Tip of the month – August, 2007

During a recent watercolor workshop, I presented the challenge of painting Queen Ann’s Lace. This wildflower can be seen in the fields and along the country roadways of Quebec during July.

To paint every single flower petal or to paint around every single petal would be ludicrous. I decided to use hot press paper and masking fluid as the tools. Masking fluid can be manipulated on hot press paper by spraying its wet edges. It does not sink into the paper as it would with cold press or rough papers.

I poured small puddles of the masking fluid onto my hot press paper. With a fine mister, I sprayed the edges of the wet shapes.

I sprayed on all sides of the shapes. Soon, there was a lacey quality to the edges of the shapes. I continued pouring additional shapes over the paper’s surface.

For color, I chose Aureolin, Permanent Rose and Cobalt blue. In small containers, I mixed each color separately with water. One at a time, these colors were poured onto the dry paper.

With my large brush, I moved the color over the paper’s surface

Each color was poured separately and pushed over the paper’s surface with my brush.

Some of the masking fluid was so diluted that I could not see it. Looking at the paper from the side, I could see the masking fluid’s sheen and I knew that the color would not be able to absorb into the paper.

I poured the Permament Rose.

When I manipulated the wet paint with my brush, I could see new colors being created before my eyes.

When the paint was dry, I removed the masking fluid and continued working on the painting. I searched for and found flower shapes. With a pencil, I drew a contour of each of the individual shapes.

I reinforced some of the edges negatively and I started to add color to the interiors of the flower shapes.

The illustration on the left is a continuation of the above demonstration. The illustration on the right was created with the same technique and different colors. When the colors were still wet, I misted the surface of the paper to create further texture in the background.

I can visualize this technique being used in landscape painting to create the textures and light of the land. I used this technique in AQUAWORLD to create the sense of fast moving white water.

Make your compositional drawing first and then pour and mist the wet masking fluid. Try it again without a drawing.

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