As my Patreon supporter, you will have
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sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
She is the little Squeak, the Squirt —
the kitten who didn’t make it to foster care for a couple more days
after her siblings were found, and so also, missed feedings and started life the runt.
She’s not getting very big still, and we now think she will stay
where most cats are at 4-6 months, solid and sturdy but small.
Yes, she squeaks!
For any and all reasons, though we’ve come to know
the serious squeaks versus the ones where she instigated some craziness
and the other cats are after her for it.
And fiercely independent.
In fact, she gets into trouble most often because she doesn’t seem to grok
that she has to DO certain things that everyone does.
Because they are studio cats, they are trained to run to one safe spot
when we clap our hands and give that one command.
Everyone else gets it, but Izzee thinks that is the command to roll over and play possum.
That is right, make herself heavy as if she can’t be moved.
She is also friendly and sweet and for some reason, has taken to me.
It is a good thing; every oen else loves Mitchell best.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
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Annette Morris is leading our FB Virtual Sketchwalk group this month…
I am ready for diversion! Above, Carcassone Cite France.
Having these images to sketch in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep is heaven.
(The above quick sketch may get painted but probably not.)
I too Alex Hillkurtz class through Domestika, and it was very good. A lot is wasted on me to get to what I want, lessons on watercolor, but for those who need to know how to sketch perspective he does a better job than many who are more popular. Simple and straightforward!
I want to take my watercolor sketching to the next level. I feel I was able to achieve that in the image above. I’m happy with shadows, building color, and my loose style; my sky is so-so. I am generally happy with the outcome but I am
working toward something so that is
why the unusual criticism, which I discourage in others and myself too.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
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sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
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This a redo and making-it-better of my Rancho Gordo Cassoulet Beans.
I nearly cried when we finished this batch!
Doubled my 4 pieces bacon to 1/2 package, so almost double.
A bit more Chipotle — but then we love things smokey hot —
and so also another extra T Blackened Chili Pesto…
and a bigger onion, extra 2 stalks celery, and extra carrot.
My recipe this was very close to my RG Cassoulet Beans recipe —
but hotter, and more bacon-y:
1 lb Rancho Gordo Cassoulet Beans
I qt chicken stock 1/2 package Niman’s Ranch Certified Humane bacon
I chopped in bean-size bites and fried crisp in a small pan…
Adding a bit of the stock and scraped the bits to make the beans taste even better,
2 T chopped garlic 5 T Blackened Chili Pestoor 3+ blackened hot peppers, chopped, set aside. Soffritto:
1 large or 1-2 nedium sweet onions, chopped, sauteed
4 carrots, chopped (if huge then quarter and chop)
4 stalks celery — leaves welcomed — chopped
Everything into the soaking beans and water…. And add seasonings:
1 t garlic salt (I don’t add salt until the end), 2 T cumin, 1 T pepper,
and as we like heat, 1/2 t dry crushed chipotle chili peppers
Cooked about 2 hours — but until I get the hang of this I say check every 30 minutes.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
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Kamala was a smart tuxedo gurl kitty
who lived on our deck for many years.
We think she was abandoned by the previous tenants,
and she was fascinated by
our houseful of cats,
but careful. She talked to
our indoor cats, and sometimes she hung close to Mitchell if
he was doing outside work.
We made sure she was warm
in winter and had food
and clean water, but she
just would not venture indoors. When we were
ready to move to Portland,
we told the other cats
they better get her in
so she could move with us.
Sure enough, it somehow worked. We were calling her daily, explaining we wanted her to come with us, we didn’t want to leave her behind. Govinda also sat and called to her from the bedroom, and stopped hissing when she came close. Finally one day Mitchell walked outside on the deck and she literally ran and jumped into his arms. She got along with everyone! We took her to our vet, got her cleaned up and vaccinated (she was healthy) and she moved with us to Portland!
She was a grand cat, who adored Mitchell; Now she is the girl behind the red bowl!
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Yellow Eye Bean did
not deserve that!
I put the beans in water to soak and forgot them and
they soaked a LONG time,
too long. I also put the wrong liquids in the pot (I was
saving to put over chicken) and ended up with too
much pot liquor. It didn’t
have time to really mellow and cook cuz the beans were DONE in a blink!
