A while back I bought a few aquabords, inspired by a demo I'd seen with another artist. Aquabord is an Ampersand product - a board treated with a porous clay surface that works well with aqua based media. I bought the boards and then they sat there - for a long time. I had no idea what to do with them.

A couple weeks ago I took a class in a totally different medium, oil and wax. The techniques I learned in that class got me thinking about those aquabords again. I pulled them out last night and below is the result.

With aquabord, you have a lot more flexibility in watercolor than you ever would working traditionally on paper. The surface of aquabord allows for you to remove paint and build layers of marks and washes in a totally different way to the permanent nature of working on paper. I am thrilled at this first attempt and can't wait to try more.

Here's a video that shows a bit how aquabord can be used.