20 January 2010
Meeting and demonstration held by the watercolour special interest group of AGRA (Australian Guild of Realist Artists).
An artist can reserve or block out an area of paper by “masking” the paper using a number of techniques. All masking techniques preserve a whiter or lighter area of paper, while the paper around the masked area can be washed or painted over. Masking techniques enable a watercolour artist to keep clear areas of contrasting values within a picture, white or lighter tones than the surrounding area.
Examples of how you can use masking:
- Areas of foam, spray or froth on water
- White sails of boats or seabirds against the sky or sea
- Light tree trunks against a sky or landscape
- Preserving geometric highlights on manmade shapes – such as the grid on a car radiator
- Preserving uniform tones in “blocks” of colour, such as walls of buildings
- Fine areas such as the light-toned highlight details in botanic art
This meeting explored masking using a number of methods:
- Wax resist, using wax candles and wax crayons
- Masking fluid
- Tape
- Frisket (peel-off, transparent film)
- Paper
- Clingfilm (Gladwrap)
Wax resist
Drawing on paper with a candle or wax crayon before applying a wash of colour preserves the white tones of the wax-covered paper. You can use a pencil sharpener or knife to sharpen a candle to a point so that it is easier to draw over an area. Gently ironing the paper will remove the wax.
Masking fluid
Masking fluid is a solution of rubber in ammonia and comes in two types – permanent and removable. The permanent type is transparent, the removable type can be rubbed away from the paper using a kneadable artgum eraser or a piece of rubber crêpe.
Masking fluid is not good for brushes! Apply it using old brushes, and preserve the brush by dipping it beforehand into liquid soap solution.
From top left: masking fluid, use of a ruling pen (fine green lines), wax resist with orange wash.
Masking fluid can be applied in very fine lines using an architect’s ruling pen.
Tape
Various types of tape can be used for masking:
• magic tape (transparent sticky tape)
• masking tape (two types – low tack (blue) and ordinary cream)
Lengths of tape can be used to block out areas of paper, or the tape can be cut to shape. A scalpel or razor blade is useful to cut the shape and lift the tape off the paper afterwards. Hold a Wettex or a tissue against the edges of the tape to absorb runs and keep a uniform wash to the edges of the shape.
Frisket
Frisket is a transparent, peel-off film which can be used to block out areas of paper. We saw a wonderful demonstration by Ray of use of frisket with air-brushing to create a series of shapes of uniform values. Frisket can be cut with scissors or a scalpel to create the desired shape for masking.
Paper
A torn piece of paper can be used to mask out areas of a painting – again, Ray showed us a wonderful demonstration of how to use a ragged edge of paper to create a soft masked edge reminiscent of clouds or mountain ranges. A piece of scrap paper can be used to shield an area of paper from a paint spray or splatter elsewhere in the painting.
Clingfilm
A piece of clingfilm scrunched loosely, placed over a wet wash, and left in place until the wash is dry, creates interesting textures with shapes of lighter and darker colour in the wash.
Scoring
Using the end of a brush to score lines into the paper, then dry-brushing over, produces white lines against the paper.
A sample sheet showing a range of the masking techniques explored at the demonstration