A lesson for me in how fresh beans can easily cook fast if soaked!
The beans tasted okay once I drained them of a lot of their liquid…
I saved the green chili liquid and froze some in an ice cube tray to pop into rice,
and will use some of the funny liquid over roasted chicken leftovers.
We paired the beans with corn and salsa and dipped corn chips
into the mess and it was actually a good dinner.
Fineline Masking Fluid edged the white I wanted to save.
These are gorgeous beans!
Of course, as they cook they loose their vibrant colors.
I am falling in love with a stream of beans on a lovely sketch page.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
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Two new Hahnemühle Toned Watercolour Books will be given away with
other goodies! One A5 landscape each, in each colors, grey or warm beige.
I am also offering a full size Fineline Masking Fluid with both tips and surprise goodies!
To enter, sign you name below in the comments section
(making sure that the email address associated with your signature is current —
some of you use dummy accounts and if so, you will not get my email)
or follow me on Instagram and tag me under the Giveaway posting there!
One entry per name… Packages will be sent out priority USPS
— you need an accepting address. Sorry, USA residents only.
Winners will be chosen by random draw on
the Solstice, Saturday, June 20th,
and announced that evening!
Below, showing how well Fineline Masking Fluid works on Toned Watercolor Paper!
Fineline was used in many of the flowers to keep the colors bright yellow and white!
I wrote in fineline then painted in various colors.
Fineline kept the sailcloth white!
Removing the masking fluid.
Done!
Hahnemühle is working to get the new product in stores across America
(Covid-19 slowed the rollouts everywhere).
In the USA at this time they are sold at: Wet Paint,
In Canada: Gwartzman’s Art Supply in Toronto, and Above Ground in Toronto. Fineline Masking Fluid is reliably found on Amazon.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
In my order I bought the Cassoulet Book; I love reading cook books for inspiration, and this one is inspiring. I doubt I ever make the Real Deal — not likely to buy duck and so forth. But I will adapt the recipes to my own situation. I make it up as I go!
I learned the “Ham & Beans” recipe my mom made was really a faux cassoulet recipe. Theirs is a bit better than my mom’s — I was not fond of the brown sugar she put in her beans nor spaghetti.
The heirloom beans are beautiful too; even the white ones glow and don’t look like old dead things. Rancho Gordo Cassoulet Beans are grown from the Tarbais beans of France: “We took seed from France and produced this bean with our distinct terroir here in California. Tarbais beans were developed by generations of farmers in Tarbes, France. The original seed is a New World bean and most likely originated in Mexico. Out of respect for the French farmers and terroir, we’re calling the bean Cassoulet Bean. We think in order to call it Tarbais, it should be grown in southwestern France.”
After washing and making sure no stones were in the bag,
I soaked mine for 1 hour in my Dutch oven, covered about 1 inch,
and used the water as they suggested as part of the cooking.
My recipe this time was very close to my RG Lima Bean recipe —
Remember we like things HOT:
1 lb Rancho Gordo Cassoulet Beans
I qt chicken stock
4oz Niman’s Ranch Certified Humane bacon
I chopped in bean-size bites and fried crisp in a small pan…
Adding a bit of the stock and scraped the bits to make the beans taste even better,
and added (more) 2 T chopped garlic
4 heaping T Blackened Chili Pesto or 2-3 blackened hot peppers, chopped, set aside. Soffritto:
1 large RED onion, chopped, sauteed
3 carrots, chopped (if huge then quarter and chop)
3 stalks celery — leaves welcomed — chopped
Everything into the soaking beans and water…. And add seasonings:
1 t garlic salt (I don’t add salt until the end), 2 T cumin, 1 T pepper,
and as we like heat, 1/2 t dry crushed chipotle chili peppers
Cooked about 2 hours — but until I get the hang of this I say check every 30 minutes.
Later, salt and pepper to taste!
Always organic or non-GMO, humanely raised. It matters!
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
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We are working, still, harder than ever it seems.
As we have no employees and the people we work with all have their own studios, it is an easy thing to do except that now we spend much more time at the studio, both working longer hours and also cooking there, making art in my studio area.
Someone on Instagram did a challenge to do your day in storyboard fashion…
My response!
MEORW! Wake up NOW!
Good thing he is so cute.
Every morning, and Gibbs does not know about corona!
