Absorbent ground allows you to shift from paper to other surfaces but maintain watercolour effects. I recently had a show of miniature iceberg paintings at Collage Collage in Vancouver. I have been making miniature iceberg paintings for almost  a year now but this is my first time to exhibit them. I created a few new ones for the event  but this time I switched to creating them on panel with the use of absorbent ground.

Golden this phenomenal product called absorbent groud so if you are using watercolour paint or fluid acrylic you can achieve watercolour like effects without the use of paper. The application is pretty simple.. after you take care of gesso-ing the surface you apply two coats of the absorbent ground. 

Absorbent ground will never replace paper and you won't get exactly same effects but you do end up with a lovely surface that is more more absorbent than just gesso. Most of my mini icebergs have been on paper but for the exhibition I wanted to also have some pieces that were reay to hang without framing. Using the panel and the absorbent ground helped me to do just that. 

Once finished you will want to seal the surface with some medium before varnishing. Otherwise the paint can run if it comes in contact with damp or wet.

Here are the results from my recent use of absorbent ground:

Image source [1]

Image source [2]