Masking fluid is a great way to retain white areas on your watercolour paper background before painting it, whether it's a whole background wash or a more detailed scenery painting. ATCs are small, so it's easier to do simplified paintings. So I have chosen to do mainly washes for the background, then fill in some more details with paints after the masking fluid has dried, the painting has been done, and then the masking fluid removed. It's a process of waiting for this technique, as you can't use a heat gun to hurry any of the process up, you must wait for the masking fluid to dry before painting, then wait for the painting to dry before removing the masking fluid. I used several tools to apply the masking fluid and found that diluting it with a little distilled water made the masking fluid easier to spread as it wasn't so thick.
"Dearly departed"
(A paintbrush was used to paint
the ghosts and houses.)
masking fluid.)
(A paintbrush was used to paint the
tree, rocks and grass on this atc)
(A paintbrush was used again to
paint the seafoam.)
(A dip nib pen was used to draw this
small bush and grass, so the lines
are very fine. In fact, when I was
doing this, I could barely see
the masking fluid and hoped I
had it in the right place.)
(I used a paintbrush for the dragonfly
shapes and the ruling pen for the
grass.)