He has his own internal clock… NOW!
I yell at him and squirt him with water and he gets us up at 6am.
To the studio for ginger-brown sugar-coffee…
Fresh ginger is yummy and so good for you…
we chew a little through out our day.
Usually our cats go where we go… but not always.
I begin to read the bad news,
which is all there is these days.
If I am depressed I skip this and sometimes just check in with friends before I start work.
The day I documented it was not painting work, like a piece of furniture, but working on reports both for institutional clients and then marketing — estimates and our blog.
At MPFC we don’t do coffee breaks, but combin’ breaks.
All four cats come running for combins (that is how we say ‘combings”) and get a treat.
Izzee, whose tail you can see below, is not on board yet.
This is a daily ritual, pre-covid… in the studio gotta keep the cat hair down!
We finally got a delivery of toilet paper from Who Gives A Crap!
YaY! We buy by the box for the business and we were running low.
Finding this company was a gift — bamboo, no plastic, they do good charity work,
and the paper roll lasts twice as long because it has substance.
I am using the paper covering for tip-ins to write on (see bottom).
Deliveries now are a big deal, with different protocols… they are left inside our door downstairs (behind locks) and dated, until they can come upstairs.
Exhaustion between 2-3 pm is common now.
I hate it — I have literally fallen asleep at the computer.
Stress, worry, sometimes not sleeping the night before but mostly stress and worry.
I make dinner most nights at the studio.
Another gift of the pandemic was it spurred me to try Rancho Gordo heirloom beans.
If you are new around here then you don’t know but I am a FANATIC!!!!!
I make a pot of beans twice a week and yummo
they make four meals plus a little leftover for a snack….
Heaven in a bag!
I don’t want you to try them…
More for me.
Summer the sunsets are the most beautiful. Sometimes we see them as we are leaving…
Best time of day. I put my head on Mitchell’s lap and usually have to share that lap with one of the gurls, and fall asleep early. The difference now is that I wale up at midnight
and do not go back to sleep. Worry and stress… or just sleeplessness.
That is a downside… and happens much more than before.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
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sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
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I’ve been a mostly one-journal gurl for awhile now, but with all the writing I am doing during this pandemic, I decided to go back to two journals. It is an attempt to save money — the Hahnemühle Nostalgie Sketchbook (left) is a few dollars less — but also, it likes inky written thoughts a bit better than the Hahnemühle Toned Watercolour Book, right.
I am journaling every day, and sometimes several pages… anger, frustration, sadness.
The watercolor journals will be used for times when I am going in to do a watercolor and I know it. This does mean that sometimes I start a watercolor at the Nostalgie book, and I kick myself, because they can’t take multiple washes or lifting like the watercolor book papers. But I will try this experiment and if is doesn’t work, switch again.
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I teach architectural sketching,
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That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
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Trust me, you are going to get bored hearing about my bean adventures…
but Rancho Gordo and their beans are keeping me going in this pandemic!
I have ordered many different types of beans and *SHOCK*
I can taste the diffeence in the bean types! Who would have known.
Yes, I am now a fanatic!
Rancho Gordo Ojo de Cabra or Eye of the Goat Beans beans were my next choice;
Swirling mottled brown and pink beans.
Soaked them for two hours because that is what happened;
made them in the studio kitchen and got called away.
No bacon for these beans, but a thing I do with the very good juices
from a whole roasting chicken. I cut the fat out of the inside of the roaster,
and our roasters are raised GMO-free. So when they are roasted only a little bit of fat
and a lot of gelatinous juices sit on the bottom of the pan, and I put them into
an ice cube tray and save them to throw in rice and beans.
There is usually only about an eighth of an inch of chicken fat on the top of the cube,
so low fat, high flavor! This is what was used in cooking these beans,
along with the soffritto and LOTS more chilies!
After washing and making sure no stones were in the bag,
I soaked mine for 2 hours in my Dutch oven, covered with about 1 inch of water,
and used the water RG suggested as part of the cooking.
I sauteed the onion to make it a bit sweeter,
did not cook the chili, garlic, carrots and celery.
I put everything into the pot, with the seasonings and stock and
another cup of water… I wanted liquid, which they call pot liquor.
As Rancho Gordo suggests, I turned up the heat and let it have a rolling boil
for about 15 minutes, then turned it down to simmer for two hours.
