Master Masking Fluid in Watercolor Painting: 10 Day Art Challenge

1. Introduction: When I started filling up this little mole skin sketchbook with masking code experiments. I had loads of comments and questions asking what my secrets were. As many just couldn't get their masking fluid to behave. Using masking fluid. Has your paper torn, your colors smudged or you ruined your brushes? So you've given up after a few attempts, please give masking fluid another chance before you abandon it completely. I love using masking fluid and have done since my college days and always had a great relationship with it. Having a jar of it in my outbox gives me options as once it's dry, it can be peeled off, revealing the untouched white paper underneath. It's a bit like magic. That white really gives an extra pop of contrast in my watercolors. I, I roma. I'm a sketch book artist, illustrator and top teacher on Skillshare. My work has appeared on home decor, books and brand packaging all over the world. And I've had the pleasure of working with major brands from Marks and Spencer's to unicef. In this class, there are ten demos starting with some fun warm ups to build up your practical knowledge and patients, followed by some really fun projects covering plurals, landscapes and food. Think beyond the brush to achieve an array of different textures and effects using masking fluid, you will consider which papers work best, the different drying stages we have to be mindful of. And the all-important successful removal of masking fluid after it's dried. This class is for everyone who's new to using this medium. Unsuccessfully tried masking fluid in the past or anyone seeking to find fun ways of incorporating it into their watercolor practice. Using masking fluid might take a little planning, but it's totally worth it. Did I mentioned it was going to be fun. I am so excited to share my top tips. So please join me. 2. Class Project: For some of you, masking fluid could be a totally new medium and you want to find success. However, in order to get to that stage, it is really important to undertake a few explorations. We have some new tools before actually trying them out on a painting. Your project is complete two days a warm ups, observe and make notes about your results so you can refer back to them. Then use the following eight days for more masking fluid studies. I would love to see what you create after you watch this class. So please share. Make sure you're using Skillshare on a web browser rather than the app, because the Projects tab doesn't show up on the app. Upload your projects here under projects and resources tab to receive full feedback from me. And please support each other with comments and hearts for your fellow students. Please upload your day one test sheet using masking fluid to test the different brands of watercolor paper to see how they perform the day to abstract warmer, and at least two other projects from the rest of the demos I've presented, such as the oranges or Daisy meadow. You can upload the first two or three days and click Edit Project to add further pieces. It would be really helpful for me if you could include a couple of sentences. Level of experience with masking fluid before taking this class. And also the brand of watercolor paper and masking fluid you've used for the majority of your projects and what you enjoyed most about this ten day process, as well as your favorite piece that you produced. If you have any questions about the processes that you've seen in this class, please feel free to reach out to me using the discussions section. I urge you not to skip those first two days. I know it's so tempting to jump straight into the shiny pretty projects. But I've built in those two days specifically so that you can gather your own information about your particular materials like your nibs, paper or applicators, which is going to be so much more valuable for you than simply watching me think of it as an informal ten day challenge. The audio, the video lessons should help with your understanding of this medium. I feel the project start off pretty straightforward, but gradually they get a little bit more involved. But it's not anything you can't handle as your confidence is going to grow, as well as your knowledge. Having information about how your own materials work. First, we'll give you better results later. And you'll realize there are actually many choices available to you. This class is all about being curious and open to the weird little quirks of masking fluid. And of course, watercolors, which is not predictable, sometimes, feel free to follow along with me or interpret the subject matter how you wish. So make mistakes, make a mess, but overall have fun and find the ways that works for you. Let's start by taking a closer look at this medium. 3. What Is Masking Fluid & When Do You Use It: Masking fluid goes by many names including brisket, drawing gum or liquid mask. It's basically latex or rubber base medium that can be applied to dry watercolor paper. The masking fluid will stick to the paper and once it's dry, it can be painted over in watercolor or ink. It's purpose is to preserve specific areas of white paper where you want to prevent pigment absorption. Once the whole painting is dry, the latex film can be carefully peeled off, leaving the white surface of the paper underneath untouched. As you can see, it comes in a few different forms, from liquid in jars and bottles to pre-filled applicators and pens, which I will show you in more detail in later videos. Masking fluid is an incredibly useful medium once you learn how to use it, it's perfect for creating highlights. Protecting small areas, too delicate to avoid with your brush and for creating sharp lines and color separations. One of the challenges of watercolor is you can't cover up mistakes as you could painting with other mediums such as acrylics or goulash. As watercolor is translucent, It's extremely important to preserve your whites. In some cases, you can just paint around the shapes, but when it comes to more complex or very small areas, it's almost impossible. This is where masking fluid comes in. Sometimes it's a good idea to protect parts of your paper as once the pigment touches the paper and is absorbed, there's no way to recover that pristine white. Again, these are some of the advantages of using masking fluid. It's really helpful when you want to create a fair number of white shapes against a darker background, you can create detailed shapes or images without having to care to paint around everything. And masking fluid can harness the brightness of the paper to preserve that luminosity that will, colors are known for even the most intricate details will remain a brilliant white. Although masking fluid is not necessary to create great watercolor paintings, it's a wonderful tool to have in our art box. In the next video, I'm going to show you some of my very early work with masking fluid for client projects and a more recent Sketchbook Project. 4. Older & Recent Work Using Masking Fluid: I thought it would be really interesting for you to see a few bits of my old pieces of work when I was using masking fluid back in the day. I'm afraid. I don't have any examples from my college days, but what I do have our examples from my portfolio that I used as an editorial illustrator. The first example I want to show you is what is his dance floor style? And to give you some context, it was the Britpop era towards the end of the 990s. And this was actually painted in ink because I didn't know how to use watercolors. Then you can see where I've applied the masking fluid along the lines of their trousers and the Azure their clothes also to define a part of the elbow and arm here. And also in the sneakers or all trainers as we say in the UK. This one is called cringe couples, and I've pretty much done the same here along the edge of their clothes also highlights in their hair. And these two pieces, me, work for years and years and years because it was of that era. They appeared in magazines like smash hits, if you remember that, and also Team books. It says an example of more editorial work where I used a bit of market fluid in just black and white illustrations, again, to define the edges of arms and add movement in trousers and bit more dynamic. Now I'm going to move on to a few pieces that are created are for I got back from my travels in India and the Far East. This was created using masking fluid and wax resist. And you can see the line work I would have probably applied with a dip pen in his mustache and in his turban and in some of the arches here, you'll see that in this block of pattern here it would have been some sort of a screen. I've applied it using a brush and you can see it's left quite textural marks there. Now, for this rice paddy scene, you can see that I have picked out individual strands of the rice plant that it is very fine. I think I probably used a mapping pen, dip pen because it's so thin. And also applied the masking fluid along the edges here just so that it contrasts against the paddy field behind it. Again, these are Ink because I did not know how to use watercolors. This example, it looks like I flicked masking fluid in certain areas, especially here. And also the other examples where I've put masking fluid along the edges of these potatoes and I don't know what they are. Pomerleau is maybe bits of the banana. It's really just picking out certain details, especially the highlights just to make the piece pop a little bit better. This version, you can tell I created this in my twenties. I'm picking out the highlights of some of the bottle tops here along these edges. Something else I want to point out is I probably apply masking fluid on some of the hand lettering just to help it along. And if you look very closely, you'll see that I had a pencil outline to guide me. Now, for this orchid is a much larger piece. And you can see here along the edges where I stretch the paper because what I was using was actually heavy duty cartridge paper or general purpose art paper because this is actually mixed media is a mixture of goulash and ink. Probably what I've done is pick out the background pattern in it's kind of a batik inspired pattern. And I apply the masking fluid to that background first, and then I painted over it and this became a greetings card. And also this became a greetings card and this was a greetings card. And in fact, what happened was the art buyer of Asda, which is the US version of Walmart, bought a version of this because she liked all the wax resist and masking fluid techniques that I've included. Now I want to move on to this really cute little mole skin sketchbook, which I started in 2012, 20. And this is part of a 30 day project and I love creating in here because there's no fixed agenda. This first read is really moody. They're just imaginary scenes set at night because I was really playing around with the contrast. And so the lighthouse and the moon really stands out against that background. And there's obviously lots of splatters there, which I was hoping would add to that Moody effect. And on this next page, we are playing with a lot of verticals here. It's just me just trying to have fun, trying to work out a few ideas. If you look at the whiteness of the trees against the background, I think that works really well. For this page. I actually had to cross-reference my Instagram because I didn't know what type of masking fluid pen I was using for these two waves. And they are certain applicator pens which I will talk about later. I'm not sure what was happening here because as you can see, the pen that I used that day was not adhering to the paper and the watercolor was able to seep underneath the masking fluid. That's the sort of things that we are trying to find out and we can note down during a warm ups, these are really cute as well. And they gave me a few ideas for creating this class. These lanterns are actually some of my favorites to create, and I really loved layering the colors on and working some of the details in ink line. I think they work really well because of that light, dark relationship. I think one of the best things about this little sketch book was learning a lot more about contrast. You'll see some of the projects in this class are variations of what I started in this normal skin. 5. Tools & Materials : Paint & Miscellaneous : Let's start with a really simple stuff before we move on to the rest of materials. First of all, you will need a watercolor set. I'll be using my Winsor and Newton professional set. I do recommend a student grade set. And then we will need some watercolor brushes. I would recommend to fairly large ones for applying washes. Then slightly smaller brushes for applying the details like these. You also need some washing up liquid, as we say in the UK, or liquid detergent. I think even hand soap would work. With that. You're going to have to pop some on a plate or a little egg cup, which I've used in the past. And I'll show you why we do that later. So you need a selection of fine liners. It doesn't really matter. Different colors or just black is absolutely fine. And also a pencil basic as you like, a bit of kitchen roll for mopping up any accidents. And two jars of water, one for washing your watercolor brushes, and one for washing your masking fluid brush. You also need some masking tape, doesn't matter which color you have, long as it does all this business. 