A local framing shop went out of business recently, and a friend alerted me to the fact that the shop owner was giving away mat board, glass and framing materials (Thanks, Kerry!). I hustled down to the shop, met the owner, Steve, and thanked him. He seemed pleased to have folks removing the excess from his stock room, as the new tenant of the shop had already moved into the front of the space. I primarily picked up a bunch of sheets of mat board, including this smaller piece of white mat board.
Something about free materials inspires free creativity. A sense of playfulness and gratitude rises up, and you can experiment. The white mat board I painted this sketch on reminded me of illustration board, so I tried watercolors on it, and had good results. No buckling or warping, and no need for taping. It didn't suck up excessive paint, but worked like watercolor paper. I like the smooth surface.
You can ask a framing shop to save you their mat board cast-offs. Most are happy to do so. You'll have a variety of sizes (usually 8" x 10" and smaller) and colors of mat board to paint on and create with (see the journal making post from May 14th).
This watercolor sketch (no underdrawing) was made with a Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box and Pentel and Kuretake water brushes last night about 7 pm. The light was shifting, falling so I worked quickly to capture the deep shadows and highlighted foliage.
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