We ate them as a meal…
topped with chopped avocado, a bag of corn chips and a good hot salsa.
Ingredients:
1 lb Rancho Gordo Ojo de Cabra or Eye of the Goat Beans
3 T or so olive oil to slightly saute the
1 large yellow onion, chopped
(that was what I had on hand, but I think I like the red onion better)
about a cup of the chicken drippings with the fat…
1 T chopped garlic
(I keep Christopher Ranch organic bottled on hand;
I think it is almost as good as fresh, and is a life saver in the pandemic)
6 heaping T Blackened Chili Pesto or
3-4 blackened hot peppers (depending upon size), chopped
3 carrots, chopped (if huge then quarter and chop)
3 stalks celery — leaves welcomed — chopped
Seasonings: Only 1 t garlic salt (I don’t add salt until the end), 3 T cumin, 1 T pepper,
and as we like heat, 1/4 t dry crushed chipotle chili peppers
1 qt chicken stock
Later, salt and pepper to taste!
Always organic or non-GMO, humanely raised. It matters!
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
I’ve never filled up a journal before reviewing it!
As this became my Corona-Virus Journal,
I quickly filled it up with paintings and writing
about this strange time we are living in.
Now the new Hahnemühle
Toned Watercolour Book will
take the place of my white ones,
or at least stand tall as one of my favorite alternatives. The toned
papers come in two colors, grey
(my favorite) and a warm beige.
Let me say how surprised I am
about the grey paper used with watercolors! When I was first
given a sample to review, I truly thought that this would become a
book whereby I did a LOT of ink sketching with light watercolors in muted colors, a direction in which I was heading. I was pleasantly surprised at the colors, and it changed my art again! This grey toned
journal is my very favorite journal!
Before I get into the journal details (which are very like the white watercolour journals)
let me share the surprising color applications. The first is the beautiful
deep jewel tone color on the pale grey paper!
Above, an unusual color mixing chart — GORGEOUS!
To have the jewel tones read in this manner was a huge surprise for me.
Below, compare the white paper(left)against the grey paper (right, and labeled),
noting the brilliance and depth of colors on both… different but not inferior!
WHITE
GREY
WHITE
GREY
WHITE
GREY
Secondly, I have been
playing with waterproof
and water soluble black and grey inks used with
watercolor and letting them move into each other in unusual ways. The interplay of the watercolors mixed
with the black and grey inks introduced before the watercolor washes makes
for surprises, and the grey toned paper is wonderful
for these inky watercolor sketches. The grey paper
does not limit me as I
thought it might.
pencil
ink
finished
The grey paper takes graphite pencil and water soluble graphite well, left. HB graphite pencil erases completely without ghosting. Ink does not move as smoothly on cold press paper as on Nostalgie (hot press paper) — fine points pens can hang up a bit on the slightly textured paper, above, and sheen inks don’t shine well.
No different on this paper than any cold press watercolor paper, a bit of skipping except in wide points (M, B, Stub Nibs) or very wet writers.
I wrote in fineline then painted in various colors.
I tested the Fineline Masking Fluid pen on the grey paper…
The test went well, as I thought it would — all bits of Fineline were removed and watercolor was accepted fully over the top of the removed masking fluid.
Details: The journal is quite like the white Hahnemühle Watercolour journal
in terms of construction and quality, though a different cover.
The linen-like cover has a different weave so you can easily see the
difference if you have both white and toned watercolour pages.
At this time it does not come in A4, but in A5 and A6, and a square 5.5″ format.
There are 30 sheets of acid free paper.
Hahnemühle Toned Watercolour paper is 200 gsm or 95 lb
fine grained surface structure on both sides — as is the white paper —
and as there is no right or wrong side to the grain, this means 60 paintable pages,
no curl when I use them even with wet washes.
It has a serious rubber band that will not stretch out of shape, and a ribbon.
The only downside is no envelope… I add one to the back!
Hahnemühle has a commitment to environmental responsibility, which means
the world to me. I vote with my $$$, and just as I switched to fountain pens to
reduce plastic waste in my ink drawings, knowing I am buying from
a company that is interested in environmental stewardship is important.
They are working to get the new product in stores across America.
