Aquabord™ 2.0

Aquabord™ has undergone a number of important changes over the past few months due to a change in one of the raw materials we use to produce this unique surface for watercolors. We saw this challenge as an opportunity to make Aquabord even better than before. While the new Aquabord is in essence, the very same, it does have a few differences: 

Left: Previous version
Right: New flatter version

1. The new Aquabord™ surface has a flatter, more even texture. It’s less pebbly and feels more like a cold press watercolor paper.

2.  The new surface is slightly softer. You need to use less pressure when wet-lifting paint just like you would on paper.

3.  The new surface is more absorbent and emphatically more like watercolor paper (see helpful tips below).

4.  The new surface requires less water for washes and blends. It behaves more like a cold press watercolor paper now, so you don’t need as much water for wicking the paint across the surface – the paint moves more freely and blends beautifully.

5.  The vibrant color you’re accustomed to still applies.

6.  The lovely eggshell color of the natural clay you’re accustomed to is still around.

7.  You can still seal your watercolors and frame them without glass.

Top: New version
Bottom: Old version

Some helpful tips: The new Aquabord surface is very porous. You may see some air bubbles come up when you apply very wet washes of color. To prevent this, flush the surface first before you start painting. Take a flat brush and apply big washes of water across the surface. Allow all the air bubbles to release. When the surface reaches a damp stage, then you can start applying watercolor to the surface. By allowing the air to escape first, you are basically opening up your surface to accept the pigment. This process will prevent those tiny air bubbles from affecting the consistency of the smooth transitions in your washes. 

Top: Washes on Aquabord
Bottom: Washes on 
Watercolor paper

More than a dozen professional watercolor painters and avid Aquabord users repeatedly tested our trial runs until we had the surface they felt worked best. As a result, we think you will love this new version of Aquabord. Either way, you are welcome share your feedback with us. We make Aquabord for you and it matters to us that you have a successful experience with our products.

We greatly appreciate your patience over the last few months during this reformulation. We think the new Aquabord is well worth the wait and we hope you do too. Now it’s time to do what you love and get back to painting watercolors on Aquabord!

How to Print Etchings on Claybord or Aquabord by Charles Ewing

"Old Bones", etching printed on Claybord by Charles Ewing.

Printing a zinc or copper plate etching (or drypoint) onto the clay surface of Claybord or Aquabord has three distinct advantages over printing on paper:

• The permanence of the print: Claybord is an archival surface

• The ability to rework prints with mistakes or add finishing details and colors

• Glass free presentation

 A matte acrylic varnish or spray fixative like Krylon® UV Resistant Clear Coating #1309 (Matte) or #1305 (Gloss) sprayed on the Claybord works well and seems to bring out the relief caused by the clay pressing into the etched lines of the plate. The following exercise is a great place to start.

Detail of "Old Bones", etching on Claybord by Charles Ewing

1. Etch a zinc or copper plate as you would for printing on paper except for: a. Avoid deep wide lines as the clay pressing into the line cannot "reach" the ink in the bottom of the etched lines. b. Use as thin a metal plate as will take your depth of etching and bevel the edges. The thicker plates seem to be pushed by the press, digging into the clay surface.

2. Choose an appropriate Claybord size and determine the placement of the image. Sand the edges to prevent damage to the press blankets. If Aquabord is used, the surface should be lightly sanded.

3. Using matboard or thick paper (should be same or slightly thinner than the metal plate), cut a template with outside dimensions the same as the Claybord, with an opening the size of the plate cut into it for consistent positioning of the image during the edition. This also keeps the plate from moving on the clay surface.

4. Ink and wipe the plate as you would for a paper print.
5. Thoroughly wet and sponge dry each piece of Claybord before printing, removing all excess water with the sponge.

6. Place the damp Claybord, clay side up, on the bed of the press. Position the template on top and carefully drop the metal plate into the opening image side down.

7. Print with moderately-heavy pressure to force the softened clay into the etched lines to pick up the ink. Allow to dry thoroughly.

8. Any ink smudges around the image can be cleaned off with fine oil-free steel wool (0000). The image itself can be redefined or manipulated with scratching tools.

9. Varnish with spray fixative like Krylon® UV Resistant Clear Coating #1309 (Matte) or #1305 (Gloss) and frame without glass and matting if desired. 

About Charles Ewing, inventor of ClaybordCharles, a versatile artist with diverse interests in media as well as subject matter, is known for his figurative paintings of people, wildlife and nature. Along with his extensive use of oils, he works in a unique medium of his invention known as Claybord. He has also been instrumental in developing new printmaking techniques and enjoys the third dimension of bronze sculpture.

Charles was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico and now resides near the south San Juan mountains of Southern Colorado. An avid outdoorsman, Charles' paintings of nature and wildlife come largely from personal observation, each year spending many weeks on horseback in the nearby wilderness areas. Travels in Latin America and Europe have also offered much inspiration for his work. He is collected widely and shows in several Southwest galleries. http://www.charlesewing.com
This etching process is fully illustrated along with a number of other printing and painting techniques on Claybord in Charles Ewing’s book, The New Scratchboard available at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/New-Scratchboard-Charles-Ewing/dp/08230465833

Charles Ewing discusses the invention of Claybord"The invention of Claybord, as with most new products, was developed out of necessity. I loved the scratchboard drawing technique, being able to create highlights by scratching off the black ink to expose the white clay underneath, however the traditional scratchboard left much to be desired as a fine art surface. It was much too fragile both in the versatility of technique as well as in framed presentation requiring one to glue the thin cardboard to a flat stiff hardboard to keep it flat and to protect the soft surface with glass.

I was able to eliminate these problems by developing a clay coated panel which, unlike scratchboard, would readily accept very wet applications of water media, such as India ink washes, without hurting the clay layer and which could simply be varnished and framed without glass like an oil painting. I made these panels for my own use one or two at a time for ten years before my wife and I decided to bring them to market, first making them on a very limited scale in an old adobe shed behind the house. Later, we helped Ampersand Art Supply in Austin, Texas create and manufacture Claybord for the national and international art materials market.”

Poetic Spaces - Watercolors on Aquabord™ by Ali Cavanaugh

I discovered Ampersand’s Aquabord™ with the 2˝ Deep Cradle about a year ago and it has been such a wonderful surface for my watercolors. Previously, I worked on paper, but always struggled with its limitations in presentation. The flawless pebbly surface of Aquabord takes layers and layers of pigment without wearing down. The paint is amazingly workable and removable on this surface. Also, it is so nice that I am able to display my watercolors without glass and that they are already framed when done.

My process starts with a very light pencil sketch to map out my composition. I use a variety of flat brushes sizes #2 to #8 to lay in basic values. Then, I use synthetic round brushes ranging from sizes as small as #.2 to as large as #2 to build up my surface.

My palette consists of ceramic tiles set up with clusters of color; one for skin, one for hair and one for fabric. I prefer the Daniel Smith watercolors because of their absolute purity and intensity. I begin by lightly spraying my palette with water to keep it wet. I mix lots of water with the pigment and apply diluted, wet layers of color to achieve depth. All of the colors are mixed first on the palette before applying them to the surface. Working with thinner washes and allowing each layer to dry prevents the paint from lifting when applying subsequent layers.

My paint application process is very labor intensive and can sometimes consist of close to 50 layers of pigment. I would say that the process most closely resembles that of egg tempera because of how I build up the paint layers by using tiny overlapping brush strokes.

For skin tones, I pull from Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red Medium, various Purples, Sap Green, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, and Van Dyck Brown. I don’t have a set formula for skin tones, because skin color is so relative. I have to be somewhat flexible with the flesh colors in order to capture harmony and balance within the fabrics for each individual painting.

When painting fabrics, I use minimal color in order to draw attention to the colors in the subject. I layer complementary colors to build up depth; orange over blue or red over green for example. For fabrics in grayscale, I use a combination of Lamp Black, Payne’s Gray, Indigo, and Cerulean Blue.

I seal my paintings in groups by lining them up and applying about 3 or 4 good coats of an acrylic matte spray. Once the surface is sealed, I use about three coats of Minwax Polycrylic® on the plywood sides. The smaller pieces are hung with simple hardware; a saw tooth hanger on the back of the cradle and rubber bumpers at the bottom so that the painting hangs perfectly flat against the wall. Larger pieces, I attach D rings to the back of the cradle and add wire for hanging.

My daughter is my muse and my source of inspiration, but my paintings are not necessarily portraits of her. In short, they are more accurately self-portraits of me as a child. Patterned fabrics, textures and color are essential elements that breathe life into my portraits. The white negative space serves a multipurpose. It not only emphasizes the composition of the figure, but also creates silence, and this silence gives room for contemplation.

About the Artist
Ali Cavanaugh is a Santa Fe based artist who is represented in the US and Portugal. She earned her BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ali currently has an exhibition in Austin Texas at the Wally Workman Gallery. For a complete list of galleries or to see more of Ali’s work please visit http://www.alicavanaugh.com/.

Materials List
Ampersand Aquabord™ with 2˝ Deep Cradle

Daniel Smith Platinum Series
40 White Taklon brushes (Brights)

Daniel Smith Extra Fine™ Watercolors

Daniel Smith Autograph Series Sable mix Watermedia Brushes (Rounds)