Testing out papers I have without any preparation - used a 180gsm course grain watercolour pad, a 190gsm Daler Rowney medium grain textured watercolour pad and 300gsm Icon elite textured watercolour pad. I didn't have any gummed brown paper tape so was interested to see how many layers I could achieve and the level of buckling. 

 

I used Daler Rowney Simply Watercolour 12ml tubs, in Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna. 

 

Taped down each piece after drawing rough columns. Each layer is added when the previous has dried. 

Continued until all layers done. As expected, the very light paper buckled more with more layers. 

 

 

The final layers 

 

Have ordered gummed brown paper tape and heavier watercolour paper (640gsm) so will be repeating this process, and following the other techniques in this class. 

 

640gsm paper (Waterford Hot Press) arrived this morning, so here are my proper layers. 16 layers at the bottom and on the burnt sienna over ultramarine, it started to lift. Otherwise, great, no buckling, loving the weight of the paper. 

 

 

Enjoyed trying out the different washes, though I think the ultramarine was too dry by the time I got the burnt sienna over it. I think as well that I would have got nicer textures if I had cold press rather than hot press paper. 

 

 

Glazing was... Not quite what I expected, not sure if I forgot a step or didn't wait long enough for the base washes to dry. 

 

 

All in all, a great course for an absolute beginner, though I'll need to try out more techniques to get comfortable with the medium.