6. Tools & Materials : Types of Masking Fluid: Before we start looking at all the different materials, I want to clearly state I'm not endorsing any product over another. As you can see, masking fluid comes in both bottled form and also these applicator pens. Here's a selection of masking fluid in bottles that are easily available in UK online art stores. And you might be able to get hold of different brands wherever you are. Starting with a Winsor and Newton. This is the brand that I used as a student. A little goes a long way because it's quite runny, which also means it dries pretty quickly and you only have to wait a few minutes before we can begin painting over it if you've applied it properly. This is the heavier liquid Latex masking fluid. It was gifted to me by fellow Skillshare teacher Jen Dixon, along with some rural pens, which I'll show you later. I would say this is even more runny than the Winsor and Newton. And of course the advantage of it being slightly blue as you can see where it's been applied. This SAA artists blue masking fluid is one that I've never tried before, but I thought I would buy it for this particular class. They looked runny. So I'm going to try this out later. This Jackson's masking fluid came with a set along with a little plastic applicator bottle, which I can talk about in a bit. It dries almost colorless, and I would say it's probably the thickest out of this little group. As you can see with this particular Jackson's masking fluid, there is a really gunky film on top and that is what happens when the seal was an airtight. I haven't used this jarring quite awhile, so I was a little surprised to see this, but it's good to show you. There's two pieces of advice that is really important to know about masking fluid. First of all, is do not shake it vigorously. Apparently the best way to make sure that it is smooth inside is just twirl it like this to make sure that it's fully amalgamated inside. And the second one is to decant it into a smaller bottles such as these. Exposing your masking fluid to air will cause the fluid to go bad or dry out faster. You will probably have masking fluid that will deteriorate. Is your enemy. What I do now is to decant my liquid into a smaller jaw. Unlike this one. That means that my larger one will keep fresh air for longer. Now, let's move on to these really fancy versions. First of all, let's take a look at this one. We take a close look at this masking fine liner by frisk, by taking this lid off. And you'll see that it has this very fine needle-like applicator. And this will help you make very fine lines. It says 0.5 mm pinpoint application. I show you the inside of it. It's got this. And in theory, it's designed to prevent clogs with airtight seal supposedly, let's try and pop it back in. The wire fits inside the nib to clear out any leftover masking fluid. And as I've said, it is a theory because some people have reported clogs inside this and sometimes it can be tricky to use. I will show you the type of line that this fine line of producers. And I said earlier that Jackson's actually have their own version. And it came with, you can actually buy it with the masking fluid. So exactly the same. Little bit shorter. And I suppose the best way to decant it. They're masking fluid into the bottle is to use like a syringe, like the ones that you get in children's medicine bottles. Let's take a look at these pen like applicators. We have molar tau and Goya, heavier. And also this new one by shaming key. It's not actually a pen as such, but it's another one of those applicator says all marked up there, applicator systems. And you'll see we have all of these. It's pretty much like a marker pen. Again, this is, I will be talking about the advantages and disadvantages of using these. If my lid, these, you will see that this is what they look like. And you'll see that all three of these are blue, which will make it easier for you to see once you've applied it. I want to run through a few pros and cons about using masking fluid that comes in jars and also the pre-filled masking pens. I think the fluid that comes in jars lets you use a wider variety of techniques along with different application tools. But it does mean you have to practice a little bit more depending on the tools that you use to apply the fluid, the resulting marks can be very varied and expressive. Whereas the pre-filled masking pens will probably have a very uniform and consistent line. When you apply masking fluid with a brush, it will eventually ruin it. So you're going to need quite a few old or cheap brushes with the mask and pens. I think the nozzles or the pen nibs are prone to clogging and as it's liquid rubber, it will set when exposed to air. One of the great things about using masking fluid from jars is you can use different sized brushes. And if you use a large brush, you can cover a much larger area of paper. With masking pens, they are probably applications over smaller areas. There is definite odor when you open a masking fluid jar. I think when you use a pen, the odor is less, but you may still detect a little bit. Also with the fine liner masking fluid. It can come out in an uncontrolled manner. It can come out too fast and not be even. It is convenient to use. You can carry it around with you if you want to use it on location. If you're urban sketching or something. Please don't think that you need everything that I'm showing you and you need all the tools and materials. There are always alternatives and there are ways to swap and change items so that you can achieve similar results. With each project, I will try to give you substitutes and you can get creative yourself. 7. Tools & Materials : Applicators : I use a load of different tools to apply masking fluid to paper depending on what effects that I want to achieve. So we're going to take a look at a myriad of ways we can apply masking fluid. Or most of you may have seen or tried applying masking fluid with a brush and ruined many. I know I have loads of ruin brushes. So I'm going to show you the best way that I found to make your brushes last a little longer. In the second half of this video, I'm going to try alternatives to the brush. Yes. There are many different applicators which you probably haven't considered from Q-tips to rolled-up paper. It's gonna be so fun looking at all these choices. So please keep an open mind. You might have heard that masking fluid is where brushes go to die. As you can see from these examples, they are glued on, gunky, irregular, and they have no painting life left in them. I would always recommend using old brushes that are not best for watercolors or whatever goulash, you are going to ruin them eventually. So you can either use old brushes or you can buy a set of cheap plastic brushes like this. I probably got these for $2 and they will fall apart anyway, so I don't mind them getting completely busted like these here. To preserve the bristles on even cheap brushes like this, it is advisable to wet them and then coat it in some liquid soap or washing up detergent. And this will protect the bristles to some extent. So let's give it a go. What I like to do is to dip it in water and then dab off the excess. And I've got the washing up liquid in here. And then I dab it into that and make sure that the bristles are nicely coated. I'm going to dip it into my masking fluid, play around with it a little bit on paper, pretend I'm creating something marvelous, then it's probably best to wash it off immediately after you've finished doing that. And you can see it has preserved it very nicely. So jolly good in Scotland, bit more life and it left. I want to show you this one on the right. I do remember dipping it in, washing up liquid, but I let it dry on too much and as you can see, no amount of washing up liquid is going to get that off and I just wasn't able to retrieve it. So that's another major point. Try to wash it off as soon as you've finished. Otherwise, you're going to end up with another crappy brush. I want to show you this frisk masking fluid brush. It came in a set of three, but this is the only one I've got left and I took it as face value, my simply dip into Maschine fluid without doing any of the liquid detergent. I'm afraid it didn't really work. As you can see, it's not something I would recommend. I would literally just go down the cheapo plastic brushes. Now, it's time to think beyond the brush. Let's take a look at some of these. Now these wonderful items are called Silicon shapers. And I actually saw another artist apply masking fluid with this. I wanted to give it a go. They're also used by most filmmakers and sculptors. So if you Google silicone carving or model making tool, you'll probably see something like this. I thought they were relatively cheap. Apparently all you need to do to clean them is to let them dry and the masking fluid will magically peel off. If you've seen my other classes, you'll know I love the dip pen, and this is actually how I started using it in college and it might not be something that you have considered. Let's dip it into the masking fluid. It has to go past that reservoir there. Let's just draw it on there. And you can see you can create quite fine lines depending on the nib that you're using. I've got this version here where I let the masking fluid dry on. And one of the concerns that people tell me is how do we get it off? And all I do is peel it off. It's actually really satisfying. Take it off like that is absolutely fine. You can use it with ink afterwards. You don't have to reserve it just for masking fluid. Alternatively, they're still wet masking fluid on your dip pen. You just wipe it off on a kitchen roll and it will come off pretty easily. Now, this nifty contraption is called a ruling pen, is quite an old fashioned tool. I received to as gifts from top teacher Jen Dixon. And essentially the paint, ink or other wet medium is inserted into the space between two metal arms or the ruling pen, which are tapered to a point. Here we go, you can see the masking fluid within those two metal arms. Another thing worth having in the masking fluid toolbox or old toothbrushes? I used to use these all the time at college as you saw. Just going to dip it in there and I will flick it across the paper. We are going to test these out properly later. I tried to wash off the masking fluid just now in my jar. And you can see that there's a bit of a residue. So if you want, you could probably dip it into washing up liquid to try and preserve it that little bit longer, but I have plenty of old toothbrushes at home. Other items I use quite often are common Q-tips. Its kind you can pick up at the supermarket. You can see this one is where I've let it dry on and I just wanted to see what effects it makes. I think the best use of this is to make little round dots. Again, when we do the tests, you'll be able to see this a lot better. Also, you might like to consider to fix. Can't wait to try these out a little bit more. Also, you might like to consider paperclips. Obviously this one, I have unraveled a little bit and it pretty much works like this. Finally, something you may have not considered is paper, just an old shopping list? And if I just make it into a point like this, make it really, really tight. This can actually become an applicator. And you can get all different effects depending on how sick leave you have made that tip using a piece of paper. 8. Tools & Materials : Paper: Paper is the other area that is a major pain point for masking fluid. Many say it will often rip or tear when they peel off the masking fluid. So this is why we have to test masking fluid on a few different papers before committing to a more considered watercolor painting. I receive so many DMs and comments related to paper tearing than anything else. So we have to work out which papers and under what conditions could lead to tears or mar the surface of our paper when we start removing that dried masking fluid. Paper surveys greatly affects the performance of the mask. Student grade papers are usually made out of cellulose, which is wood pulp rather than cotton. And cellulose is weaker, and so it may tear more easily than cotton paper. Watercolor paper is traditionally sized with gelatin, so the paint doesn't soak in straight away. Lightly. Science papers are great for drawing on and mixed media, but they're not gonna be strong enough to handle masking fluid. And handmade papers are often too lightly sized and are probably going to tear when masking fluid is lifted off. Cold press services will work quite well. However, rough papers may be really tricky is because the texture of the bumps and crevices provides that extra surface for the masking fluid to grab onto. And so it might make it a lot more difficult to remove without harming the paper and it will cause it to tear. Having said that, there are other factors such as the drying in-between applications and even how you remove the masking fluid once it's dry, can play a huge role in determining if the paper will tear. And I will cover this in later videos. These are the papers that I'm going to be trying out just to show you. I don't know what papers you'll have, but ideally, I do think you should try at least two or three watercolor papers for your test sheets. As it is better to have more choices and then you can choose a favorite. First off is this Winsor and Newton. It is 300 years or 140 g. I believe it is 25% cotton and cold pressed. And if you look closely, you'll see that it's quite a smooth surface, but there is a lot of indentations in it. So that is going to have some bearing on our tests. The next one is Arches. It is again 300 GSM, 140 g, and it is 100% cotton cold pressed. If we look carefully, there is texture, I actually find archers a little bit tricky to work with because it isn't overly smooth. But we're going to see how this affects our testing sheets. Next step is the honeymoon, color harmony and it is hot press 300 years M. I believe there is a little bit of cotton in there and it does say that it is good for masking fluid. If I feel the paper, it is incredibly smooth and we'll see if that has a bearing on the performance of our test sheets. And lastly, I'm going to try out masking fluid on this 100% cotton handmade watercolor paper. It's 150 GSM. I have had people asking me about handmade papers and they have difficulty with it. This is a close-up of it. It is relatively rough. I'm gonna be really interested to see what happens when I apply some of the masking fluid with a brush or a dip pen. I do suggest for the test sheets and also for your projects to cut up your piece of paper into smaller size. This is a five, which is six by 8 ". This is what I'll be working with. And if you saw my sketchbook, you'll see that I was working quite small in it. There is a reason for that is because you can fill up the space much quicker and it won't be so overwhelming. And I know for some of you won't feel that you've wasted some of these papers, especially if it goes a bit pear-shaped. Just let you know I have mucked up a load preparing for this class and I'm going to talk about this right at the