Blue Hair and Aquaboard

This one is a study done for a bigger painting that if you have sharp eyes you may notice in the studio shots. The big painting has been a lot of hassle and I am still not entirely happy with it - will post it sometime soon. This little one (13x13cm), though, just worked first time and is why I decided to go bigger. It is painted on aquaboard, a new thing to me, but appears to be quite common in American art supply stores. It is made by Ampersand (who seem to do a big range of boards) and claims to be of archival quality - "watercolors on Aquaboard can be sealed and framed without glass, keeping colors and textures true to life". The surface certainly feels like cold pressed watercolour paper and is ivory in tone. The paint seemed to take longer than I'm used to, which made me impatient as I was wanting to layer. But this could be a strength, as it would maybe give lots of manipulating time. Will report back after I have used it a few more times.