In the USA at this time they are sold at: Wet Paint (one of two stores I frequent online),
In Canada: Gwartzman’s Art Supply in Toronto, Above Ground in Toronto.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
Midweek, and several days since the protests started.
I’ve thought about this so much, and partly has been self-serving, as we worry about
our own business not too far from downtown. I/we think about where our country
is heading all the time, and talk about it frequently; this is one of the issues.
Above, the overhead of the park the night the cars were overturned and burned.
The news was ablaze here as well as other places, about the protesters violence.
But Mitchel and I remembered Antifa and the Proud Boys from other times, and also though about how peaceful protests have been before those two groups showed up.
We were thinking the protesters were infiltrated. There are forces trying to drive our country apart.
Images of peaceful Portland residents protesting moved me,
and I am sorry that this is not the choices that are shown nationally.
When the police in Portland — who by the way have not been accused to my
knowledge of murdering or being violent with POC — took a knee during a protest,
I was sorry to hear that many thought they were being manipulated.
If any show of grace or outreach is seen as bullshit, then we are doomed.
As the nights progressed, the numbers grew, and the peaceful aspects of the
protests became clearer. Finally Mayor and Councilpeople and Police all said the same, which is that it appears there are a few who want to make it violent.
Plus the news is getting dumber and dumber, not just here but everywhere,
and I think they too print/post news that is incorrect to draw a following.
Sloppy words when sloppy words can kill people? Terrible.
A highlight for me was when Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty nailed the newspeople
at the first conference, because she watched hours of footage and seen the faces of looters and those inciting violence, yet she said she noticed the news ran the same two images over and over, of two black men out of over a dozen whites… She was pissed and
I applauded her for that. “Small town” coverage.; she could look them in the
eye and blast them. We’d noticed, and we’d not watched hours of footage.
As the numbers swelled and stayed peaceful, and the leaders got the gist that
they were being played by agitators, my heart swelled. I love the images of
a thousand (and growing daily) each night on the Burnside Bridge laying for
the number of minutes it took Derek Chauvin to murder George Floyd.
BTW, it was a hard video to watch but I did. I waited until I could handle it, then wept.
After watching it, there will never be anyone who will convince me that Derek Chauvin didn’t act in cold blooded murder, nor that his cronies around him were not accomplices. They should all be put away for life. It was a horrid lynching in front of my eyes.
The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. ~ Bill Watterson
It feels like it is time to make demands, which I’ve not heard except from
Governor Andrew Cuomo, who daily now says he wants the demands, and suggests some. From a transcript of his talk on 1 June 2020, starting around the 8-minute mark,
and I have edited a lot out to discuss my point:
“We have to take a minute and ask ourselves, what are we doing here?
What are we trying to accomplish? … I share the outrage and I stand with the protestors. You look at that video of the killing of an unarmed man, Mr. Floyd, it is horrendous…
It’s frightening. It perverts everything you believe about this country.
“There’s a moment for change. And is there a moment here? Yes. If we’re constructive and if we’re smart and if we know what we’re asking for. It’s not enough to come out and say I’m angry, I’m frustrated. Okay, and what? … You need the answer. I want common sense gun reform…. what does it look like? … I want to address income inequality? Okay, what do you want? Here’s what I want. Minimum wage of $15.00, free college tuition.
“Yes, you express the outrage. But then you say, and here’s my agenda. Here’s what I want. That’s what we have to be doing in this moment... There should be a national ban on excessive force by police officers. There should be a national ban on choke holds, period. There should be independent investigations of police abuse. When you have the local district attorney doing the investigation, I don’t care how good they are, there is the suggestion of a conflict of interest. Why? Because that D.A. works with that police department every day. And now that prosecutor is going to do the investigation of the police department that they work with every day? Conflict of interest can be real or perceived. How could people believe that the local prosecutor who works with that police department is going to be fair in the investigation?”
My reflections so far on paper, below.
Note, not Mike Tyson — I am so bad at sports figures — but Michael Vick.
“We Shall Overcome” is most commonly attributed as lyrically descended from
“I’ll Overcome Some Day”, by Charles Albert Tindley, 1900.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
Like others my age, I lived through early modern lynchings.
For me the awareness of it started when I went to college.