end. 9. Drying and Patience: In this video, I'd like to go over the all-important dry rules to remember when working with masking fluid. Drying one is the masking fluid. It sounds really obvious, but it's so important to allow the masking fluid to dry completely before painting over it. There are several factors you have to be mindful of. How thick did you spread the masking fluid. Is the room or environment you're painting in, humid or dry. And how long has the masking fluid being left on since you first applied it? The thicker the fluid is applied, the longer it will take to dry. You might have to leave it longer in a more humid conditions. To know if the masking fluid is dry, touch it lightly with your finger and if the liquid sticks to your finger in any way than leave it alone. Also, if you're masking fluid is squishy, it hasn't thoroughly dried. So again, leave it alone to dry for a little longer. Resist the urge to use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process as the masking fluid is basically liquid rubber, the extra heat could cause it to become more attached to the paper. And it could make it almost impossible to remove it without damaging the paper, which is not what you want. If you were to paint over the masking fluid sections before they're fully dry, you are unlikely to ruin another good brush. Drying time two is letting the paint dry. Once you've painted over the masked areas with watercolor, you must let this dry completely as well. Don't just hope it's dry. You have to be totally certain. I find the best way to test for dryness is to feel or touch that area you've painted. Any unpainted sections will feel warm or at least at room temperature. Whereas areas you've painted will actually feel a little cooler, which means there is still some dampness there. Another thing to be mindful of is the paper might be dry, but there could actually be tiny beads of wet paint sitting on top of the masking fluid as it's less poorest and the paper and these little beads will take longer to dry. So if you start to try rubbing off the masking fluid, it will likely smudge that watercolor paint into the white areas that you've reserved. So again, patients is called for drying three, it's the time that you leave the masking fluid on. It should never be left on for longer than 48 h. The longer your masking fluid stays on your paper, the harder it will be to remove. The masking fluid will sink in too much and you have difficulty getting it off and likely tear the paper. So let's just go over those three main points about timing. Apply the masking fluid and letting it dry. When you apply the art masking fluid, you will have to wait for it to dry thoroughly before you begin to use watercolor. Step to applying the watercolor and letting it dry those watercolors be totally bone dry before you start to remove the masking fluid. And 0.3 never leave the masking fluid on for longer than 48 h. Progress and success with masking fluid will take patients due to all the stages when you have to let it dry and you need to be prepared for the waiting at each stage. I'm afraid these stages will take as long as it takes, so we have to be flexible. The alternative is tearing the paper or running a piece that we have so carefully set up. We do live in a fast-paced world now. And I think in patients is often linked to expectations. You often expect something to happen quicker than it's happening in reality. In Instagram Reels, e.g. it appears that I complete a sketch book page in thirty-seconds when the reality is probably a span of several hours and waiting for those layers to dry in-between. So please please, please be patient and compassionate with yourself over the ten days. Especially if you are not used to this medium. It might be that you have to sit around for hours or a day with an unfinished piece of art. I know for some of you, this will cause some discomfort. It's part of the process when we are trying to achieve long-term learning outcomes. Let patients be your secret weapon with masking fluid. 10. Tools & Materials: Removing Masking Fluid: When it comes to removing masking fluid, you either love it or hate it if you've used this medium before. For me, when removing masking fluid is my favorite part. It's like magic. The big reveal when you pull it off and you see what has occurred. In this lesson, I'm going to go over several methods and tips for fluid removal once it's dry, each method has its advantages and disadvantages. The removal aspect will also be part of our tests sheets. So make a note of which methods you tried and which you like best. Whatever method of removal you use, always take it slowly and be gentle to avoid the paper tearing. The first method that I use for many years was to use your fingers. Start off by rubbing gently at one of the edges until it starts to lift. Once it starts to come away, gently, pull it off slowly and carefully. It will stretch and snap, but just keep working away at it until it's all removed. However, one thing you must remember when using this method is to wash your hands thoroughly and dry them before rubbing away at the masking fluid because you risk leaving small traces of oil from your fingers behind. And this can ultimately affect the watercolor application afterwards. The most popular method that you've probably seen for removal of dried masking fluid is a eraser. I'd recommend one that's neutral in color rather than red or blue, as you may have to deal with it leaving residue on your paper, which isn't what you want. This frisk masking fluid removal block is something that is completely new to me. I've only tried it recently. It's made out of firm natural crepe rubber and it picks up dried masking fluid without leaving crumbs behind like typical erasers, although it's quite thin, it's easy to manipulate and it's sharp corners are great for fine lines and details. Without rubbing the surrounding artwork. I have found I really love using this and it also prevents you from pulling too hard and tearing at your paper. If it's quite a large area, make gentle circular movements rather than trying anything to vigorous. 11. Day 1: Warm up Test sheets Part 1: As we'll see in later videos, planning your work with are considered approach will help you stay focused. On day one, we will start by creating test sheets. We will apply masking fluid, did different brands of paper using different applicators and make notes about the outcomes and any insights along the way. We will be looking at four variables within our test sheets. Paper, the type of masking fluid you use, the applicator and the time it takes to dry. I know it's tempting to walk straight into the fun projects, but you might not be a successful if you don't have the basics under your belt, it's so important that you don't skip the first two warm-up days as they're actually vitally important in order for you to understand which methods and materials will work best for you. Here are my papers that I am going to be testing out for this section of the class. I've caught them to smaller size. We got the arches handle, Lula, Winsor and Newton and I've got two of each. Just because I bought a variety of masking fluids I want to be testing out. Please don't think that you need to go out and buy all of these in it because I'm the teacher and I want you guys to know what is available. Don't think you have to go and find these pens. As long as you've got a jar of masking fluid, you're probably going to be fine. And moving on, I've got all my different applicators lined up. Even if you've only got a brush to apply it with, I'm sure you can find some Q-tips, paperclip and cocktail sticks and also, of course, roll-up that paper. I also wanted to point out these brushes here. These are my grotty brushes or the busted brushes where I've left the masking fluid on. So it's completely dried. I've used these over and over. So it's created this really gunky, but you can still apply masking fluid with it. And I'm going to show you how this can be useful. Before we start on the experiment proper, I'm just going to note down the brand of masking fluid I'm gonna be using. I'll probably use PBO on this upper section, and I'll probably start with section for the brush. Go on to a dip pen here and the silicon applicator, and then maybe the Q tip and cocktail stick here. Let's pick up my brush and dab a bit into the liquid detergent. And I've got my little bottle of perio. This is the larger of the two brushes I've got lined up for this. And we're just going to make a series of marks. Oh, now that's a strange mark already because I think that may be caused the amount of washing up liquid on my brush. So that already is something to be mindful of. I'm going to put a little bit less on this smaller brush. Take my dip pen and just do a line or to wash that out, I'll take my silicon marker. I don't know why I'm calling it a marker. Silicon applicators I can brush. So if you look at this one, it's kind of like a chisel tip. So I can apply it this way or this way around. I'm going to try both. Oh, that that line is very nice, isn't it? Oh, I can have fun with that. Wash that one off. Let's get the Q tips out. Oh, I find I'm having to press quite hard. You can see they're quite uniform in size. Let's see if I can make slightly smaller ones. Okay, so if I press lighter, gets slightly smaller ones, but I think the cotton in the Q tip is absorbing a lot of that masking fluid. That's good to know. And now the cocktail stick, I forgot to leave room for the paperclip. Oh, that's not really showing up very much. Kept that unfurled paperclip. Now, on this lower section, I'm going to try a different masking fluid. I think. Let's try the Jacksons and we're just going to do the same again. I completely forgot to add was a bit flicking. Might do that somewhere along here. I must remember not to put too much washing up liquid on this brush. Now, this might be difficult for you to see because the masking fluid is that little bit neutral. Before I forget, I must write down what I used. Because I will forget. One thing that I'm already noticing about the Jacksons is it's very thick compared to the PBO. Let's try the silicon applicator with this. Not sure about that. It might be due to the thickness of it. Moving on to Q tip, that comes out that is actually easier to apply than the other one. Lovely cocktail stick version. It's trying to apply it using the side. You can make some different shapes with that. I suppose. One last thing was the whole dampness. Move this over a tiny bit, is the brush. Now we're going to let this one dry and I'm going to move on to my other sheets. For my second test. A sheet I've got the hot pressed Hannah medulla, and I thought it might be fun to try out these masking fluid pens. If you haven't got any, Don't worry about it. Just watch. I'm interested to see what happens as well. So let's start off using the Min Q1. I'm squeezing hard and nothing's coming out. As we discussed in a previous video, this is one of the disadvantages of these pre-made. Cannot try to unblock this little tube in there. I don't know if I if I'm gonna be able to manage it using a cocktail stick, see if this now flows. Oh, yes, it does. Right? I'm not going to leave that there because that's going to take forever to dry and lead to have kitchen roll. Okay, Let's squeeze very gently then this time, it's a little bit probably which I wasn't expecting. Let's just try to create some lines and circles. Okay, So that's a little bit tricky to control how much comes out. Before I forget, I must write down what this referred to. Next one, we're going to try this heavier. It says you shake it up and down and then press down. I'm not really flowing. This is a big gunk top. Sure. If it's worth continuing with this one. Right? No, not quite. I was expecting I'm going to give up on this one. Next up is the molar towel pump marker. Same again is shake it. Oh, oh, now that was a bit faster. I'm not sure how this is going to perform. Let's try to cover a bit of an area. Here. The nib is a little bit dunk top, but I'm not too bad. And the last one is the Goya masking market says it's fine. Shape and push down. Okay. I'm not sure how much is really coming through. Yeah. Maybe maybe I should have done that a little bit more. Right? Again, I'm going to wipe that up because I'm going to be waiting around forever for that otherwise. And this is only a test sheet. And I'm just going to quickly write everything down. And this was the, the PBO, which just didn't work at all for me this time round. You might find that it works for you though. That's why it's good to do a test. I wanted to try out masking fluid pens again on the Winsor and Newton paper. One thing I didn't test out was the frisk masking liner. And now normally this works out well for me. And it isn't It is not coming out. Oh my gosh. Right. Let's see if this is going to help. It might not seem it, but I'm actually quite pleased to show you that I had this issue with the masking fine liner because this is a problem that many people report to me. What I did was took just a dressmakers pin and I poked it around and I managed to free the masking fluid eventually, Victory. What a relief. First thing that I notice straight away is raised. It is, it is not flat compared to applying it with a brush, e.g. filled up the rest of the sheet of paper using masking fluid applicator pens, even though I had used them with different brands of paper, it's always good to compare and contrast and to really understand how your materials work and under what conditions that they will work best or possibly not work at all. Oh, I was just saying I couldn't remember to squeeze gently, but even squeeze and gently there's there's a blob. Let's see. Once it dries, it might behave in a different way. I will reserve judgment. The final sheet of paper that I tested out was the handmade paper. The top row was the SAA masking fluid. And I used a mixture of rolled-up paper, silicon brush, paintbrush, and also toothbrush that suppose splattered. The row underneath was Jackson's masking fluid. And I use the same implements. I did find that this particular paper really soaked up the masking fluid. And I was already thinking, how is this going to come out? We've got the Winsor and Newton paper with the Winsor and Newton masking fluid and the Arches paper with the PBO and some Jackson's. And they've dried quite flat apart from this one, I think that's where I use the silicon applicator and the Q tip. Now that they're dry, we're just going to paint over it using the one color. I'm just going to mix up a green and apply it over all of these. And that's the dip pen section, the silicone section, the cocktail stick. And just in case it isn't obvious, I want you to know that I am doing a lot of test sheets just so that I can show you. You absolutely do not need to do five or six like I'm doing here. Now for the Winsor and Newton paper, I'm just going to use a indigo. Just stick to your two or three and you will still be able to find out a lot of information about all the different varieties of paper, how it affects your masking fluid. It will be really helpful if you made mental notes or notes on that sheet of paper to let you know at a later date how everything behaved so that you can come back to it and make informed choices later. 