I made these postcards for the recent Postcard Swap. All three are watercolor on coldpress watercolor paper. I wanted a theme, but something fun, so I settled on Undersea Halloween.
An angler fish with his pumpkin pal, an angel fish dressed as a clown, and a moray eel vamping it up. The pictures above were taken prior to my adventures below - those are the original paintings.
Now for the horror story portion of our story. I seal almost all my watercolors to protect against moisture and damage. My usual go-to is an archival satin Krylon spray. The morning I was going to mail these I grabbed one of my sprays to give them a quick spritz. I grabbed the matte spray (no big deal, I’ve used it before). Except my spray appears to have gone bad at some point. I was too enthusiastic with my coats and that combined with the bad spray and something about two of the pieces caused this horror:
The angel fish was the only one not badly affected. I cried. Then I googled. I followed every suggestion I could find. I tried a different spray. No effect. I used mineral spirits - miraculously this seemed to fix it! Until the mineral spirits fully dried - and then the two pieces looked the same. I tried a combo of mineral spirits and then a heavy application of Dorland’s wax (another watercolor sealer). It looked like this helped a tiny bit, but not much.
I was heartbroken. Instead of giving up completely, I knew that I had that window with the mineral spirits where the two paintings were restored. Brief but real. So I treated both paintings and then sprinted to my scanner and scanned them into the computer. I adjusted the size, did my best to color match, and then printed them on artist’s quality inkjet paper. I painted new backgrounds, cut out my figures, and glued them in place - adding a glow for the angler fish with some neocolors and gouache.
During my mad scientist portion of this adventure, I made a test piece using the same watercolors and paper. I let it dry and then over-sprayed it with the bad sealant. It frosted similar to the first two pieces when the sealant dried. I immediately treated it with mineral spirits (gently wiped across the postcard’s surface) and then a layer of Dorland’s wax. The test piece was fixed. It’s not as bright as the original, but not noticeably damaged. So timing appears to be a factor. If this happens to you and you can treat the piece quickly enough, you may be able to save it.
Here’s the test piece:
