more colors, I consider myself a value painter. I love painting negatively around a subject and letting it bleed away. Many of the granulating paints I use are made of multiple pigments, so as they disperse you pick up hints of gold, yellow, and even blue.
You also want to work with dark, granulating colors for a painting like this. Staining colors do not behave as well. Lighter colors can work alongside darker ones, so reach for your yellows and pinks if you like, but make sure you have something really dark in the mix to achieve a rich, deep value.
Blocks Versus Loose Sheets
I actually find this technique easier with separate pieces of paper rather than a block. A block is glued down on two or more sides, which is great most of the time because it keeps paper flat without stretching. This one is glued on the two longest sides, so it only buckles slightly. But that also means I cannot manipulate the paper much.
If I were using a single sheet, I would wet the front and back, place it on a plastic board, and use a palette knife or spatula to remove the paper from the board while still wet, which gives much more flexibility with the drips. Since this is just a 4x6 mini, and I mainly wanted to have fun, the block worked fine.
Why a Horseshoe Crab?
I love that horseshoe crabs, like many deep trench animals, look almost alien even though they come from our own planet. They look prehistoric, like something that should not exist anymore, but they do. I like to think they are perfect, so they have never needed to evolve any further.
Lifting, Layering, and Staying Wet
One of my favorite techniques here is lifting. The paints I like tend to lift fairly easily, and what I enjoy about these Rockwell Art paints is that they do not just separate into other colors, they sometimes reveal a tone that was not there before. In this case, lifting produced a bright, almost acid yellow.
I used round synthetic brushes to exaggerate a line, lift out the little feet, or correct a shape. You do have to be careful about over lifting, though. You can always reapply pigment, but that underlayer will have been lifted, and the paper may be slightly damaged. Watercolor is transparent, so a viewer in person could still see that something happened there if one area was lifted and the surrounding area still has a thick application.
Much of this painting is a cycle of lifting an area, letting it dry, then darkening an area and letting it dry. I never let it dry completely. I keep moving around the painting, working on one area while another settles, then coming back. I pay close attention to shapes and shadows because I do not want the subject to look like a cut-out. I like when my subject merges with the background.
At one point, I switched to a size 2 Mimick round brush to add shapes and darks and paint negatively. Along the way, I make sure to step back and check that the painting is working as a whole.
Trusting the Process and Zoning Out
This kind of painting is really about trusting the process. Since I am not doing a portrait, I do not need it to look like one specific horseshoe crab. I just need it to look cool and feel good.
My tip for painting this way is to put on a playlist, an audiobook, or a funny YouTube video and lose yourself in it. When your brain follows dialogue or a story, the painting can happen in the background of your mind, which lets your instincts take over instead of overthinking it. I was listening to Red Rising while I picked things up and let them drip. You stop worrying about this exact shadow or that exact gradation.
Painting the Weird Stuff Too
Mini paintings like this are quick, use less pigment, and are wonderful for experimenting. I paint a lot of animals and flowers, and usually everything is really pretty. But sometimes I do not feel pretty, or I do not want to paint something commonly considered pretty. I am also a big fan of surrealism and horror. Choosing colors, techniques, and a subject that feels unfamiliar and alien lets me satisfy that side of myself.
I paint for others: to teach, to sell, and to market; but I also need to be in there, because if there is none of me in the work, what is the point? I could make a lot more money with a corporate job. Those pretty roses you see are me. But so is this weird fella.
You Can Paint Like This Too
I often hear people say they wish they could paint like I do, but they cannot. Honestly, you really can. A lot of what I did here was paint a shape and spray it with a bottle. I have just done it a lot, so I know how much to do. If this subject creeps you out, try the same technique with a flower, a bird, or even a landscape, though landscapes are not my strong suit.
Build up layers slowly, wash some of it away, be patient, and trust the process. The watercolor does a lot of the work for you.
Committing With the Filbert
Toward the end, I pulled out a synthetic size 8 filbert brush. It is stiff but soft, if that makes sense. I use soft round brushes to suggest things, but once the filbert comes out, it means I am ready to commit. Its stiffness breaks through layers of paint nicely.
I still have to remember to add water, since this is watercolor even when I am lifting. I periodically rinse the brush and dab it on a paper towel to get rid of extra pigment, then repeat.
Finally, I made sure the little points of the horseshoe crab lined up with where they should sit on the body. I did not outline the whole thing, because that makes a subject look cut out. On one side I scraped about three quarters of an inch, and on the other side only the tip. Let the viewer fill in the rest.
Final Thoughts:
Choose dark, granulating pigments and apply them thick from the tube so the value can lighten as you spray and tilt
A two-color palette works when you rely on strong values rather than a lot of hues
Lift carefully, since an area that has been lifted will always look different from one that has not
Keep the painting damp and move between areas instead of waiting for everything to dry completely
Let your subjects merge with the background by avoiding a full outline
Distract your brain with an audiobook or playlist so your instincts can do the work
Valerie Englehart is a watercolor artist and signature member of the Northwest Watercolor Society. She's passionate about helping artists loosen up and paint boldly and intuitively.