12. Day 1: Warm up Test sheets Part 2: Here are the various pieces of paper, different brands, different masking fluid that I created and they are now dry. I know it seems like a lot of trouble to go to in order to understand our masking fluid. But if you are new to this medium, it really will help you. First piece of paper that I tested out was the arches. This is my preferred method of removing masking fluid. See how easily or tricky comes off. First of all, what is left behind? I'm making mental notes. I do think is advisable. After we've done all this to write down little notes so that you can refer to them. This is the silicone applicator. Oh, that's a very solid line. Very surprising. The Q-tip. Not sure why that is occurring. I don't know whether that was the masking fluid or the paint. That's something that I definitely need to note down. Let's take the rest of this off. That was using the cocktail stick, even though I didn't think that was going to work out. And you can see it's created quite a fine line. Moving onto the lower half, which was the Jacksons masking fluid. This is the section applied with a brush. And remember I said this particular masking fluid just seem to be a little bit thicker than the PBO. One thing that I do notice when I'm using masking fluid myself is when there is a very raised area. This, the watercolor will collect in the space in the crevice almost. And it will create these effects which can be useful, but it's also something else that need to take into account. This is what we've got so far. It's good comparison. I would say that they do behave quite similarly even though there were different thicknesses, viscosity, Let's say I can't see much of a difference personally. Starting off, it's the pinky. You can see where it's, the watercolor has collected inside that area where it was raised and I'm not sure what was happening here, but let's take it off and see. It looks like it hasn't the masking fluid hasn't completely adhered to the paper. And that's why you've got this kind of effect. This was the PBO, which just was not flowing. Oh gosh, this is very tricky. This is the hand of morula paper which is very smooth. And this in particular is having difficulty finding rick Almost. This is the molar tau. I know it's difficult to see the blue on the blue. Again, this is very, very, very tricky to take off. I'm going to quickly move on to this one because it's the same pens and also this frisk liner here. And this is the shrinkage version, but this is the Winsor and Newton. And this is why it's important to test the papers because I am not enjoying taking off the masking fluid from this particular smooth Halloween ruler. So I'm just going to quickly compare it. That came off very easily. Masking fluid coming off easily is definitely going to help you. All. That's much better, much, much better. I think with this Winsor and Newton has a bit more texture to it. It's still relatively smooth, but it's definitely an improvement in my personal opinion. So what's this last one down here? This is the shimming key. So that's the shimming key on the handle, medulla, that's the binky on the Winsor and Newton, that's not too bad, came off very easily. That's the last section here. Just using my finger there. That's not too bad. Okay, That's good to know. Now we've got the handmade paper here with the SAA and the Jacksons masking fluid. I've never put masking fluid on handmade paper and I'll be interested to see what happens. I'm alright. I'm not sure if I just tore a little bit there or if there really was a bit of masking fluid there. Let's just carry on. I'm going to slow down how quickly I'm trying to remove this because I do think the papers coming off. I think it is coming off. The lines are okay. I've got a feeling. Maybe this area it's going to tear. I can see there was a little tear and I do think that was a terror over here. I'm going to carry on with this section here. It was the Jacksons. There we go. It took right there. I might just use my finger very gently, trying to be as gentle as possible, but I can see that I'm around the edges of some of these that it is tearing. If this was on a piece of an actual artwork that you had spent a lot of time over. I can see how that could be incredibly upsetting. All my fingers are not happy. Um, yeah, I can feel the paper texture coming off with that bit of masking fluid there. Let's try here. Oh, that was just completely torn off. Okay. That's not a good look. I think that the bigger the surface area that you've applied the masking fluid to, the more that it is just tearing. So this is the that's the SAA. And here was SAA and I wrote Windsor and Newton on top. And again, I'm just going to use my finger. And that's not tearing is coming off quite easily in fact. And that is so important to know. I think it's so important to see for yourself and to experience for yourself, to compare. And that's the whole reasoning behind this beginning part of the class. As you can see, I did absolutely loads and loads of test sheets in preparation for this class. So I have learned a lot about how masking fluid behaves on different papers. This is just one aspect of the masking fluid challenge, but it's a really, really important aspect. So I want you to make a decision about what papers or paper you would like to use for the next few projects. The paper I'm going to be using for all my projects is the Winsor and Newton, I think it gives me the best results. And I'm able to take off the masking fluid pretty easily. I would love to see your test sheets. So please upload them as part of your class project and share your findings with me. Let me know which brand of masking fluid and watercolor paper you've decided to use for the rest of the nine days. 13. Negative and Positive Space: Now we know the very basics of how to apply masking fluid. Let's talk a little bit more about negative and positive space before we move on to the projects proper. In simple terms, positive space refers to the subject or areas of interest within a piece of artwork, such as a person's face. The objects in a still-life painting or trees in a landscape. Negative space is the background or the space around an in-between your subject. I'm going to quickly demonstrate using simple FY icon. In this example, I'm applying masking it to the positive space or the actual shape of the object. In this case, it is the apple. Then once that masking area is dry, we paint the negative space around it using watercolor. And then when we remove the masking fluid, underneath is left white. The other version is applying masking fluid to the negative space. It is the area around the apple. It's almost like the background surrounding the apple. So when we paint the watercolor, pigment finds the paper that isn't masked. When we peel that muscle rid of the background is white. It's really important to have a basic understanding of this. So I hope that's been useful. Once you get your head around the concept of using masking fluid in a positive or negative space, it will become incredibly useful for the water colorist. 14. Day 2 : Abstract: Today we are going to take what we've learned from the previous day and create an abstract piece. We are going to fill our paper with more random marks, shapes, and lines. Within this abstract piece, we will create negative and positive shapes. The idea is you'll have a basic practical application of the negative positive concept before moving on to the start of the project on day 3.4, you can feel your sheet of paper with any number of abstract shapes. I'm going to try for a basic geometric shape that intersects and overlaps and fill them with all manner of marks using all the different tools I've got here. It's meant to be fun and simple exploratory exercise. So there's no need to overthink this exercise at all. Yesterday, tried out different implements, different tools to apply our masking fluid. And today we're going to take it just a little bit step further so that we understand potentially how it can be applied for different projects. We're gonna be creating an abstract and I'm going to carry on using the blue PBO gum because it will show up better. But I urge you to use whatever masking fluid you prefer. And there's gonna be no massive thought behind this. We're just going to create as many of our tools. So let's get this open. Actually, I think I'm going to create a circle. That doesn't work very well. I think I'm trying to put too much on there. Let's use a brush instead actually. And what we're trying to create is different sections where we can add different textures using all different implements. There's obviously many, many different ways. As we've seen, that you can make marks. And that's the beauty of masking fluid do not be limited by your brush. Just trying to create some intersecting shapes and whatnot. So to divide up at my piece of paper, and within each of these sections, I am going to just fill it with different marks using different implements. While I've got the brush in my hand, let's say I'm filling this section with stripes, this one, random marks like that. Now let's move things along. Now, I've got my busted brush. If I roll it around in this section here, dab it on like that. That could be interesting, didn't want to use it for, but it's interesting. Cocktail stick. See how random it is. I did have another class about perfectionism, where I use masking fluid. A student said she was trying to apply masking fluid perfectly using a brush and you realized it wasn't possible, which is a good realization. And I might fill up this space with Q-tips. I would really love you to just pick up all the tools and use as many as possible. The toothbrushes, toothpaste, paperclips, rolled-up paper, the side of the brush, flat brush. It's a way to really explore go of the need for outcomes. Because you can't always control masking fluid. But sometimes what you get are happy accidents. And that's part of what we're trying to embrace here. Now this is dry. We are going to feel each section with a different color that makes up any old colors really. I'm going to do this section in a bit of a cobalt, turquoise, I think it is. And maybe this section here, following the contours that we created using the edge of the masking fluid and maybe a purple. It's not meant to be a masterpiece. We're still in a test mode. Maybe this section here, It's really just to see how many different ways we can apply masking fluid because it's great to have a brush at hand, but it's also great to see what a paperclip could do for you. What's next? Maybe a green that it's merging with the purple. That's not to worry. What elsewhere, elsewhere else, maybe here. Finally in this corner, I reckon. I'm just going to go around and pick any color and fill it in. I just wanted to say there's no right or wrong way to do this. Don't think, Oh, I've got to go right up to the line. Just punk you paint on as quickly as you can. Just see what happens. Get your confidence up doing this, and then worry about it later. As you can see, there's a lot of standing wash on this particular project. This is a really good exercise for us going forward because we have to be so patient. We have to let this dry fully before we can move on to the next stage. It's now drive through. You can see where some of the colors have merged in to one another, but that's absolutely fine. Let's see how it all comes through. As you can see, I'm using the freeze mask away block to remove my drive masking fluid. And this is now my preferred method, which you'll see me use throughout the rest of this class. Although I've sped up the video, I am being careful about removing this masking fluid because the masking fluid is a little bit stickier than I'm used to. I finally managed to get it all off. There was quite a lot of masking fluid in all these different areas. One of the things that I've noticed is I was pretty heavy handed in this area here and also here. So I covered up a lot of the paper and I don't necessarily always want to do that. I think I rather prefer the effects like this where I apply the thin line. I think it was a paperclip. So it's things like this that you should be aware of. One last thing I'd like to say is this is just a test. It's not meant to look like a work of art that you can hang up. It's just for you to work out. And I've missed a bit down here to work out. Going onto the next stage, how different applicators that you use, the results, what were you get? You might apply masking fluid or a paperclip differently to me. So it's really important that you make little notes and take a good look at the results you get. Hopefully, it will all make sense once we all come to creating the projects. I would love to see your abstract piece. So please upload them as part of your class project and share which tools you enjoyed using the most. And key takeaways. 