Yay, more watercolor projects~

Finally found the time to finish 2 watercolor projects over the weekend. This time I’m practicing painting using masking fluid. Masking fluid, according to this art glossary website, is “a latex gum product that is used to cover a surface you wish to protect from receiving paint. Miskit by Grumbacher and Art masking fluid by Winsor & Newton are two such products. Also referred to as liquid frisket.”

Although I’m not using any of the brands mentioned… LOL. I used two brands: Lefranc-Bourgeois and the other one’s Daler Rowney. Both bought in Vietnam, w00t.

First project is a Chinese vase. Had to mask the flowers because they’re detailed. Step by step:

Step 1: Penciled the vase and the flower details to serve as my guide

Step 2: Covered the flowers with masking fluid to protect them from being painted over (used the Lefranc-Bourgeois masking fluid for this)

Step 3: Painted the blue part first, peeled off the dried masking fluid, then painted in the details of the flowers

The next project required minimal masking fluid, but I had to use a new technique: spattering. It’s fun, but it gets messy if you over-spatter the paint… Spattering adds an interesting texture to paintings, although there are other techniques for adding texture (which I will experiment on in the next projects).

Penciled a scene of a boat by the beach then spattered masking fluid over the sandy beach. I had to cover the boat with scratch paper to protect it.

Painted the scene in, spattered paint over the sandy beach (covered the boat again) and peeled off the masking fluid.

The staggered 365 Project

It’s been 34 days since I last posted anything here. Obviously, I barely complied with the 365-project rule to do one artwork a day. I never even realized that it had been that long already… So much for the discipline I had hoped to impose on myself upon taking on this project.

The good news is, I’ve found a medium that I enjoy using–watercolor. After the ferris wheel, I did a little research on watercoloring as an art, and I was sold.

So I did my shopping list, went to the nearest store and got myself a new set of colors, brushes, a mixing pan and a watercoloring paper block. The annoying part was it took me forever and 3 days to complete my watercolor shopping. It took me forever to find the pigments needed to complete a 6-color palette; and 3 days to find the basic brushes.

Apparently, I went to the wrong store.

A store in Glorietta offered complete 6-, 12-color palettes nicely laid in a box that was clearly labeled for beginners. Great.

Oh, I also got a book, “Mastering the art of watercolour” by Jelbert and Sidaway.

Over the course of 34 days, I came up with these full paintings (in order of creation):

Hopefully this time I can at least do 2~3 watercolor projects per week… I’m really excited to finally explore other techniques used in watercoloring. Can’t wait to create more complex projects~