Froissage With Ink and Watercolour: Wash Techniques

Most froissage is made with liquid colour, and learning froissage with ink and watercolour is the quickest way to improve your results. Ladislav Novák, who developed the technique, drew in the creases with ink combined with watercolour, according to the Czech art database artlist.cz. The way a wash behaves on crumpled paper is different from flat paper, and a few simple rules make the difference between a crisp crease network and a muddy sheet.

New to the technique? Read what is froissage and the step-by-step guide first.

Why washes love creases

When you crumple paper, each fold breaks and roughens the fibres along its line. Two things follow:

1. Absorption. Damaged fibres soak up water and pigment faster than the sized, smooth surface around them.
2. Gravity. The flattened sheet is never perfectly flat. Liquid runs off the ridges and pools in the valleys.

Together these make the creases darker than the rest of the sheet. The effect is strongest with granulating pigments and with ink, whose fine particles lodge in the fibres.

Four basic approaches

1. Flat wash after crumpling

The classic method. Crumple, flatten, then sweep one diluted colour across the whole sheet. Creases become dark lines on a pale ground. Best for beginners and for line-based images such as figures and faces.

2. Wet-into-wet

Mist the flattened sheet with water, then drop in two or three colours. They bleed along the creases and blend where folds meet. Results are softer and more atmospheric: good for landscapes, skies and underwater scenes.

3. Ridges only

Open the crumpled ball only partly, so the sheet still has relief, then drag a nearly dry brush across the top. Only the raised ridges take colour; the creases stay white. Flatten afterwards. This gives a negative of the usual result and works well on dark or coloured papers with light paint.

4. Colour before crumpling

Paint a sheet with flat bands or a gradient first and let it dry. Then crumple, flatten and add a second, darker wash. The creases cut through the first colour layer, which can look like stained glass or cracked earth.

Ink or watercolour?

	Ink (diluted)	Watercolour
Contrast	High	Medium
Colour	Mostly black, sepia, some coloured inks	Full range
Permanence	Usually waterproof when dry	Re-wets
Layering	Lines stay crisp under new washes	Lower layers can lift
Best for	Graphic figures, Novák-style drawing	Landscapes, colour fields

Many artists combine them: a pale watercolour wash to reveal the creases, then waterproof ink to draw the image.

Mixing and dilution

• Dilute more than you think. Mix a pool of colour the strength of weak tea. You can always add a second wash; you cannot easily remove a dark one.
• Mix enough. Prepare more liquid than you need so you can cover the sheet in one or two strokes. Stopping halfway leaves hard edges.
• Limit the palette. Two or three colours that mix cleanly, such as a blue, a yellow and a brown, avoid the grey-brown mud that comes from too many colours meeting in the creases.
• Test first. Keep a crumpled scrap of the same paper to test each mix.

Drawing the image out

Once the wash is dry, look for an image in the crease network and draw it with:

• A fine brush and ink for flowing lines that match the creases.
• A waterproof fineliner if you plan to add more washes afterwards.
• White gel pen or gouache for eyes, highlights and outlines on dark areas.
• Coloured pencil for small areas of local colour.

Leave most of the creases untouched. The texture is the point; drawing over everything turns froissage into an ordinary drawing.

Lessons from Victor Hugo’s ink washes

One of the best teachers of chance-based ink washes is a novelist. Victor Hugo made thousands of drawings, mostly in brown or black ink wash on paper, and the Maison de Victor Hugo in Paris describes how he used ink blots as prompts for his imagination. The Hammer Museum notes that he wet or turned his paper so that ink pooled into unplanned shapes, used stencils cut from card or paper, and pressed lace, leaves and his own fingertips into the wet medium.

Three of his habits translate directly to froissage:

• Work with one dark colour. A single brown or black ink, diluted to several strengths, keeps the creases readable and gives depth without muddiness.
• Let the wash move. Tilt the crumpled sheet while the ink is wet so that it runs along the creases and pools in the hollows, then let it dry before you decide what you see.
• Reserve the light. Hugo used paper stencils to keep shapes pale; you can lay a cut-out on the crumpled sheet before washing to keep a moon, a window or a figure white.

Read more on our page about Victor Hugo’s ink drawings. If your washed sheet suggests a horizon rather than a figure, our guide to crumpled paper landscape painting shows how to turn the creases into mountains, cliffs and night skies.

Common problems

• Paper tears when wet. Use 100 gsm or heavier, and do not scrub.
• Creases disappear. The wash is too dark or the paper too thick.
• Colour pools in one corner. Tilt the sheet or blot with a tissue.
• Muddy colour. Too many colours or too much reworking while wet.

More fixes are listed in froissage technique mistakes.

Making it last

Some watercolours and many coloured inks fade in daylight. For work you plan to frame, check the lightfastness ratings on the tube or bottle, and follow our guide on how to display froissage art. For paper choices that hold up to washes, see froissage materials. If you want a sheet that simply looks antique rather than a finished image, our guide on how to make paper look old uses the same crease-and-wash effect with tea or coffee.