15. Day 3: Tea Cups: This was the original idea in my little mole skin. As you can see, it is just flat, simple shapes. And let the whole thing dry. And then you paint over it in a dark blue or whatever color you want to choose. Then we take that dried masking fluid off. And then we add on these little decorative lines using a pen, simple as that. But in order for you to fully understand all the negative and positive, I thought we might start by just sketching out a rough plan so that you understand what I'm talking about. I'm going to be using the slightly blue tinted PBO masking fluid so that it can show up on camera a little bit better so that you know where I'm going to apply it. I'm going to use this blue pen to show you exactly what I mean Before we start off on the project proper. So there's your sheet of paper and we are going to apply masking fluid in these areas. You see there in blue. You get that. And you only need really basic shapes. Kind of a rectangle. Everybody knows what tea cups or mugs alike, where I'm using the blue pen is where you'll be putting that masking fluid. This is just a rough plan offering apply the masking fluid and we let it dry. And then we're going to apply the background here, which is an indigo. So let's get started on anything. The shapes are pretty basic, so I'm not going to be drawing an outline in pencil. You might want to. What I would say is do leave a little bit of space for these handles because I didn't when I first did it. Let's dip our brush in that kitchen detergent or washing up liquid. I don't know what you call it in the states. Just going to rub that in, open up our masking fluid. So the first one has a slightly rounded base. I just wanted to let you know that it is incredibly hot in my living room where I'm filming this. I'm having to work a little bit faster than I would normally like to. This masking fluid is going to dry so fast. I would slow down and filming a class. But if I do, I'm not going to get the effects that I want. You might find that the masking fluid starts drying on the brush even though you've got washing up liquid on it. And that is something to be mindful of if it's incredibly hot where you are. I know it looks a little bit lumpy, but I just want to make sure that I've not left any gaps. You can see I'm not really deliberating over this at all. It's not meant to be highly finished piece, we're just testing it out. And especially if you are new to using this medium, please don't stress out over it. And the handle is going to be a little bit Angular. There we go. On the plus side being so hot the shared drive very quickly. So I'm going to leave it there for now. Now this is dry. Even this section here where I've applied a little bit thicker, I'm just making sure that nothing's gonna go pear-shaped. So I'm going to mix up indigo, which is this one here. Let me see if I just took it out. It doesn't have to be overly pigment it but it has to be quite deep because we want it to contrast against those cups. And what we're gonna do is just paint over it like that. So I'm using a fairly big brush. One thing to remember is watercolors will dry a little bit lighter. So you might want to mix up a much darker indigo. Again, having to work very fast. It is so hot in here. But it also means this will dry very fast as well. I think I want it to be just that little bit deeper. I might add a tiny bit of Payne's gray as well. While we're at it. Just to help it along. We go. So we have to wait for that to dry. And then we shall be able to peel off that masking fluid and see what happens underneath. Now it is the moment of truth and start. On this corner here. Some of the paint seems to have come through. Now, I think that is because I had a bit of the washing up liquid on the brush, but I don't mind that effect at all. It's very nice. It is very sticky. I've got a feeling. It's because the temperature is still very high in the room. I'm working in. Getting they're getting they're fabulous. I'm not going to do now is get our fine liner pen. It doesn't have to be blue. It can be black or whatever. And start making a few decorative marks on these tea cups. I think first of all, this, this top one here, too little bit of a garland here. I'm just making this up by the way, I'm not really looking at any reference. If we rose happening, I think maybe a bad, It's more like a leaf. It doesn't matter. Maybe little dots in there. Oh, that's very pretty. It's a little bit hit all the people deep. This one in my original, I painted it in and I didn't think it went with the vibe or the p. So I'm just going to use my fine liner to make these polka dots. Well done for getting to this stage. It's only our first proper project within our challenge, so please take it easy on yourself. Don't have to do anything elaborate. Just stick two stripes or polka dots if you want to progress. And success with masking fluid does take a lot of patients as you are finding out. I think in patients is often linked to expectations. Maybe you wanted this time a little bit faster, but it's taking as long as it takes. And this is going to be a reoccurring theme throughout this challenge. Now, let's take the masking tape off. Let's take a closer look at this. You can see the edges are not perfect. They have picked up the brush marks where it hasn't quite caught the paper properly. And in this part here, I haven't put the masking fluid properly on that. And so when I painted it over in the indigo, it's come through. But I really don't mind some of these effects I really think it adds to the viable this piece. I do wonder if I had chosen maybe like a pink or a gray pen to add some of the line work that would have made a really nice palette. But overall, I'm really pleased. I can't wait to see yours. 16. Day 4: Oranges : I'm going to show you the original idea, the OG, for what we're going to attempt in this video lesson. It started off with lemons and people did go a little bit of Gaga because I was using this masking fine liner. And as I showed you a little earlier, they had this needle point. Then researching for this class, I decided to use something a little bit different. Did this version, and I thought it was just a little bit too lumpy, bumpy for me. So I went back to using the fine liner, but I know many of you probably don't have it. So I've come up with a different version. This one, where I've used a dip pen and ink. I want to show you, you don't have to create some of these lines using a dip pen. So let's get started. In this instance, what might be worth doing as we are dealing with outline, is to draw very faintly. We have our pencil where we are going to be including these outlines, half slice there. And you don't have to do the same layout as me. You don't have to do oranges, you might want to do lemons. It's up to you. We've got a whole orange here and I liked having a stalk with leaves coming off it because I liked the pop of green. I'm using a mixture of whole oranges, sliced oranges, quartered oranges, and little segments just to fill up this space in a really balanced pattern, almost masking fluid, washing up liquid. I'm going to try and show you a few different ways of applying the line. When I first started using the dip pen, I thought it was my favorite way. But I don't want you to feel that limited by that. So I'll just start off by using the dip pen. I'm going to leave the leaves because I'm actually going to use a brush for that. I'm just going to do this last orange outline and then I'm going to try and switch over to some other applicators. See what happens. I'm just going to add some little dots. Pencil, pencil, sharpener, paperclip. That's not too bad, but I don't have very much control, as much control as obviously holding a dip pen set. But that looks nice. What I will do is use a very thin brush. Then here, that's pretty good. I think this is a really good alternative. It really is up to you what applicator you want to use. You can use the frisk fine liner if you have that or you can have a small brush dip pen, you might want to swap and change like you've seen me doing here, depending on how you feel. Okay, so that's the outlines done. I do want to add the leaves now. These and these, and also I want to fill in the inside of the slices. Now in my original, I just did them as outlines, but I just wanted to play around a bit more with my brush. I just wanted to make a series of strokes. Not too many. It's probably a little bit too much, but just so that I'm it looks like little tool indications of segments on what I'm doing is going from the inside out and pressing a little bit harder, going out towards the outer rim. Don't want to touch that outline. That's what I did in one of the tests and I didn't think it looked as nice. I'm filling up the negative space. So the space around, or the orange pieces with tiny segments of orange. This has now dried very nicely. Just double-check everything. And you can see the line work is slightly different where I applied it with a dip pen and where I applied it with a very small brush. The next stage, we're going to paint all of this in a yellowy, orange and red colors I recommend for that. Or cadmium yellow and cadmium orange. Just really roughly. So let's just get started on this. So I'm i'll, I'll show you what I mean. So there's a bit of orange there, and next to that. It's gonna be a bit of yellow. Maybe I'll even add a bit of the Winsor yellow or a lemon yellow. And we do want to keep it very, very vibrant. Don't water down your watercolors too much because we want these oranges to really seeing what I want to do to add a bit of dimensionality to some of my whole oranges is just to dab a bit more orange pigment to maybe some of the outside areas. And because it's dam pit will keep spreading like that. Which one? It's going to look fabulous and the worry too much about filling it beautifully. And that is all we're gonna do for now. We just have to let it dry. And then I will show you the next stage. Now this initial orange wash has dried. We want to add a green wash in the negative space around all the orange pieces. I'll show you what I mean. What I need to mix up is a dark green and I'm using the radiant here, tiny bit of Payne's gray just to deepen it. And also some sap green. You want to avoid going inside the masking fluid lines? I know I keep saying it, but do be mindful of the weather conditions when you are painting this, I, I'm finding I'm having to work a lot, lot faster in order because I do like it when the pigments merge together. And in order to achieve that, I'm having to just really get my skates on so that I can, um, I'm gonna show you in a minute if I was to pick up, just to emphasize my point, if I was just to pick up a sap green on my brush and add it here. Because I want it to merge with the sum of the viridian already on here. I have to introduce it fast before the pigment start drying and then it won't produce some of the lovely effects that I love to cultivate. Now, we have to let this green layer dry before we have our big reveal. And I'm sure it is going to be totally worth it. Just going to check certain areas are dry because if they're not wind up spreading watercolor over my painting and I don't want that. I am satisfied that it is fully dry, so I'm Let's make a start. So this orange was one that I applied with a brush. And I remember this orange was one that I applied with a dip pen. And I noticed when I was applying the green wash in particular, it was easier to go around the lines applied with a dip pen. So that's something worth noting for future reference. And overall, I don't think that there is very much difference in quality. Masking tape off. There is just one last thing we need to do and that is to fill in the storks and the leaves and the various quarter slice as well. So first of all, I'm going to mix up a bright green. I think I'm going to use a little bit of Winsor yellow or just a cadmium yellow as a base and add a drop of sap green. And that should be enough. And you can see how it does contrasts nicely against that dark background. So I'm glad we did go in as dark as we did. Here's the finished piece. Few of the bits are still drying, but you get an overall feel for how it's going to turn out. And I'm really thrilled with it is a very jolly piece. I love the contrast between the dark green background and the light green of the stems and the leaves. I just want to pause here between these two whole oranges, the one on the left and the one on the right. They were outlined using a dip pen on the brush. If you may remember, there are advantages and disadvantages for using them. I think one of the things that I learned was with the dip pen, it was easier to paint around it when I was applying that green background. However, I really love that quality of line. So it's really up to you and dependent on what tools you have. 17. Day 5: Pebbles : I'd actually been wanting to create pebbles like this using masking fluid for a long time because I've got quite a collection of pebbles like these. I pick them up from North Devon. I think it's probably granted with halts veining. Although this might be calcite, it just looks a bit different. That's the geology nerd coming through. So if I show you my tester version, I actually created to this one and this one using masking fluid on the background here and within the stones here and then painting in the background. But I've decided for this video lesson, we're going to go with this one just so that you are clear about where we're going to be putting the masking fluid. I'm just going to draw you a quick diagram of what I intend to do. I'm just going to draw some quick shapes. You might like to do this with a pencil when it comes to the actual watercolor paper. But I'm just doing this to demonstrate. So you can make your pebbles look a lot nicer than that. What we're gonna do is apply masking fluid to the background here where I'm using blue pen. That will leave us with the white paper sharing. In these areas here. Those areas, we will be adding bluish beige, brown, watercolor. And also to create these veins, we're going to use either a dip pen or paperclip or something to create this veining. And that will mask off the white paper. And that is what is showing through so brilliantly in this example. That is a basic plan of what we're going to do. I hope that makes sense. I'm going to start by drawing just using the faintest or pencil outlines, really irregular pebble shapes. And they can be long and thin or very rounded. Um, also, I like to have a few coming off the page. Just as irregular as you like really. Maybe they look too much like potatoes. Okay, right, I'm going to start graphing. Let's