Hello Ohn Mar,

first of all I would like to thank you for the great course you run: I am an absolute beginner in watercolour and for me this class has been an amazing source of learning, great great fun and fulfilling! Thank you!

My skills are very limited and basic: I am not good at drawing (it takes me a long time to get some decent outlines) and certainly I am not an artist.

However, I love art and find painting very soothing, calming and fantastic for managing stress, increasing focus and resilience. I had tried acrylics in my youth and after many years of not picking up a brush or a pencil, last October I decided to try watercolours. Although it is very difficult for someone with little skills, I love the learning and the little progress steps along the way.

I started using masking fluid in November to help me learn negative painting. Before the class I had used a toothbrush for reflections on water, ruling pen, colour shapers and fluid brush for outlines. The approach was trial an error and practice was not structured. Results were always mixed but I like using this medium.

My results are really basic but I loved your class, loved the learning and I loved the challenge. I learnt so much and I will continue to practice. Pleasekeep teaching!

Materials Used for this project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 1 - student project

1. Watercolours & brushes

* Windsor and Newton - Cotman

* Nylon/Synthetic Watercolour

* Sable Fuumuui

These are the materials that I am using to learn

2. Paper

* Unknown Brand from leftover old block

* Eachgoo - 300 - C Pr

* Fabriano Acquarello - 300 - H Pr- 100% Cot - Grana Satinata

* Frisk - 300 - C Pr - 100% Cot

* Arches - 185 (bought by mistake) - C Pr - 100% Cot - Grana Fine

* Stratford - 300 - C Pr NOT - 100% Cot - Medium Coarse Grain

Overall results: Bearing in mind that it got a little easier along the way through practice, working on paper like Frisk and Arches, which I bought once started the project, was much easier and gave much better results for both colours and the removal of masking fluid. Of course it taught me that paper does matter!! I also did some additional practice with the Stratford paper and found it very good.

3. Masking Fluid & applicators

* Daler Rowney (jar)

* SAA (jar)

*Ruling pen

* Dip pen - Tested several very old nibs I have and chose a n1 and a n4

* Toothbrush

* Masking Fluid Frisk Brushes

* Other Brushes

* Cotton Busds (Q Tips)

* Colour Shapers

* Frisk Masking fluid remover

Overall results: I like the consistency of both fluids and did not find much difference. However I absolutely prefer a coloured masking fluid where precision is required. I will try other brands as I do more. I could not get hold of fluid pens etc. but will try them at some point.

What fun testing all the different tools: for precision I now prefer using the Dip pen if lines or dots need to be very fine. However, I found the ruling pen very very versatile and…surprisingly great for circles and dots!! Love the Toothbrush however I need to be careful with loading the right amount or end up with unwanted huge drops in the wrong places :). Q tips ok but not as versatile and predictable for me. The Fluid brushes get ruined as quickly as the normal ones: the tip of the washing up liquid really helped and in my view it works better with normal brushes rather than fluid ones. My least favourite are the colour shapers which I find totally unreliable plus they seem to pick up the pencil and get a messy grainy finish which is not good at all. The Frisk masking fluid remover was a revelation:certainly better than fingers… but had to learn to be soft.

Day 1 Warm Up

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 2 - student project

Day 1

I used the Fabriano for the top two warm ups and the Unknown brand (UB) , Eachgoo and Fabriano. All were fine for this exercise but had some peeling off of the paper when removing the fluid from the UB paper. Really liked the Dip pen and the Ruling pen. I found this exercise really useful for comparing tools.

Day 2 Abstract Warm Up

I used the UB and Masking fluid brushes, Dip pen, Ruling pen, Q tips. Worse results were the Q tips. Paper peeled off in a couple of places where i think that the pigment was too wet.

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 4 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 5 - student project

Day 3 Cups

I used Fabriano, Dip pen with nib 1 and 4, Ruling pen for outline. I filled the shapes with masking fluid using Colour Shapers and Masking Fluid Brush. I used Caran D’Ache watercolour pencil for decorations.

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 6 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 7 - student project

Day 4 Oranges

I used the Eachgoo paper and Masking fluid brushes, Dip pen and Ruling, Paper peeled off in a couple of places and pigment went under the fluid in a couple of spots.

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 8 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 9 - student project

Day 5 Pebbles

I really loved the pebbles and how the colours merged.

I used the UB, Dip pen and Ruling pen. Paper peeled off in a tiny spot and when i added more colour to the brown pebble in the bottom right hand corner the result was muddy.

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 10 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 11 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 12 - student project

Day 6 Hawthorn

I found this quite daunting initially but I finally used better paper (Frisk). Used mostly Dip Pen and Q tips. All dots have some colour in the middle , not sure why so will need to practice more. Colour ok but I applied the orange in the middle too quickly and it is messy.

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 13 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 14 - student project

Day 7

I did several versions of this one because it is my favourite subject: I love water, marine life and these are some of my favourite colours. I actually did the first one before day 7 and then made other versions. I will continue making more. I used the UB, Eachgoo and Fabriano papers. For application Ruling pen, Dip Pen with nib n4 and Q Tips.

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 15 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 16 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 17 - student project

Day 8

This really daunted me. I used Arches 185 and I like the results in the background. I find red a difficult colour to get right and I did not wait long enough before applying the second layer on the tomatoes.For the application I used Ruling pen, Dip pend with 4 and normal brush to cover larger areas with masking fluid.

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 18 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 19 - student project

Day 9

I love fields and wildflowers however they are difficult for me.Need to keep practicing as I love the subject. I used Fabriano, Masking brush, Dip pen with 4, toothbrush and Q Tips.

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 20 - student project

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 21 - student project

Day 10

I really did not think I could do this one. The first attempt, using UB paper, Ruling pen, Dip pen with 1 and normal brush for applying fluid over the painted F&V, was a complete disaster with paper peeling off everywhere. For the second one I used Arches 185 and the same applicators. I paid more attention with amount of fluid on painted areas. Results were better. This will need more practice.

Masking Fluid - 10 Day Art Challenge - image 22 - student project

Monica

Absolute beginner, loving watercolour!

3

13