I work in both watercolor and liquid acrylic ink, so naturally one
of my biggest challenges is preserving the white areas of my
painting surface. While most of my finished paintings are
traditional and realistic, they often don't start out that way. At
times, my first applications of paint are loose and wild. That can
be catastrophic when it comes to keeping areas of my watercolor
paper untouched. Once the paint or ink is on the paper, that area
will never be a pure white again. So I've developed to distinct
approaches to help me solve this problem--each works for a specific
type of painting situation.
I use my first approach--which involves paint, a brush and clear
water--when I working in a more controlled manner. I simply paint
around any white shapes, large or small. To insure that color
doesn't bleed over into the white area, I first lay down clear
water, then add pigment to the puddle. The pigment spreads only to
the water, creating the desired line. This technique requires lots
of practice. You must have the right amount of water and pigment for
it to be effective. Once you mastered it, however, you'll find it
needs little adjusting later in the process.
There are times,
however, when I want to get wilder and cover my entire sheet of
paper.
 In
most cases, I use masking to preserve only white areas. But it comes
in handy for preserving painted areas as well. Steephill,
Lincolnshire (watercolor,22x30), for example, was masked in stages.
I first masked all of the white shapes, then I wet the entire sheet
of paper. Next, I applied midtones, tipping and turning the paper to
let the wet surface spread and mix my colors. Once this initial
application was dry, I masked my midtone areas and repeated this
painting process with a wet-into-wet wash. In these cases, I turn
to my second approach: liquid masking fluid--an adhesive, liquid frisket used to protect areas from
unwanted color. The film created by this masking lets me apply paint
freely, without worrying that I may be setting myself up for a
disaster.
Please click here to continue. Saving whites
cont.
Covering all the Basics
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