dip my paintbrush in there, get some of that excess washing up liquid off, start on the background trying to do this fairly accurately, but it doesn't matter if you go over some of the lines. I think it will probably add to that slightly irregular quality. Just fill this in as quickly as we can and then I can move on to the veining where we can have a little bit more fun. I picked up a bit too much there. I don't want it to be too blobby. Try to apply relatively evenly. Again, I'm having to do this ever so fast because it's absolutely boiling in my living room. Okay, let's give this brush, wash immediately. Get my other instruments. These are the different tools that I am going to apply masking fluid to represent the veining of those pebbles. We've got here the dip pen, that silicon shaper, a busted brush, where I've allowed the masking fluid to stick on it too fresh and also a paperclip. I think it'd be interesting to see how the different lines look. First off, let's try this paperclip and you can have this vein in going in all different directions. Has nice and I do want different thicknesses, so I'm going to pick up something different in a little bit, maybe going there to know if that last one could be a little bit thicker. Yeah. Does that too. I don't know if that's a bit obvious. Anyway, doesn't matter. We'll see. Now, let's use the silicon shape. Like this. It looks like I can't hold very much on that. Maybe I'll go back to using the paperclip. I wanted something intersecting. May be about there. Granite is actually igneous rock walls by lava many, many, many millions of years ago. It's formed granite under a lot of pressure. I'm sure you didn't need to know that, but you learn something new every day, don't you? I want something intersecting here. Maybe I think that'd be nice. And you can see that I'm using all the different tools here just to see, I'm always curious. I don't think that I think this particular toothbrushes a little bit too pointy. So I'm just going to break a bit off. Yes, that's much better. Might be a bit thick that one. Never mind. Never mind. One thing I haven't used as the tip pen. Let's do a line that goes here. Dip pen line here, when the granite is pushed up onto the surface, it gets weathered down. These are found on the beach so it's been rounded off by the actions of the waves. Yeah. I don't want an OH down here. Almost missed him. To the dip pen. Do that and that. Let's let this dry now. Give this a little touch and make sure it's all dry. Some of these lines were just that little bit thicker, so I'm just satisfied that they are fully dry. As I mentioned before, these rocks are granite and they are varying shades of Louis brownish color. I've got this leftover ultramarine. Now it wasn't indigo from the cup, so I'm going to mix up some of that, which is a good base. And to that I'm going to add a little bit of brown, or that's already a good one. Tiny bit warmer, maybe a bit of maroon. Anyway, let's just start applying a bit. So I'm going to do this on random stones. And maybe this one here and pick it up again. Drop of Payne's gray now. And maybe this stone is going to be more blue. And I'm just going to vary like that really. We do still have to think a little bit about contrast. I want the stains to be a little bit darker compared to that background. And whilst they're wet, we can still play around with it. Payne's gray, maybe this one and this one. More of the burnt sienna. Some of these, I think I am going to have to bump up the contrast. So it means adding a bit more concentrated pigment quickly before it starts drying too much in this very unseasonable heat wave in the UK. Well, that one looks good, that looks good. That's the kind of effect I'm after because I really want, just want the pigments to mix on the page rather than create anything that's flat. Well, that's my intention anyway. I mean, you can do, do your pebbles however you want to prove that one could be nice. Very nice. Maybe a bit of that color coming into this pebble here and here. And you can see just here where it's overlapping. Don't don't worry too much about it because you've marked that off. It's not going to show up. We got the great reveal afterwards. Just want to bump up a few parts with added pigment. Hold on. I'm just going to add a touch more blue there. I think that's it, right? I'm gonna stop laughing. Otherwise, I'm going to be overworking it. That's all we need to do. These things have dried beautifully with a fair bit of texture, although I probably overworked some of them and the texture hasn't quite developed as I hoped, but never mind that. Start taking it off. All we can see the veins coming through. Wow. Oh my gosh. Isn't that one really, really effective? This is really hard, right? I think I found a technique that works well. It's little dabei movement. I would say take it off slowly. But for some reason this dabbing movement is a lot more effective at taking off the masking fluid. You can hear me puffing whilst doing this. Oh my gosh. I'm absolutely thrilled. You can leave your piece just as it is. But if you want to add just an extra layer of dimensionality, we can add a shadow in the same area for each day. And I'm just going to mix up her leftovers of what I've got here and a tiny bit of that maroon. Um, let's say the light is coming from up here. So all the shadows will hit it over here. So I'm just going to add a wash and just add it to the same side of the stone. I'm absolutely thrilled with how these pebbles have turned out it being such good fun. I would really love to do a variation where the stones are maybe a little bit more blue or a little bit more pink. There's loads of scope for continuing this. 18. Day 6: Hawthorn Blossom: Today we have this Hawthorne's rig originally in my little book of experiments. And here's another version that I created in order to try and work out and what tools we could use because I did use a dip pen to recreate some of the stems here. I think we could probably use a paperclip, maybe a toothpick. So let's try using a few different tools here and let's see what happens. Hawthorn, I don't want to be penciling in every single blossom or leaf. So what I'm gonna do is basically indicate a rough area where the majority of the Hawthorne xy is kind of an oval or round oval. And we've got a bit of a stalk happening here, something like that. And there's a little grouping of Hawthorne's. This is something that I picked up in a local walk earlier this year. And so what we're gonna do is use a Q-tip again to create the individual blossoms. I'm going to show you what I mean. It's a very basic petal formation, 12345, not the best shaped one. Hold on. Let me do another one here. And then we fill in the middle. We want to leave a little bit of space in-between. Nothing regular. They won't be perfect, but they will look really cute. I promise you. Now that we're getting towards the outer edges where the blossoms will start sort of being seen on the side and there's a bit of foreshortening happening. I'm just going to start using just single tips of the Q tip. And then we're going to add another few fancy things. Okay, There's a few more down here. Maybe there's only about 45 whole ones. So I'll show you what I started doing. And then I'm going to show you some alternatives to using a dip pen. If you don't have one or if you don't fancy using one. So the stems are basically, they're very delicate. Mean Hawthorne's come out in the spring, so I was adding them in the background. And there also Hawthorne leaves in amongst some of these areas. And so the stems are literally, if you can imagine that coming off a central stem and they're just going up through here. Like so. If you don't have a dip pen, I reckon you could use a toothpick. Ten that's going up to a leaf. I'll paint it in, in a minute. They're going to look really nice. What else could I use? I had an idea. It was this silicon brush. Let's see how that looks bad either. Yeah, I want to make sure that there's enough stems, teeny-weeny, delicate stems going up. So it tells the story. And also towards the edges with all the foreshortening, there were little buds as well, so I'm just going to add a series of dots there. I think. Tell you walked there was, I think it's the stamens, the little Tufty bits that come out of the flower. I gave my piece sort of suggestions. The smell lovely in the springtime when I go out for a walk and the birds love the berries in the autumn. Go back to using my brush at these little tufts a lot faster. But I hope I've given you enough choices. That pencil outline that you saw me draw. It's only a guide. I'm going to go outside of it just because I can see it gives you that sort of scattered sprig like feel, right? And now we're going to fill in the actual twig and all the stems grow off. So I'm going back to using the silicon. I just, um, I think I used a brush originally to apply it, but I just wanted to see what this instrument does. I'm just gonna go over and swap to a brush. Let's make sure that I've got it dipped in washing up liquid. It just gives a bit more of a variety of line that this area here is just a little bit too regular for me. These particular hawthorn bushes are very narrowly like the kind of old and twisted, right? So moving on to the leaves that Oswald's next, I'm just gonna do a basic, some basic strokes and Hawthorne leaves a little bit more involved in this, but I'm just doing three strokes. And again, I've gone back to my brush. I'm coming from the stem working outwards. I'm just trying to fill up a bit of negative space around here as well. And maybe few more leaves up here just to balance it out a bit. There is a bit of a space here which I'm not keen on. So I'm going to fill that with just dabbling a few more little areas of masking fluid just to break up some of that space. This is nice and dry now, to give you a little test, even these slightly blobby ones are absolutely fine now. So we are going to paint in the background quite a deep green, but we're gonna be mixing up a few different green. It's gonna be a, a sap green. Again, we're going to have to use quantile lot of pigment because we want the contrast against the creaminess of the blossom also have viridian. I don't want to be overworking it because I personally like seeing all the textures. That's just me. It's up to you how you want to produce the background. I want to preserve some of the weird textures that are gonna be created because I'm adding all different types of greens and maybe a bit of yellow at, while I'm at it in amongst where the majority of the blossoms are, I do want it to be just that little bit more darker so that it really contrasts and they'll show up so much better. I might just add a little a 3D in here. Tiny bit of ultramarine. Perfect. I think that's where I'm going to leave it. I was really, really careful about this one because there was an area here and here which was just taking forever to dry. So I've been very patient. But now it's time for my favorite part. Fantastic. Now I am finding that removing the masking fluid today is much easier because it's a little bit cooler. So I'm I'm thankful for that. Oh, it's really picked up on all those little marks and the brushstrokes, the little stems as well. I'm going to add the, the middle part of the blossoms. It was a pale yellowy orange colors. Just in the middle of a few of them. Bit too much. That's going to take ages to dry. I don't want I don't want to wait. I'm impatient. That's making such a difference already, really is. And some down here as well, Let's pick up a tiny bit more. Now, we are going to mix up a slightly lighter green almost here. That's for the leaves and the stems. We want it to be quite a bright green, yellow. So I'm mixing up some of the sap green with a yellow and just adding it to some of the leaves. I mean, some parts of the leaves, I'm going to leave some of it white, just the very tips there. I'm going to add some of this yellow to the leaves just to echo that slight warmth. We are going to fill in those stems in just a bit. Alright, stems. We only need to use the tip of our brush and just basically fill in the white areas. Don't be too heavy handed. Because if you apply too much watercolor, they will start reacting with the background, which we don't want. Just a few over here. And that's just enough green that green is perfect just for picking out against the background. And now for a tiny bit of brown, for the twig, all that's too much water that down. That's better. Slight dabbing illness, extra pigment just there. And that will diffuse, um, very nicely. There were tiny little dots. I don't know what you call it at the end of the stamens. Once I start doing it, you understand what I'm trying to say? So I'm not trying to create a perfect circle around these. I'm using an orange unit ball in one of my original versions, 0 and this tan leaf mold on must fill that in. Okay, Now I'm happy. I used brown but I felt that made it look. I'm knocked back a bit. So I wanted to add that extra super-duper pot with some orange. And I think I personally think it works much better, but you might like to try Brown. I just suddenly thought what would have been nice if I splattered a bit of masking fluid using a toothbrush in this area here just to break it up. Never mind, I might do. That might be something for you to consider as you watch this class. If you do, please post it in the gallery. All right, Let's take this section off. Let's see how it's framed it. Wow, just wow. I am absolutely thrilled with this. It's so pretty, really pretty and I think the use of orange has really pulled that the blossoms forward. So overall, I think that's a fantastic one. There's something really magical about it. It's like a part of a enchanted Hawthorne Sprague. It looks like it should be able to open a door or something. I'm going off on one there. But I hope you do enjoy creating new version and please upload it to your project. 