There, black RA’s told us what the university was not telling us,
because mine wanted to keep us truly safe — which was our greatest threat to bodily
harm was from middle aged white men, and our bikes were in danger of being stolen
from the black kids nearby. She said, “Look it up in police records.”
Then there was Rodney King, and the progression forward.
I wasn’t raised that way, but I also know now that being a person of privilege
means I don’t under stand what it is like to be a person of color —
even if I try to mindfully walk in their shoes.
My Chinese friends tell me what they are going through because of what Trump
has said about the virus, even though there is no proof of that from the scientific community — and even if there was, my friends are AMERICANS.
My black friends have told me of being harassed by police for just being black.
Unacceptable. Unimaginable.
I am not of an age now to put myself on the street in protest,
but I can go dark for this week to show support for POC.
I don’t know what good it will do but it feels right to me.
As my Patreon supporter, you will have
access to some content not on this website,
sneak previews, goodies, discounts on classes.
I teach architectural sketching,
art journaling (art+writing), creativity, watercolors.
That annoying loud-mouth editor/critic in your head? GONE! How great would that be?
I'd love it if you shared this; please mention my blog name!
A few years ago Tracey Fletcher King turned me onto Fineline Masking Fluid.
I tried others and found them sticky and thick and messy;
not what I wanted in the ways I wanted to use a masking fluid.
Fineline’s masking fluid is a clean eraser-like material once dried,
and releases even when it is left on overnight or for a few days,
which I found very important when using it on larger watercolors, below.
But maybe the best thing about Fineline is the distributor…
you can get a nice fine line or small dots every time —
which I’ve never seen in other applicators.
In the third image above, you can clearly see the two sizes:
18 gauge (larger, yellow, top), and 20 gauge (smaller, blue, bottom).
I have always used the smaller 20 gauge applicator
(yes, the larger number is the smaller applicator).
Below I show various ways I use masking fluid.
Fineline kept the sailcloth white!
Removing the masking fluid.
Above, you can see how I filled the small collapsed sail in with the fluid;
this allowed me to brush colors across the sky and waters.
The masking fluid is a bit blue; when it is removed with a kneaded eraser
the paper creates the crisp white sail.
I wrote in fineline then painted in various colors.
Above, I tested the masking fluid on the grey Hahnemühle Toned Watercolour Book.
I wrote big blobby letters across the page, thick drips, and let it thoroughly dry.
This is very important! It must be dry before you add watercolors over the top!
A wash of pink and orange watercolors went over the masking fluid.
I let them dry, and AFTER the watercolor layer thoroughly dried (patience is key),
I removed the masking fluid using a kneaded rubber eraser, and added
marigold orange watercolor over the linework and some of the original wash.
The masking fluid completely lifted, allowing the watercolor to adhere to the paper again.
Tips for success: 1) Use Fineline Masking Fluid. 2) Plan your layers in advance. 3) Let layers dry thoroughly, both the masking fluid and the watercolor layers. 4) Double check for wetness before removing the masking fluid gently with the kneaded eraser!
5) Cap the bottle each time you are finished… Do NOT let it set open!
When capping, plunge the needle in and out of the tube
several times to clear it before capping.
On the images of my Great-grandmother’s crazy quilt
in a Hahnemühle Watercolour Journal,
I used masking fluid to save the inked stitches.
Left, you can see the wide places of white before I filled in stitchery.
Below, examples of masking fluid
in larger watercolor images on watercolor paper
that took several days and layers to finish.
First layers of Masking fluid… then waterproof ink and watercolor.
After I painted the yellow on the flowers and Quin Gold on the brass mirror,
I then added a second layer of masking fluid to the top of the petals I wanted
to preserve yellow, and a little to highlight the brass mirror.
Detailed flowers and sky over the top of the new masking fluid.
Darkened second layers in leaves, removed masking and splattered!
Masking fluid was on two days and still removed nicely!
An example of using Fineline Masking Fluid on a large area to ensure
no watercolor slopped onto the Bald Eagle head!
In this example, I painted the yellow on the brass pole and flowers,
then added masking fluid to the top of the areas I wanted to preserve yellow.
Tiny dots on saddle and saddle blanket and harness allowed me to paint
without having to be careful of those detailed areas:
I practiced perfecting repeating dot sizes before I did these —
it takes a bit of practice if you want them even.
Final with the detailed masked areas painted, or not, after they were removed.
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