19. Day 7: Whale Shark: Today we're going to look at whales. This is the two that created in my little sketch book, way back in 2020. And I think for us, it will be easiest to attempt to do this one because it basically is just a series of dots being applied onto the back of this whale shark. It has really distinctive markings. And I did another version in order to work on a methodology that would be as easy as possible for you guys to follow. I'm going to show you how I created some of these dots. And this was just a warm-up for me as well. And I realized that some of the dots weren't small enough. So I've come up with few ways that we can look at this. You saw that whale shark, it was overhead angle and it makes for a very distinctive silhouette defined just to kind of a vague S shape. Let's pretend y, That's basically the line of this whale shark spine. And we're just going to draw around that. So first of all, will be the tip of its head and it's very large. When I was trying to sketch out various versions of it, it's like, oh my goodness, it's quiet, quiet a beast. And it is one of my dreams to swim with a whale shark, possibly in Maldives, Philippines, or even off the coast of Burma one day. Because we've drawn that slight S and we can just kind of follow it to create this wave, want to create something really dynamic so that you get the idea. It's moving, gliding through open water, okay, and now the fins, they start about here and here. Doesn't know if they stick out a bit too much. Yeah, I think that's a better angle actually. Alright, I got to stop fracking. Now, what we're gonna do first is apply these distinctive markings. And as I said, I did this test version. Basically the markings go across the majority of its body like this, apart from in the tail and the fins and the front of his head, where it gets a lot smaller, which I've neglected to do here. So this is what something that I must try to incorporate in this version here. What I'm going to use our Q-tips deep in there, not too much. I don't want it kinda dripping off the press quite hard. In order to create the round shape. I'm not gonna go into its fin just yet. It's coming up. As we come into the tail, I think we're going to have to switch to a different tool. One of my busted brushes, dots like that, that's much better. If I can find my paperclip, I can make the tiniest little dots with that. Perhaps. Now I can start thinking about the thin, the smaller dots go on the outsides. Looking at the head of this whale shark can think it just a little bit to Stout. I need to extend it just a tiny bit further because fortunately, I'm not sure if that's quite right. Just a suggestion of a tail as well. They're not evenly spaced. It's very irregular. Let's go back in with a Q-Tip on fill that remaining space. Getting a little bit more irregular. Only touching that surface of the paper, the Q tip to try and create slightly smaller dots. I do want to take a look at this tale though. In my initial version there is a suggestion of a tail that kind of just fades into the depths. Right? I think I'm just going to add a suggestion of a tail like that. Sorry, I'm bit of a nerd. When it comes to sea life, maybe it's that x scuba diver in me. We're going to let this dry now and come back to it. I'll show you what to do next. If I refer back to this initial little test that I did, we aren't gonna be applying watercolor into layers. First of all, we're going to wash to the inside of the whale so it makes his body. Then we have to let it dry. And then we're gonna do some negative painting so that it will pick out the body and they'll contrast against the much lighter skin of his body. Two layers dry, and then we will remove the masking fluid. So I'm going to use turquoise. Lets just a light wash. You can use any sort of blue, really. We're going to keep it fairly light, but not too light, so it doesn't contrast against the white of the paper once we take off that masking fluid and you can go over the lines. Because remember I said we're going to be negative painting it in. You'll make more sense later on. Trust me. So there's that initial wash. I know it looks like an absolute mess at the moment, but it will come good. And then I'm going to add a little bit of Payne's gray to that. And I'm going to use this to create a slightly darker shade on the left side of its body. Just following it around. I can just see the pencil line under this. Now that our first layer of wash on the body of the whale is dry, we can add the background. So what we're talking about is the actual Deep Blue Sea. And for that we are going to need something that is much, much darker. So you can use a indigo, Payne's gray. We do need to have a fair whack mixed up. First of all, I'm gonna get right up close to the body of the whale. And you can see it didn't really matter where you had gone over the lines. And I can't work out what I'll do with this fin. Looks like I decided to bring it up to here. I'm not going to go round and outline the whole lot just yet. We concentrate on this side, just try and get in bulk of color in amongst here. Oh, the other thing you might have noticed was what's happened to the masking tape. I decided that I quite liked the free flow pattern of it. I didn't want it constrained in a box. Now I'm going to turn it upside down so that I can do this side of the body without consulting myself. Rest really, really quickly because I'm, as I keep referring to the climatic conditions, it is very, very hot and I still want the paint to behave in a certain way. So that while I love that, the textures that we will be able to achieve, right? And now it just going to fill in as much of this surrounding see as we can before the watercolor completely dries and I won't be able to create any sort of Kali flowering affects the area immediately next to the skin. I want to just really darken up. I'm just going to do the same on this side because there's not gonna be enough contrast to really make this whale pop. So it gives a better indication of the sun hitting this whale's back, filtering through the water. And it's silhouetted against the Indian Ocean or something. I'm taking a look at my whale from a certain angle. If you get down really, really close, almost to the level of the table top, you can see like this blob of watercolor which hasn't dried. I'm going to have to be really patient and let that dry properly. Because if we start trying to rub off the masking fluid, it is going to start merging. Finally, that part of the tail has dried. I have triple checked it because I don't want anything smearing across here. Let's start off taking the masking fluid dots. Well, that looks absolutely fab not fair for Q-tips and whatever it was, the tail does look rather fab I'm glad I waited until I don't know quite what's happening here. I think, you know, what did happen? I change my mind about the shape of the shark so it looks like I've gone over the thin, but that can be easily rectified, makes up a bit more of that Payne's gray and I really love it. I really love it and there's nothing much more that I can do to it because I'm going to just admire it. Now. If we look really carefully, you can see there is a bit of a faint pencil line, but I do not have a problem with that. There's a lovely, lovely movement. I really hope you enjoy creating your version. Please don't forget to upload it as part of your project. I look forward to seeing them. 20. Day 8: Spaghetti : This pan of pasta. I did not draw that circle freehand. I actually just drew around the base of a mug here. So that's the first thing that we're gonna do. If I took all the pens out of it first, we need to leave a little bit of space for the handle. I think I'm going to position it about here. We go. That'll do. And always coming off at an angle like a skillet handle. Now, we're going to do a rough indication of a sprig of basil and cherry tomatoes. They're not massive tomato. I'm not going to be drawing in the actual lines of spaghetti. When I did my original pasta, I used a dip pen, but I think we could very likely use a monkey brush. Sorry, I keep coming up with different ways of saying dilapidated old brush. Let's just see how the lines look. They're not too bad. And when you start drawing in the lines, you just want them to be contouring around. I'm sure many of you have seen spaghetti and the way sort of weaves in and out. Let's see what else we can do. What about the paperclip? Very handy so far. Now you see the masking fluid is obviously running out towards the end. So maybe I won't continue with that. This silicon brush. I'm going to move back to my monkey brush. I really love this part. It's almost like mindfulness for me where I'm just creating these curved lines. It might be something that you're not used to. So please be patient and compassionate with yourself. I'm going to paint masking fluid over the basil and the tomatoes because I don't want any of the beige of the spaghetti ending up on there. Just taking my brush, dipping it in that washing up liquid, pop it in here. When these are dry, it will make a bit more sense. Now you're probably wondering, ah, there is always a method to my madness. Oh, I've missed out a bit of spaghetti here. You can see if I can just using the tip of my brush. Now, the last thing to do is the very edge of the pan. And it's up to you how you want to mask this area. I'm just going to use my slightly dodgy brush. Just following that pencil line where I drew around the mug. We are going to start painting in the pasta. So we're going to need, I would say, oh, Corey yellow. I had a tiny bit of gold to that. Okay. Um, let's see how this goes on. That's probably a little bit too much. Just water that down a bit. And we can pretty much go over the whole thing in this. Then we will add a little few areas of contrast. There were still a little bit of blue left on that thrush. Hopefully, it will still read as pasta, where you see the pasta weaving in and out. I'm just going to add a little bit of brown just to help the viewer understand that it was doing all that weaving in and out. This will help deliver that message. Not everywhere, just a few places, a bit more burnt sienna maybe just to help things along. So that's that bit. And now we need to paint in the background of the pan. Oh no, that's the wrong gold. That's a gold brown. A bit with the Van **** brown. Just be mindful not to go over that masking fluid line. At this stage, we will fill that in, but not just yet. You can see that I've just gone over the handle and we're going to let dry initially and then we're going to go over it again. I know it sounds a little bit involved, but I think the results would be worth it. If we take a look at it right now, I know it looks like a absolute hot mess. But once it's dry and we are able to put on another layer, I promise it will look so much better. We have this and assuming it looks like a bowl of pasta at the moment, but it will soon going to become a pan of pasta. Let's take off that masking fluid line and see what we've got happening underneath. Oh, look at that. Oh, you know what I've done? I started rubbing out outline of that pan out. I didn't mean to do that, so be mindful of that. It's not quite time to start rubbing out the masking fluid you've got around the pan. So when I'm painting that bit, I'm going to have to be really super mindful. Just take it easy. I think I was so enthusiastic about removing is like I just, I just wanted to see what was underneath. I have to curve my enthusiasm. I am going to admire the pasta's strands. They have worked very effectively. I feel so. I'm jolly pleased about that. In terms of adding the tomatoes, Let's start off with just a light red wash. I can just see the edge of that basil leaf, so I don't want to go over that. I'm going to add a dab of yellow. We're going to have to let this dry a tiny bit. But we're going to be doing a few other things in the meantime, while we wait for this tomato to dry, we don't want to add the green of the basil just yet. Otherwise it's just going to merge and our hard work would have been spoilt. We also have to add the handle of the pan. If I show you my test version also, the pan is very dark, so we want to add that dark interior. And that's why I said don't rub out masking line that is around the PAM. We going to mix up the darkest brown. You can just go into the edge of the pasta. I know there are areas where I did rub it out. So I have to be very careful there. I think by now, you would have noticed that the actual painting doesn't take that long. It's waiting for everything to dry. And it's almost like an exercise in meditation. Just being present for all the little quirks of working with this medium, right? It's here. It is, just here where I accidentally pulled off the masking fluid. Right. I'm happier with that. Right. I've got to stop fluffing. The handle comes next. I can just see it here. I'm just literally following the outline. It's not that hard. I'm trying to I'm rushing too much and too excited. Handle it looks a bit odd. I'm just not quite balanced. I don't know if it's quite in the middle. If it isn't, isn't there's not much I can do. Now. Payne's gray to this. Just hear a shadow just along this edge here. Right? I completely forgot I haven't gotten the masking fluid there and I just when I read, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Loosen that up by adding a bit more water. I think that's it. And in the meantime, our tomatoes have dried very nicely, so we can go back to them now with a much brighter, vibrant red. So that's kinda like the outer edge of the tomato and it does this business. So I'm just going to go ahead and paint in the basil now. The basil is just a lovely, vibrant green. I'm going to be very mindful not to let it touch the red that's still wet. Otherwise, it's not gonna be a vibrant green. It's dropping a bit more sap green because there's just not quite enough contrast. That's better, That is much, much better. I think that one needs to be a little bit more pointy. We're going to let that dry again. And final thing would peel off is that outer rim. Here we have the dry pan of pasta. And as I mentioned just before, I want to rub off this rim, the edge of the pasta pen. If I go very carefully, I have learned my lesson throughout this project. Can you see the wonderful line that is starting to show through? And that's why I was a little bit annoyed at myself that I removed it. This is a really good example where you could not achieve that level of whiteness if you painted on white. I think overall, it works really, really well. I know there were a lot of stages and I lost my patients in a fit of enthusiasm. But I'm gonna be able to live with this. 21. Day 9: Daisy Meadow: This is the closest thing I have, the closest equivalent to what I want to achieve with this next project. It's daisies in a field, but I want it to go back into the distance. And I'm going to draw you a little diagram of what I mean. This is based on a walk. I took a photo of the landscape and it was so pretty, I want to divide this into kind of quarters, I think are thirds. So this section here, the daisies or the nearest us, will be the largest. We shall use a large brush for that. The daisies in this section of our landscape will be a little bit smaller and we shall use a slightly smaller brush for that. And as we go off into the distance, the daisies are obviously will be getting smaller. I'm thinking Q-tips, applying the masking fluid with a toothbrush, even getting to this section here, I'm going to change to a pencil because I don't want you getting mixed up with what I'm intending. The landscape stops about here. There was a grove of trees and I can just fill that in with watercolor. And then this section here was skies. Take my large brush detergent on it. First of all, I think what I need to do is decide where the daisies are going to be by just mapping it out using the middle of each daisy as a guard just quite randomly like that. I'm gonna be creating the petals going around like that. Starting from the middle. If you've ever seen in a field of daisies, they, they are just pretty dense and they're all over the place and nature isn't neat. Necessarily. The ones at the front in particular will have to be very dense and then they, they may appear to be thinning out as your eyes travel. So now I'm going to have the daisies a little bit further apart. And you may be able to see a few stems. And let's pick up the smaller brush now and do the same but obviously, slightly smaller scale. Must rinse out my brushes. Just want to add a few hints of stem here. Just all at different angles really. And then I'm going to add the rest of the daisies. I've just had this idea. How about if I use a Q-tip now at the middles? Now how that would look? Um, hold on. Let me think. Alright, Just a few more stems I think. Because we're coming up to the middle mark where I want to start having the Daisy's going off into the distance. Just feel these bits in and then I'm going to add the petals using my small brush. I'm just going to draw in where I think the tree line should start. Maybe that's a little bit too high up. Yeah, I think that's a bit too high up. Stay the treeline about here. So the trees will extend roughly two here and then the rest is sky. So I'm going to fill up to the pencil line here. We've just Q tip. When you're using your Q-tip, don't try to fill up the spaces evenly, do it really random. And there's a few negative spaces in-between the daisies at the front, so fill those up as well. Oh gosh, how did that fit this in there? When you're using a toothbrush, it can be very, very random. I think the best thing is to go over it several times to really get a good splatter effect. Now we have to let the whole lot dry before we continue onto the next stage. It should be fairly straightforward to fill in the green section, which is the background pretty much apart from the sky, which will be in this section here. And this will be a line of trees, the green, we'll start off quite a dark. We have a lot of pigment and then it will slowly become lighter as we reach the treeline here. So let's mix up some greens, a bit of the sap green, and some of my viridian. Starting down here. I don't want it to be flat, so I'm just applying it pretty quickly and I'm going to add a little bit of yellow now just to this section here. And then we're gonna go a little bit lighter again as we reach that treeline. And while this green is still wet, I'm going to add a few other greens, maybe a gold green, maybe the Winsor green. Because I like a bit of variety. I think that will do. I don't want to overwork it. Right. So now I'm going to deal with the trees which when I observed them were pretty dark and mixup that radian and the sap green again, it was quite dark against that field. I think that's it for now. We're going to let this dry and see how it looks. Just looking carefully at my daisy field and there are two patches of watercolor which are still drawing off. I must make sure that I don't start doing any peeling off while the watercolor is still drawing. Otherwise I'm going to really mess it up. This is looking really great. I like how the larger petals have taken up so much space in the foreground. And now we're moving on to the slightly smaller daisies behind them. Look, the stems worked really well. That was the dip pen. This is getting into the distance and I really love that. The sparkly effect here, I think that's gorgeous. Just rub anything else that might be in that tree line? Great. Oh, that looks marvelous. I really am ever say pleased. This is very similar to what I imagined in my head, which is always a bonus. The next step, I think is to fill the yellow centers of each Daisy. So that's pretty simple. I'm just going to use a little bit of cadmium yellow and just start here. That's really made such a difference already. I think I will add a touch of cadmium orange just to give a little bit of dimensionality. Obviously they're going to start getting a bit smaller as you go off into the distance r. This has made such a difference, hasn't it? Just adding these centers looks absolutely gorgeous, marvelous. Or you could just leave that skies it is, but I think I will add a touch of blue. Just going to wet that using just plain, plain water and bit of the Winsor blue. I think that'll do. Really pleased with that. Done, let's just finish that off there. Wonderful. Wow, this has turned out better than I imagined. I'm so thrilled with the sparkly effect of the toothbrush there. And overall, I think it really does remind me of that walk I took along that from isfield a few months back. 22. Day 10: Fruit and Vegetables in Mesh Bag: These are the two most successful versions of this project that I created. I had a lot of issues trying to work out how to get the effect that I wanted the string bag with the fruit inside it and I finally worked it out. It is a little bit more complex. I'm going to draw you a little diagram first. So the first stage is applying the mesh section of the mesh bag. So I'm gonna be doing some handles. And the mesh bag is roughly like this diamond type shapes. Well, we can do your own version, but it's going to look roughly like this when we apply the masking fluid. Then we wait for that masking fluid to dry. And then within all the sections we will apply watercolors. So pretend this is melon, oranges or lemons, carrots, whatever we decide, and then we have to wait for the watercolor to dry. Once that's happened, we go back to the masking fluid and we are going to apply the masking fluid over the watercolors. Sounds really complicated, but I think the results are going to be worth it. And then we go over the whole lot once it's all dry in black or brown or whatever color you wish, and the results should be similar to this. The first thing we're going to paint on the handles. And I shall be using a brush for that. And then I will change to a dip pen to create these. But you can carry on using a small brush, whatever your preference is. Let's dip this in here. I must be mindful to rinse it out straight away. I realized that I hadn't rinsed out two of my brushes, so I'm a little bit annoyed with myself because they are now unusable. I wanted to do to sort of loops. Will be the one in the front. And then I think that needs to extend a little bit further. And on this side, the handle back. And I'm sort of a bar across there like that. Okay. Rinse it out. Must keep remembering to rinse out my brushes straight afterwards. I think I'm going to need a bit of a pencil outline to just help me with the positioning of the bag. Again, it's gonna be a little bit skew with this is just a guide so that I know where to put my dip pen lines to the extent starting about here. Another one needs to go. There is no exact if you feel like you need to add some pencil lines before you start this part of the process then by all means, do so. Okay, and now we've got to go the other way. And it's going to make kind of a diamond shape, right? The last thing that I'm going to do is just outline the edge of the bag. And I'm going to create these little sort of, it's not a straight line. I'm joining up where the ends of the line meet because I have a mesh bag and it looks similar to this. So it gives a better impression that it's a certain type of bag. Now this has dried wonderfully. I'm going to just give the pencil outline of my fruit and veg inside my mesh bag. You can do what ever fruit and veg you want. And you can just do a bag of lemons or carrots, even bread and wine or something. Obviously as a food illustrator, and I like my fruit and veg. So maybe that's a bit of melon, doesn't have to be exact. It mean it's going to be a very easy version. Here. I think it's gonna be an orange, lemon. They don't have to be to scale as long as they're recognizable, lemon, um, carrots. And in this space here, I think there's room for an OB gene or eggplant. I've got some space up here, so probably do some tomatoes just to fill up that space. Should be little bits of green coming up the Cara, I think. Now I'm just going to mix up some basic colors to pop in there. Obviously, read the watermelon slice that I've got there. You do want them to be pretty vibrant, but don't forget that you can mix. Pigments upon the page. So I'm just going to leave a little gap there for the green of the rind. Add a tiny drop of the gender there. So I'm just using a Winsor red. First of all, I shall add the the green when I include the greens of the carrot tops, I think, Oh, while I'm at it, I should do the red of the tomatoes. They were here. And you can see as applying them. In theory, the pigment can not go where we've already added masking fluid line. This is the orange. Just mixing up a bit more red for the terrorists. All that's probably a bit too much now, lemon left. We're just looking at flat shapes. I'm not trying to do anything elaborate here. So the OB gene is gonna be like a purply, purplish red. Now, I said I was going to add some green sections. Let's do all in one go now. Dropping a tiny bit of the Winsor yellow, just to make it a tiny bit more vibrant. The green is going on too. Rind of the watermelon, the carrot tops, and also the stalk of the overseen storks to the tomatoes. Now told do. Now the fruit areas have fully dry and I can paint over them using the masking fluid. Let me just make sure my brush is primed. I have to go right to the edge of each of the fruit so it covers it completely. Don't forget the green areas as well. I can see there's a tiny space that are left in there. Must be mindful that because it again, it's dreadfully hot. India. It's drying very fast. So I'm going to have to speed up my application. So now we have to let this dry completely. The masking fluid on top of the watercolor vegetables has dried. We can now add the background color, which is going to be a very, very dark blue for me, a Payne's gray, It's one of my favorites. You can use black or dark brown or dark green, whatever you wish. This is a daunting moment I have to say to make sure that you add a lot of pigment to your wash. Because we really want a dark background in order for our fruit and vegetables. And the pattern or the mesh to really show up against that dark background. It will make such a difference and give lots of impact. Finally dried and I am hoping for the best. Removing this section of the watermelon. I can see that I didn't quite cover it up. Just tiny sections there. But I can live with that. Let's see what else is revealed. For the orange. Looks good. Here's the lemon. There's a few streets in there. The tomatoes. They look quite good. This overseen. All that's coming out very nicely. Lovely. I must admit initially, when I started taking off the masking fluid, I saw these streaks of Payne's gray where obviously I hadn't gone over it properly with the masking fluid and I felt. But what I really think it adds to the quirkiness, to the idiosyncrasies of masking fluid. It is not a perfect medium. This particular project does have a lot more processes, which means more patients, but I really do think the results are going to be totally worth it. So please consider uploading your version to the project gallery. 23. Final Thoughts: I know I have taken you through a very lengthy series of projects from the humble test sheets to quite complex projects. I'm hoping now you can get past any masking fluid challenges and start exploring under your own steam. Perhaps like me, you will soon fall in love with a unique marks and textures you can create using this medium and inspire a whole world of possibilities. Please don't forget to upload your projects to the class gallery. You can upload a few at a time if you like, and I will try and give you feedback. It would be really helpful for me to hear how you felt about the process and the outcomes throughout the ten days. I am so excited to see all of them. I want to show you the original version of the mesh bag. It started off as a bag of lemons, but it didn't quite look right. And I tried so many different variations to get the order of the masking fluid right before we settled on this one. And as you can see, I have to go through many, many phases. So if you mess up your piece, please don't worry, because this is the reality. This is only half of all the different versions that I tried out in the creation of this class. Some of them are really messy. So please go easy. If you are new to masking fluid and you think you've messed it up. Please don't forget to follow me on Skillshare to receive updates and other exciting opportunities. You can also tag me on Instagram and I hope you have lots of fun with these these oranges to really sing. I was a bit too vigorous with my brush there, which is fine. Nothing untoward happened and it's dry it off. That's how cheap these brushes. That's it. But the thing that we're gonna get through that